Spelmansstämman, day 1

This weekend is Spelmansstämman, northern Sweden's larges folk music gathering. We started with the concert, which was very nice. When the Finnish trio Ilmoi walked in to perform at the concert tonight I took one look at the lovely lady's hair hanging past her knees and commented to David "I think I am in love", and then she started singing, and suddenly I was certain. They do really amazing music.

Then I danced for 2.5 hours before it was my turn to flip hamburgers, and now I need to do my yoga and get to sleep so that I can get up on time to attend the singing workshop that the singer from Ilmoi is running in the morning. Then we have our folk dance performance (provided no one else gets sick or injured--we are already down two dancers, one of whom is in the hospital).

Spelmansstämman day 2

I was feeling a bit sore last night in the hips and legs after sitting briefly at the computer for my quick post here. Therefore I took the time to use the foam roller and lacross ball to massage my aching muscles, did yoga, and took a hot shower before crawling into bed at 01:40.

I managed to sleep just over five hours before my hip started aching again, so I got up and did the warmup routine my personal trainer gave me, which includes using the foam roller and the lacross ball to massage my muscles.

This helped enough that I was able to enjoy the morning without discomfort. I was back on site at 09:40, which gave me time to find the workshop in Finnish folk singing, taught by the tallented long haired woman from last night's concert.

It was a very enjoyable workshop, and I learned a lot. Sadly I, and two other students, had to leave a little early to go to the last practice before our folk dance performance. This was an important practice as two of our group were sick or injured (one of each) and couldn't dance, so we needed to change the pairings accordingly. Despite the last minute changes the performance went well and was much fun, as was listening to the musicians allspel(everyone plays).

The day was unusually warm for so early in the summer this far north (so not hot at all by California standards), and after dancing in the sun wearing all that wool I decided to break my own rule--the one about not eating ice cream unless it is home made.
So I went into the cafe to get a cup of their soft serve. But as I waited for my turn to order I noticed on their menu that one can get a waffle with åkebärsgrädde(cream with arctic berries). These berries are the most delicious berries ever, though those of you living in the south will never get to taste them as they don't travel well and are not exactly common even in the north. I couldn't resist them, so first I asked if it would be possible to get my icecream with the åkebärsgrädde, but she said they were too busy to give the kitchen special orders, so I ordered it on the waffle and the ice cream on the side.

Then I first ate the fruit and cream with the ice cream (every bite half of each), which made the ice cream less sweet and therefore nicer to eat. By then the waffle had cooled, so when I was out of the cream and berries I put the rest of the ice cream on the waffle and ate it quick before it melted. This did wonders to cool my core temperature.

It also meant that I didn't eat any more of the food I had brought with me, as I was still feeling full a couple of hours later, when I decided to head home for a nap (not that I wasn't enjoying the music and company of friends, but the short sleep had caught up with me).

Now I have had a 1.5 hr nap, eaten dinner and spent an hour reading/listening to Anne på Grönkulla and am ready to stretch a bit before heading in to this evening's dance.