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kareinaDue to time and budget constraints I have not been as active at the Kingdom (or even Principality) level as I would like to be since moving to Nordmark, since we mostly only attend things within a three hour drive, and only do far away events once or twice a year. As a result I am long since out of the habit of planning to attend Kingdom level events, and thus it wasn't till well after the beds for 12th Night had sold out that I made the connection that I needed to be at a geology conference in Lund the only four days after 12th Night, which was being held only an one hour drive from Lund. Add to the equation that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
linda_linsefors parents live in Lund, and a plan was formed.
The three of us took the night train from Luleå on the evening of 1 January. This one departs Luleå at 20:00 and arrives in Stockholm at 09:20 the following morning. We then had a two hour wait to catch the "fast train" from there further south to Lund, where we arrived at 15:30, which is actually faster than we could have gotten there if we had just drove from Luleå, especially given that I need to stop and stretch often on road trips these days. Yes, Sweden is a long country!
Her parents picked us up from the train station and brought us back to their place for a yummy dinner and pleasant conversation. The next morning they took us out hiking, and in the evening we met up with some of her friends from school in town--we went to a restaurant for an early (by everyone else's standards, and quite a reasonable time by mine) dinner, and then we sat there and chatted for a couple of hours thereafter before biking back to her parent's house. The following morning was Saturday, so we got up early, put on costumes, and drove the hour out to the site.
Those of you who are in the West and some of the other Kingdoms are used to 12th Night at hotels in the middle of cities. I don't know if this is typical for Drachenwald 12th Night, but this site is a small collection of cabins in the forest in the country side (it is where Double Wars is held every year in May). Those people who were staying on site (which was most people there, I think) mostly had shared rooms with four bunk beds to a room. The main building has a kitchen and two modest sized halls. When we arrived on site one of those halls was already set up for court, but we had an hour or so to relax and get hugs from a few people before it was time to be seated.
I really enjoyed the courts at this event--it was a lovely mix of touching and heartwarming, pageantry and formality, and silly/funny moments. In between the courts I had a chance to catch up with people I haven't seen since Double Wars last May and meet some new interesting people and also admire the pretty things in the Arts and Sciences display. That evening at feast we sat witharyanhwy and her family, and I am so glad that we did--it was the most fun I have had at a feast ever. We normally just sit somewhere random, with no idea who will be seated next to us, and as a result we may or may not converse with the people who wind up there. But this time we all planned to sit together from the first, and the conversation was always entertaining. I so hope we can attend more events together in the future.
Yesterday we had a nice fika with some oflinda_linsefors's family. I managed to converse with her grandfather in Swedish. I suspect that I could have used English with him, but he seemed to appreciate that I was using Swedish, and he was kind enough to speak slowly enough that I could understand him. Today we will meet her sister, and this evening lord_kjar flies back to Luleå. The next day she flies back from France, and my conference starts bright and early Wednesday morning.
There was one merchant at 12th Night, but they didn't have anything I needed. However, it looks like I will score at the conference. There is a geologist living in Trondheim whom I first met at an SCA music and dance event in Stockholm back in 2009 who does a fair bit of Viking reenactment stuff and does tablet weaving for sale. She emailed me yesterday to see if I would be at the conference, since she is going, and I replied to let her know I was already here, and then asked if she has any tablet weaving in stock. She does, and is willing to bring it with her, yay!
linda_linsefors parents live in Lund, and a plan was formed.The three of us took the night train from Luleå on the evening of 1 January. This one departs Luleå at 20:00 and arrives in Stockholm at 09:20 the following morning. We then had a two hour wait to catch the "fast train" from there further south to Lund, where we arrived at 15:30, which is actually faster than we could have gotten there if we had just drove from Luleå, especially given that I need to stop and stretch often on road trips these days. Yes, Sweden is a long country!
Her parents picked us up from the train station and brought us back to their place for a yummy dinner and pleasant conversation. The next morning they took us out hiking, and in the evening we met up with some of her friends from school in town--we went to a restaurant for an early (by everyone else's standards, and quite a reasonable time by mine) dinner, and then we sat there and chatted for a couple of hours thereafter before biking back to her parent's house. The following morning was Saturday, so we got up early, put on costumes, and drove the hour out to the site.
Those of you who are in the West and some of the other Kingdoms are used to 12th Night at hotels in the middle of cities. I don't know if this is typical for Drachenwald 12th Night, but this site is a small collection of cabins in the forest in the country side (it is where Double Wars is held every year in May). Those people who were staying on site (which was most people there, I think) mostly had shared rooms with four bunk beds to a room. The main building has a kitchen and two modest sized halls. When we arrived on site one of those halls was already set up for court, but we had an hour or so to relax and get hugs from a few people before it was time to be seated.
I really enjoyed the courts at this event--it was a lovely mix of touching and heartwarming, pageantry and formality, and silly/funny moments. In between the courts I had a chance to catch up with people I haven't seen since Double Wars last May and meet some new interesting people and also admire the pretty things in the Arts and Sciences display. That evening at feast we sat with
aryanhwy and her family, and I am so glad that we did--it was the most fun I have had at a feast ever. We normally just sit somewhere random, with no idea who will be seated next to us, and as a result we may or may not converse with the people who wind up there. But this time we all planned to sit together from the first, and the conversation was always entertaining. I so hope we can attend more events together in the future.Yesterday we had a nice fika with some of
linda_linsefors's family. I managed to converse with her grandfather in Swedish. I suspect that I could have used English with him, but he seemed to appreciate that I was using Swedish, and he was kind enough to speak slowly enough that I could understand him. Today we will meet her sister, and this evening lord_kjar flies back to Luleå. The next day she flies back from France, and my conference starts bright and early Wednesday morning.There was one merchant at 12th Night, but they didn't have anything I needed. However, it looks like I will score at the conference. There is a geologist living in Trondheim whom I first met at an SCA music and dance event in Stockholm back in 2009 who does a fair bit of Viking reenactment stuff and does tablet weaving for sale. She emailed me yesterday to see if I would be at the conference, since she is going, and I replied to let her know I was already here, and then asked if she has any tablet weaving in stock. She does, and is willing to bring it with her, yay!
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