Saturday was a lovely, sunny and warm day, just perfect weather for wandering about town before going to the “Day of Swedishness” celebrating the “Swedes in NZ” 50th anniversary.
A welcoming moose
There was a series of things going on during the day, and of course stalls selling Swedish food, crafts and so on, and several large tables covered with plates and plates of home made biscuits. I bought some Swedish sweets, wafer biscuits and of course a tube of Kalles kaviar, which I will talk about in a future post. There were hot sausages available for eating, and of course glögg, or mulled wine for drinking. We had had a huge lunch at The Laundry on Cuba Street, so didn’t partake of anything to eat, though naturally had to have some glögg. I was however slightly disappointed that there were no cinnamon buns!
Biscuits disappeared fast
We turned up in time to hear Åsa Jinder, and her husband Jonas Otter, play and sing. A well known musician (she even played on the winning entry on the Eurovision Song Contest in 1995), she plays the nyckelharpa, a traditional Swedish instrument. It is an interesting looking instrument with both strings and keys, as you can see if you click the link to a Wikipedia article about it. They played just a few pieces, as they were giving a full concert on Sunday, but it was a nice element to the day.
Waiting for the musicians
We didn’t stay for the Lucia procession as somehow seeing this in spring is wrong! Anyway, it was good to go and pick up a few food items and hear a little Swedish in the middle of Wellington.
Thistles and Kiwis 