see you next year…

The last Swedish delicacy I was yet to enjoy – I had to tick it off the list before I went home, even though I knew I was in for a very painful experience.

Surströmming!!!?!

a.k.a. Rotten Herring

ROTTEN Herring…

I’ve loved every single bizarre food I’ve eaten in Sweden over the past year: Elk Burgers, Brown Cheese, Blood Pudding, “Kroppkakor”, Janssons Frestelse, Dried Reindeer, Snaps & Crawfish, Soured Milk, and caviar in a toothpaste tube, to name but a few.

But this was too much.

It’s basically fillets of fish that have been left to rot for a few months, after which they’ve been canned and allowed to continue rotting for several more.

Which ends up producing one of the most horrible odours I’ve ever experienced.

According to Wikipedia, it has a pungent, rotten-egg, rancid-butter and vinegary smell.

Personally I think they’re being generous.

The first whiff I got after opening the can was quite possibly the worst smell I’ve ever experienced. Not just food, the worst smell, from anything, that I’ve ever smelt, ever.

I wasn’t far from throwing up, and I was supposed to turn around and eat it…?

I managed to take three tiny bites, but each time I couldn’t possibly get over the horrible, horrible, horrible smell in order to tell whether or not it tasted any good.

As far as I could tell it was only partially better on the tongue than the nose.

Yet, somehow, this food is sold in supermarkets all over the country, and is considered somewhat of a traditional delight.

It’s ROTTEN FISH for christ’s sake.

And the Swedes say Vegemite tastes bad… Unbelievable…

(click on any image to begin viewing the swanky little popup gallery – thanks to Florence, Maja, Tove and Patrik Ylen for taking so many pics)

An epic win for the boys from Solna.

Despite going into the weekend’s Grand Final as both Reigning Premiers AND current VB Cup holders, we were being touted as underdogs after the Södermalm Blues dominated the home-and-away season.

But we were having none of it. After a solid couple of weeks on the track, the team was pumped for the big day.

Within 10 seconds of the opening bounce, Ryan “Former K-Mart Model” Kingsley had slotted through our first for the day.

But straight away the Blues – through Joel “Awww C’mon Ump!!” Burnell – replied with their own, setting up the the first quarter to be a complete shoot-out.

Despite impressive work from our trusty ruckmen – Marty and the eleven-foot-tall-Matzilla – we went into the first break barely leading: 6.0.36 to 5.1.31.

After the free flowing opening, the respective defenses – lead by our own Patrik “Captain Courageous” Hyberg – tightened in the second stanza.

Going into the half-time break we were left barely hanging onto a four point buffer.

At the opening of the third term we momentarily dropped our guard, allowing Södermalm to get the jump on us. By mid-way through the quarter we were over two goals behind.

However a couple of late replies kept us in it, and at the final break there was still less than a straight kick separating the two teams.

A raw, rousing, straight-to-the-point three-quarter time speech by Coach Kingsley reminded us Axemen that, to spend 12 months training on dodgy footy grounds only to lose the Grand Final by one goal would, to paraphrase politey, be f*&king shithouse.

So we charged into the final quarter of the game, determined to go Back-To-Back and also capture the elusive VB Cup/SAFF Premiership double (never been done before, cheers).

We edged three points clear midway through a see-sawing final term, only to turn around and concede two straight goals to the Blues.

With pretty much noone knowing just how much time remained, the capacity crowd at Årsta Fältet was on the edge of their seats.

The play was tense to say the least; every time the ball came down to our backline it was like life or death – one more goal and the Blues would surely wrap things up.

We managed to keep possession in our forward line for a good three or four minutes, but three shots on goal all narrowly, narrowly missed.

Was that it? Had the Axemen used up all their chances? Would the SAFF Premiership Cup be getting filled with cheap, foul-tasting beer all over Södermalm that evening? (Well, no, obviously not, given the title of this entry… but work with me here.)

The three straight behinds had brought us back to within six points – just one straight kick.

Reminiscent of Geelong in the epic 1989 Grand Final, we began to sense our main opponent was now the clock.

Fortunately, some desperation all over the ground from a determined Solna outfit saw us level the scores just minutes later with a beautiful piece of crumbing by Leslie “I’m 46 but I don’t give a stuff” Clarke.

With the seconds ticking down and the crowd suspecting a draw, both teams heroicly threw themselves at the ball.

It could have gone either way… but after the footy was safely cleared from the Blues attacking zone, Mark “Flex For The Camera” McManus (six goals in a Best-On-Ground performance) stepped up and sent a clever snap flying towards goal, bending it back at the very last second and sending the Axemen players, and much of the crowd wild.

We held on for another 30 seconds and it was all over.

The siren sounded, the Axemen embraced, and the Blues were left heartbroken and pondering what could have been…

…a champion team effort!

The Mighty Solna Axemen, reigning SAFF premiers and current holders of the VB Cup, go up against the hapless Södermalm Blues this weekend.

The winner walks away with the coveted title of best Australian Football team in Stockholm (which, given the magnitude of our league, is not something to be taken lightly).

Ryan “Hollywood/former K-Mart model” Kingsley has had the boys training up a storm the past week or two, giving us plenty of confidence to take out the illustrious SAFF/VB double.

A capacity crowd is expected at the home of Stockholm Australian Football, Årsta, with early ticket sales suggesting we may very well get more spectators than players turning up…

Everybody here loves those cute little disposable BBQs (do we even have them in Australia…?). So whenever it’s good weather on the weekend, the parks fill up with young people cooking up a storm and drinking cheap booze.

But the thing is, good weather on the weekend, even in Summer, can be a bit of an oxymoron in Sweden.

So when the last weekend of August gave us perfect blue skies down here in Malmö, Maja and I grabbed a bottle of cheap white wine, picked up a disposable barbie and some meat, and head down to the park…

Mmmm….. smaskens!

No better place to celebrate my 25th than at The Mansion!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVuU3gwjXgc[/youtube]
(The awkward thing about this video is the fact it was taken at the very beginning of the evening, yet I still have next-to-no recollection of it…)

My embarrassing attempt to blow smoke rings (the first time I’ve ever smoked a cigar… awkward).

So I’ll do a quick run down of the highlights, then let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

1. Surfing in San Sebastian. Hadn’t been in the water for over a year, definitely THE highlight.

2. Wine tasting in Bordeaux. Close second. I bloody well love red wine, and Bordeaux is the most famous red wine region in the world, what more do I need to say?

3. Visiting Andorra. Yes, that’s right, I’ve been to ANDORRA. One of the most pointless countries in Europe. There was nothing to see and it took us five and a half hours off course, but it was all worth it for this pic:

4. Free upgrade to First Class on the Eurostar train from Paris to Amsterdam. Three-course meal and unlimited booze included. Yes please!

5. The whackiness of Gaudi’s Park Güell in Barcelona. Utterly boggling.

6. Patxaran! The addictively sweet, pink liquor from North-West Spain. Adding to it’s allure was the fact I discovered it at the coolest little out-of-the-way/locals-only surfers’ bar, which was nestled into a quiet little corner of San Sebastian.

7. Free drinks at that random bar in Paris. We accidentally befriended the bartender and got free shots all night. Including French Flags and Smurf Shots…

8. Finding a pub named after me in Amsterdam.

9. Absolutely EVERYTHING about San Sebastian.

10. Coffee and croissant for breakfast at that cute little café in Paris (while reading a book of clichés).

11. Tapas on the beach in Barcelona.

12. The Happy Lobster!!

13. Barcelona’s ridiculous heat and humidity, which in turn made a swim at the beach absolutely heavenly.

14. Our Mini Cooper. Our best friend during the 16 hour drive from Barcelona to San Sebastian (via Andorra).

Honourable Mentions

That f*#&ing GIANT door:

The Imaginarium:

The most colourful photo ever taken:

Sharing an imminent birthday and a mutual love of Cut Copy were the only excuses Tove and I needed to head down to Copenhagen for the weekend.

It’s kind of like Stockholm, only with way cheaper (and far more easily accessible) booze and far more liberal drinking laws.

The city was beautiful, the wine in the park was delicious, the hippies at Christiania were stoned, and the Cut Copy gig was f*&#ing amazing.

Though, granted, this may very well go down as the dodgiest camera work ever…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA3LuuOrX9o[/youtube]

(Check out the screams at the 2 minute 50 seconds mark for an idea of how happy we were to see them…)