14/09/10

Fine dining on surstromming

At Asa's flat

Up at 07.00hrs. and Simon was already up and on his laptop. We uploaded some video and pictures to the blog. After lunch we went for a sauna,it was really good.Feeling refreshed we headed off to Lulea where we have been invited to dinner by Asa,one of Marias' friends. When we arrived at her apartment there were two other friends of Marias' there to greet us besides Asa. That made six of us in total. We dined on a traditional Swedish dish of surstromming which is fermented Baltic herring and traditionally eaten in the months of August and September.The fish is famous for its pungent smell, it smells like an open sewer! It is eaten with potatoes and onions in tunnbrod, a thin unleavened bread. Thankfully the fish tastes better than it smells! The women were all trying to get Simon and Maria together but Simon was having none of it, steadfastly remaining in his seat,resisting all attempts to get him dancing with Maria, who has really taken a fancy to him. A funny and interesting evening with good conversation and humour.