I finally wore my brilliant Dinsko sandals today and I thought the blister patterns they made were very nice and funny (although brilliantly painful). Check out my feet stripes. I am a zebra. Should I wear socks with sandals? Cheers.

Remember this post where I wrote about an old sanatorium that was turned into gorgeous apartments with high ceilings, beautiful windows, and balconies…?

If you do remember, Carl Johan and I were quite happy with the looks of things there and so on June 1, 2010 we will be moving in! In celebration of that, I wanted to post some of my favourite interior design inspiration photographs taken from here and there and who knows where.

Last night, Carl Johan and I grabbed the train to Mariefred to celebrate Valborg.

In Sweden, Valborg is a public holiday that occurs every April 30th, which means only half a day of work! It’s also a holiday that has different meanings for different parts of the country so it’s hard to know what’s going on. Most people seem to use it as an excuse to grill food, loiter in parks, and light large bonfires at night - a celebration that spring is finally here.

Historically, the Valborg tradition is commonly associated with the feast of Anglo-German Saint Walpurgis. She was canonized on the first of May - around the same time that Scandinavians celebrated the return of spring, the end of snow, the worshiping rituals of fertility associated with spring and of course, lighting bonfires to send evil spirits away.

After Christianity spread and Scandinavians became converts, and since the time of year was the same, the Pagan and Christian celebrations became mixed together and resulted in the Walpurgis Night holiday, or Valborgsmässoafton, that we’re celebrating now, which coincidentally coincides with May Day to make an extra-festive weekend.

This year, we celebrated with grilled sausages, potatoes, and halloumi cheese wrapped in bacon and then the bonfire you see in the photographs above.

Cheers, Walpurgis, well done.

On Saturday, Carl Johan and I booked a flight for Wiltcie so that he can come to Sweden in the summer and visit and eat korv. He’ll be arriving June 16 and leaving on July 8. Be excited!

On Sunday, we celebrated Fredrik Wärngård’s birthday in a very quiet and polite manner which included but was not limited to saffron ice cream, artsy conventions, coffee, and too-dry cigars. He is now a very old man.

On Monday, Cal had a meeting about house things - and I want to add the word haberdashery to this paragraph although it hasn’t anything to do with the topic really - and so we are pretty occupied with things of that nature and also excited. The place we like is still available; perhaps we’ll have a small place with enormous windows after all.

And yesterday, after leaving class, I was slightly kidnapped by Anders Häger Jönson and Carl Johan where I was then made to have lunch. We ate falafel and discussed the usual important puzzle pieces of culture until it was time for me to go and help Johannes get his store back in order after a stampede of Gothic Lolitas had their way with his store on Sunday. Seriously, a stampede.

And now I must go back to Tokyo Stop and help because it’s brilliant fun.