Enjoying the sun

Stockholm has this wonderful picnic culture, and now that the weather has been nice we've been doing our best to make that part of our lives. The city is full of water, but thanks to the rocky islands there really aren't many beaches...yet the people seem about as anxious to get in the sun as the beach bums of L.A. So what do they do? People grab their bathing suits, picnic blankets, coolers and grills, and head to the parks. Walk past a park on a Saturday, or even any open plot of grass, and you'll have a hard time walking 10 feet without changing directions to walk around the next sunbathing couple. Burgers are cooked, beers are consumed, soccer balls are kicked, and everybody just seems to have fun relaxing in the sun.

Even the weeknights give way to a lot of grilling. There are always at least three picnics on the hillside below our apartment...probably because people aren't allowed to use charcoal grills on their apartment balconies, but still...it's just cool to see people out relaxing and enjoying the sunset.

So as I said, we've been doing our best to enjoy the sunshine lately. A few weeks ago we bought a lime green mini-Weber grill (made in the USA!), and just gave it its inaugural burn last week. As you can see from our photos, the hill behind our apartment makes for a pretty nice picnic spot. The grill is a very good size, and is easily portable which is a huge bonus. The downside is that the grocery store didn't sell lighter fluid, so I had to buy some sort of lighter block. I prefer lighter fluid, but I guess this will force me to learn the art of charcoal stacking. And another note, for those of you non-grillmasters out there (like me), be sure to take off your red-tinted sunglasses before cooking burgers...otherwise the burgers will always look undercooked.

Over the weekend we toured the parks on foot by taking a six-mile stroll along the Stockholm Marathon course. Perfect day for a spectator...horrible day for the runners. The 75 degree weather pushed the leaders six minutes farther back than expected, meaning the average runner was probably destroyed. The run also starts at 2:00 in the afternoon...apparently that used to be the cooling point in the day. Now it's the mid-day heat. For the runners' sake I hope they change to a 7:00 a.m. start in the future.

On Sunday we took to the park ourselves. The sun was nice, but the soccer kids showed up late in the day and we couldn't stand the flying soccer balls for long. We'd logged a few hours on the ground, and a few seconds in the very cold water, so after catching a few stray balls it was time to go.

The picnic culture is awesome, so get over here so we can treat you to a burger!

On another note, we've added a bunch of new photos to Picassa. Be sure to check them out, and hopefully Miranda will be adding more info about the new albums soon.