Midsommar in Aland

The actual goal of this trip was to experience the Midsummer festival somewhere in Scandinavia and to live this summer fairy tale. That was the plan - unfortunately, reality looks a bit different: since we left Stockholm yesterday morning, it has been raining almost continuously, the temperature is only at a summery 8 degrees, and it's stormy enough for the café garden furniture to be flying around.

Regretfully, I think of the pictures, with girls wearing flower crowns in their hair and white dresses, dancing barefoot on lush green meadows around the Midsummer pole, the sun shining and never setting, and the deep blue sea splashing next to the meadow as people celebrate.

Well, the girls are now wearing down jackets and rain hoods, those who don't have to go outside stay indoors, and the Maypoles, although already beautifully decorated, still rest on their supports. They probably did postpone the ceremonies in this lousy weather. Maybe it will dry up tonight and tomorrow will be a bit better.

All in all, a rather bleak scene and we feel sorry for the people here, as this is one of the most important days of the year for almost all Scandinavians.

And otherwise: Aland is actually fantastically beautiful, and we can only imagine all the things one could do in this great nature if one didn't almost freeze or get blown away. Aland is by the way a region with a great deal of autonomy that belongs to Finland. But they speak Swedish, which has various backgrounds rooted in a turbulent history. The Swedish part is still quite practical. Not that we are Swedish-speaking, no! But unlike Finnish, you can at least somewhat understand what is meant in the written language. Fisk = fish, Öl = beer, Dubbel Rum = double rum... or room for idiots or double room...??? Anyway, we like it here, we already discovered a few very nice restaurants yesterday that - unlike most Scandinavian ones - don't close their doors at 9 pm, and the casino attached to our hotel has a nice bar with big screens for the World Cup. What more could you want? Answer: another attempt for a summery Midsummer somewhere here in the beautiful North.