Conclusion: I Love Midsommar.

I survived my first Swedish Midsommar this past weekend, and oh boy was it a good one.  M and I spent the past week out in the far archipelago between his parent's island and the island where our friends have a stuga (cabin) on the island of Tornö.  We arrived to Tornö around eleven on Friday morning...the boats were decorated, the lunch table was set, and the beers were flowing freely.

Everyone decorates their boats and houses with björk (birch) branches for Midsommar.

Lunch consisted of about 8 different types of sill (pickled herring), deviled eggs with caviar, new potatoes with dill, smoked moose heart, wild boar paté, cured smoked salmon and shrimp, several types of cheese and bread, plenty of beer, and a special drink called aquavit to wash down the sill.  Aquavit is spiced vodka, and the particular bottle we had was Linie brand aquavit...what makes this kind special is that all Linie Aquavit has been aged in an oak sherry cask on board a ship that has crossed the equator twice.  You can read details of your particular bottle's journey on the label; ours had traveled on board the M/V Tampa from Scandanavia to Australia and back.  Supposedly this 5-month journey combined with fluctuating temperatures and humidity causes the booze to become extra delicious.  My taste for strong shots of booze isn't refined any more than it takes to get the fiery stuff down my gullet as quickly as possible.

Once we were totally stuffed, warm, and happy, we took the boat over to the larger island of Möja to see the Midsommar festivities.  We brought along a cooler full of beer, whiskey, coffee, and traditional strawberry cake.

The midsommar dancing was just about the happiest sight you can see while you're half-drunk and full of delicious food under perfect sunny weather on a Swedish island.  Everyone has crowns of flowers and both grownups and kids dance and sing along to the silly songs.  Whenever I asked what the song was about, I got an answer along the lines of, "Uh...this one is about a priest and a crow who fall down in a ditch and start laughing."  Or, "This one is about frogs that have no tails or ears so they're funny to see, and then pigs have tails and ears so they're funny to see too."  My conclusion was that the songs don't necessarily contain great mysterious cultural significance, they're just fun to sing year after year.

Later on in the afternoon we went back to the stuga and continued our eating and drinking spree.  I had been warned by M that by nightfall on Midsommar, someone usually came up with a crazy idea like taking the boat farther out into the archipelago to skinny dip with seals, or something along those lines.  This year was no different, and our friend suggested we drive out to his grandfather's fishing cabin on Kallskär to watch the sunrise.  We piled into the boat with food and blankets and drove to the outer edges of the archipelago where we hiked to the highest point on the island to watch the combination of sunrise and sunset that pretty much lasts through the night.

Here are some photos of Kallskär the next morning.  The islands here are windswept and rocky, with low vegetation and no one to see for miles.  I'm not one to get sentimental about the beauty of nature, but there was absolutely something magical about this place.