As I am writing this, Thess is probably on a train to Malmö from Copenhagen, where she arrived on a plane from Skopje via Zagreb. We had the pleasure to host her twice over the past week - her first two days in Skopje and then (after a weekend in Ohrid) she came back for one more short day before catching her flight at dawn this morning. It's really nice to be able to do this; have people arrive at the beginning of their stay in Macedonia and then back again right before they leave (Abi did the same last week). It's also nice to see the change in them and how this region slowly leaves its mark on them; with Thess this was in her sunburnt skin, her self-declared love for local cheese and the stories she had from her weekend in Ohrid. Much to our surprise and delight, Thess found a way to get to Galichnik on Sunday and catch a glimps of the annual Galichnik wedding one of the most famous Macedonian traditions that must be a very special experience for foreigners.

Back in Skopje, Thess and I are chilling at home while the sun attempts to melt the asphalt outside. Thess has just come back from Ohrid and over plates of improvised rice salad with zucchini and Swiss chard, our conversation floats from one food topic to another, starting from lingonberries and their use in jams as a frequent companion to meat in Sweden and all the way to Smörgåstårta. Huh? I know. Smörgåstårta basically means "sandwich cake" (Smörgås=sandwich), something Thess is not very fond of - mostly due to its mayonnaise-loaded nature - but as a concept which one can tweak a bit, I quite like the idea of a giant sandwich cake (basically anything that is even remotely related to a sandwich - I like).

,For anyone who has grown up in this part of the world, the phrase "Swedish table" means a lot. I don't know if this is the case outside of our region, but "Swedish table" here actually means buffet. When I was young, I know my parents chose family vacation hotels based on the criteria of whether the breakfast and dinner were "Swedish table" -- I will not go into details of how much we Balkan people love making sandwiches out of buffet breakfast ingredients and stuffing them in mom's bulging purses "just in case..." (I hope it wasn't just me that grew up that weirdly). Dear friends, the reason this is called Swedish table is actually the Smörgåsbord, a Swedish way of serving a meal with many dishes on the table (literally meaning "sandwich table"). Interested in what a typical Swedish Smörgåsbord features? Head here to learn.

A few days ago, we asked Thess if there is something she finds repulisive/disgusting in the Swedish cousine and the words "Sour Herring!" flew out of her like small cannonballs. The Swedish word is Surstromming and I gotta say - the fact that the herring keeps on fermenting even after it has been canned really sounds like no fun, and from what Thess told us, it couldn't really smell any better. I loved reading about this tidbit later: some airlines have banned canned sour herring from their food menus because the cans were found to be explosive, which clearly provoked a protest by the fish producers. I have to say, this is not something I would hurry to try, but I'm not a fish person to begin with...I'll stick to sandwich cakes.

And just as you started thinking that the Swedish eating/drinking culture is so different from your/our own, here's something we found quite refreshingly common. There is something called fika in Sweden (a back slang word derived from kaffi which used to mean coffee), which is basically a sort of a coffee break (like "coffee" here...which can mean anything from actual coffee to...just about anything). According to Wikipedia, much like here, going for "fika" can also mean "going out on a date". But I like the Swedes because, date or no date, it seems that fika almost always features some sort of sweet pastry like cinnamon rolls or cookies. What? Hungry? Who? Me? What..? Ok, switching gears.

You know, if you wanted to say "from A to Z" (as in, from beginning to end) and refer to the Swedish alphabet, you'd have to say "from A to Ö" or rather "från A till Ö". There are three letters in the Swedish alphabet, all three neatly tucked together after the Z, that have diacritical/umlaut signs floating on top of them. They're the holy trinity of Å, Ä and Ö. I'm sure Thess had a lot of fun watching me try to make and remember what each vowel sounds like, my vowel-simplistic universe falling apart. But if you're as persistant as I am, here's a good (I think) guide along with mp3 of what they should sound like pronounced. Something funny: the letter Ö by itself - it means "island". I want to own one of those letters.