Girl About the World

I marvel at the vast selection of tubed foods in a Swedish grocery store.

Walk into any grocery store in Sweden, and you’re bound to run into a dazzling assortment of tubed foods. This is nothing new for locals, but as an American, I was highly intrigued. Sure, we like tubes, too, for things like toothpaste, condiments, syrup, and frosting, but we pretty much limit our use of tubes to those edibles that are easily and naturally squeezed out. Not so for the Swedes — their tubed foods encompass an amazing range of products. We’re talking bacon, lobster, ham, mushrooms, and the ever-popular caviar — these things, last time I checked, are not of a consistency conducive to being stuffed in a tube, but that doesn’t seem to matter. Here, everything is turned into a paste (often of a cheese variety).

This is quite helpful, I suppose, for those who have trouble chewing, are always on the go, or don’t have easy access to a refrigerator (I do find it slightly disconcerting that most of these tubed foods don’t require refrigeration, but who am I to question a system that’s clearly been working for quite some time?).

Eating what are regularly solid foods in tubed form reminded me a little too much of my elementary school days when I thought it was actually okay to eat cheese out of a can (some of that residue is probably still clogging my arteries), so I didn’t partake. It was, however, a missed opportunity to eat like a local, so I should’ve just gone for it.

If you’ve ever indulged in Sweden’s tubed foods, how did you like them? Are they a handy invention or a strange mutation?

Allie, thankfully, did not get her tongue stuck to the wall of ice.

I don’t like to be cold. When I graduated from college in the often-chilly Philadelphia, I had only two criteria for where I’d go next: There had to be a chance at employment, and it had to be a place with mild winters. Fortunately, I found that, but when it comes to memories, I’m an eternal optimist, so I usually forget how much I really dislike something — which got me thinking that being cold might not be so bad after all.

That led to me to Icebar Stockholm, the world’s first permanent ice bar. The inside is kept at a blustery 23 degrees, and everything — from the artwork on the walls to the bench you sit on to the glasses you get your drinks in — is made of ice. But it’s not just any ice — this frozen water comes from the Torne River in Jukkasjärvi, a town in northern Sweden nearly devoid of pollution. The result is completely clean crystal-clear ice I heard you have to see to believe, so I headed to the Nordic Sea Hotel to experience it for myself.

A bartender stacks the all-ice glasses.

After buying tickets online (recommended because you get a reserved spot, and it’s cheaper than buying them at the door), I headed there with my friends Allie and Jill. We were outfitted in shiny blue parkas with fur-lined hoods, given gloves to wear, and then taken into a holding room between the lobby and the ice bar. Once inside, we chose from a menu of Absolut Vodka drinks, got our selections in an ice glass, and then were free to roam about the bar, which was decorated in an under-the-sea motif (it changes periodically and recently switched to a theme of “northernmost attraction”).

Blocks of ice with fish inside, a periscope, and assorted statues decorated the blue-hued room, providing lots to look at and explore. I downed that drink faster than any other in my life, entirely because I wanted to set the literally freezing glass down and give my fingers a chance at life again. (Gloves don’t actually do a whole lot of good when you’re holding a chunk of ice for a cup.) The key, I found, was to keep moving — that at least helped stave off some of the cold. Wearing long sleeves probably would’ve helped with that, too. Oops.

Jill is amazed by the wonders of the Stockholm Icebar.

Each visit lasts 45 minutes, although you can exit sooner if you like. As time dwindled down, the crowd thinned out considerably, and we were left with plenty of space for photo ops. For 170 SEK (about $28 US dollars), I thought it was a novel experience that was certainly worth trying.

Upon exiting, I realized a few things:
1. I look like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer when I’m cold, as my nose immediately turns crimson.
2. I still don’t like being cold.
3. There are lots of cool experiences that exist outside the bounds of my preferred temperature levels, so I’ll have to continue to suck it up and deal with temps higher and lower than the 60- to 80-degree sweet spot.

In 2010, I moved halfway across the country, drove through six states, flew to many more, took two cruises, and visited eight countries in all. These 10 experiences encapsulated my year in travel:

1. Laguna Beach, California. I admit it: I watch too much of MTV’s reality TV. And while I avoided Laguna Beach in its early days, I eventually succumbed my senior year of college and have now seen every episode. So getting to stop by and sit at the same dinner table Lo was at when she had that terrible date while the rest of the gang was camping was way more exciting than it should’ve been. But exciting nonetheless!

2. The real Full House house, San Francisco, California. Continuing on my California and television theme, seeing the real Full House house (which is not one of the Painted Ladies across from Alamo Park) was the fulfillment of a dream of any good ’90s kid who loved TGIF.

3. The Blue Lagoon, Iceland. The icy blue water, the hazy mist, the volcanic rocks, a massaging waterfall — it all adds up to the Blue Lagoon, a mystical place that proved the perfect topper for my stay in Iceland.

4. Atlanta, Georgia. The only new U.S. state I made it to in 2010 (still 11 more to go!), Georgia has been on my list for a while now, and despite the sweltering July heat, I packed a ton into a less-than-three-day stay: Georgia Aquarium, CNN, The Colonnade, Centennial Olympic Park, Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, The Varsity, The Flying Biscuit, and a cute vintage shop called My! My! My! Oh, and I made it to all my client meetings, too!

5. Dominica. Dominica is not an island I would drive around on. More than once, our tour bus came face to face with another on the narrow, winding roads, necessitating that someone backed up and just missed the edge of a cliff. But it’s said that Dominica is the only place Christopher Columbus would still recognize, and it was certainly beautiful in its rustic nature.

6. Seabrook, Washington. One of Washington state’s newest towns, Seabrook is a tiny beach community where the pace is a little slower. On a girls’ getaway with my family, we roasted marshmallows, hiked to the beach, cruised on old-fashioned bikes, and marveled at the adorableness that is this little village by the shore in the middle of nowhere.

7. The Celebrity Eclipse out of Miami. The latest ship from Celebrity’s Solstice class, the Eclipse, debuted this year, and it lives up to the hype. Elegant accommodations, fun entertainment, and more bars than you could visit in an evening make for a relaxing and classy floating escape.

8. Uppsala, Sweden. Learning about a different culture is one of the best parts of hopping a plane. I dedicated one day while in Uppsala to living like a typical Swede, which involved a traditional breakfast, recycling, fika, foraging for berries, and a trip to IKEA.

9. Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. This may not count as traveling, given that I lived there, but as I was readying to depart Texas after four years, I fit in all my favorites and a few new things, plus I welcomed a steady stream of visitors. Strolling down Main Street in Grapevine, riding the mechanical bull at Gilley’s, reliving history at The Sixth Floor Museum, and entering the cowboy culture of Fort Worth will be missed.

10. The Winter Olympics, Vancouver, BC. I am a major Olympics buff who stays glued to the TV 24/7 during the Games every two years, so I was thrilled to attend my first one in person. After planning for almost two years, I couldn’t believe the time had actually come — and while it was exhausting, it was worth every sleepless minute.

Before visiting Sweden a few weeks ago, I’d heard about their ample vacation time, generous maternity/paternity leave, and government-funded healthcare. What I hadn’t heard about may just be the best of all: fika.

A twice-daily coffee and pastry session centered around socializing, fika (that’s a noun and a verb) is a tradition that constitutes taking a break in the morning and the afternoon for something sweet to eat as well as a beverage — usually coffee, but tea and other drinks work (my favorite: hot chocolate). Cinnamon rolls are a popular option, as are cakes, cookies, biscuits, and pretty much anything with sugar as a key ingredient.

I was so enthusiastic about fika-ing, in fact, that I made myself ill — beware; what looks like a plain biscuit with a chocolate topping is actually filled with decadent chocolate mousse. Pair that with a chocolate drink, and the resulting blood sugar levels aren’t pretty — I vowed from then on to fika with water only.

Clearly, being a fika warrior takes some training. Fortunately, I’m willing to put in the hours to hang with the best of them — I’ve been taking stock of the local bakeries, and the next time I return to Sweden, I’ll be able to down a five-layer chocolate cake and a mug of hot chocolate topped with whipped cream in one sitting.

I know, I know — I set high standards for myself.