foodie fails and findings

Obviously having always lived at home I've never really had to shop and cook for myself. On my first day I bought a loaf of bread which after two weeks still wasn't finished and was rock hard... After that I decided not to buy any bread because it would just go to waste. Here are a few things I have learnt...

steaming

Seeing as I don't have a pan for steaming veggies and I don't really want to buy one for the next couple of months, instead I've been putting them in a grater and holding it over a pan. I think it works just as well!

rice

I love a bargain so when I saw a 2kg bag of rice I bought it without thinking. When I got home I realised that cooking rice for one was going to be a faff I couldn't really be bothered with. Luckily my friends who have been living away from home shared their method of cooking rice in the microwave. I think I had rice every singly day the week I discovered this because I was so impressed! All you have to do is rinse your rice, then place it in a bowl with one part rice and two parts water for 9mins. Easy peasy :)

no mixers

I've been pretty much vegetarian since I arrived in Sweden, partly because I'm not actually sure what meat I would be buying and because chicken is so expensive! I invested in a hand held blender so I can make ample portions of soup. But I've also been using it for frozen cocktails. Being too lazy to go to the shop (which is about 60 seconds away from my room) I decided to blend my frozen berries with vodka and water. And voilà, no need for mixers!

baking

Baking is probably the only thing I do that I can class as a hobby. Normally I find any reason to bake because I love it so much. Luckily for me most, if not all, of the ingredients I use at home are paid for by mum and dad. As I no longer have the never ending supply of flour and sugar, I tried not to bake anything, until last week. I invited my friends over hoping to impress them with apricot & cinnamon muffins and lemon flavoured macarons. But I'd never actually used the oven, apart from making wedges, so both attempts were a disaster. The muffins were like rock cakes and the macarons were, on one tray burned biscuits and on the other soggy yellow blobs. Since then I have been shown how to use the over so hopefully I can edit this post and declare that I am capable of making cakes.

göteborg och malmö

So I was supposed to travel to Gothenburg on Saturday morning but going out on Friday night meant I actually spent the entire day in the darkness of my room only moving when my friends came over that night. But, on Sunday morning I managed to get up at 4am was in Gothenburg by 11:30am.

Not knowing where to start I followed the path from the station into the shopping centre. This was a success as I finally purchased a new pair of black boots! #feelingswedish Once I'd picked up all the info leaflets that I could, I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to catch all the sights. Unfortunately I kept getting lost and ended up on a bridge which I'm pretty sure was leaving the city... This wasn't so bad though as I think I managed to see most of the city in the short time I had and came to the conclusion that I'd like to live there someday. 

One of the biggest appeals before I arrived was the legendary kannelbulle which can can found in Haga, the old town. These ginormous ginormous cinnamon buns are made to serve 4-8 people!! I LOVE cinnamon but even I couldn't justify buying one for myself.

Malmö

As there was so much I wanted to see in malmö I decided to hire a bike. I paid 150 sek for the next 30hrs which seems very reasonable for how much I used it! Luckily the sun shone all day (unlike today) so I began with cycling along the shore and taking 143795 photos of the pretty blue sky. About 5minutes into my cycle I could hear live music coming from behind the hill. What I found was a campfire area with speakers in the grass that play music every hour from 8-23:00. Such a nice idea!

Maybe the most exciting thing I did yesterday was my visit to the floating sauna. But before that I stopped on the beach to take photos of the øresund bridge which goes from malmö to Copenhagen. The weather being so lovely actually made it more difficult to take photos because the sun was too bright for my camera!

Around 3 o'clock I reached the sauna which I was kind of wary about. I know in Sweden it's normal too sit bare naked and sweat with people you don't know, but I'm not Swedish. It cost 65 sek for a single use of the sauna and the Baltic Sea. I sat in with the hot coals for about 20mins, looking through the glass to the blue skies and sea and then finally forced myself to get up and go outside. Although it was sunny it was only about 6c so even standing was pretty chilly. This didn't seem to bother the locals who lay out on the deck. My time in the sea lasted all of 5 seconds as I felt my whole body freezing. When I came out I swear my whole body was having a heart attack. And then it was back into the sauna for another 10 mins. I swear it's good for you but I don't know how often I could do it. 

Once I dried off I got back on my bike and toured the city until I'd seen most of the sights and stopped off to take pictures. Like Gothenburg I managed to get quite lost and kept going round in circles. The city is lovely so obviously that wasn't a bad thing :). 

catching up, again

Every time I remember that I haven't written on my blog I somehow forget again. ANYWAY here's a  "quick" summary of the past 7 weeks and what I've been up to.

Firstly, Lapland was honestly a dream come true. I spent most of the 16 hour journey just watching the snow and smiling - I love my life!!! Over the four days we spent there I had the chance to go check out a Sami market in Kiruna, go snowmobiling, visit the Ice Hotel, go searching for the Northern Lights (with no luck) and jump into piles of snow.

The day after we got back it was time for Copenhagen. I ate far too many pastries and still can't get over Christianshavn. Are you SURE the police know about this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianshavn 

Also what a beautiful city!

The Stockholm Gasque was like a welcome party for all the new members and was so much fun! We had to drink shots during the meal (which were so strong P Spurr can't remember eating her dinner and broke her chair) aaand much to the dismay of most of the guests, the dj played 90s music afterwards!

Sisters in Sweden

Catherine and Sarah came to stay for three days which included seeing MICHAEL BUBLE, finding the biggest bench in Uppsala, Fika, a sleepover in an old airplane, a day trip to Helsinki and a lost passport...

International Gasque

Basically a three course meal with a party to follow. A party where Maddy and I embarrassed ourselves trying to sing Aint No Mountain High Enough on karaoke. Luckily there are no videos. It was horrendous. 

Aberdream

Only 7 weeks into my exchange I went home for 6 days. I was actually really annoyed that I had to leave Sweden but it was sooo much fun. Ona turned 18, went to the Marcliffe before it closes, had a catch up with the uni girls, managed a brief return to Cup, went to Gav and woke up without bruises, attended the training for the Commonwealth games, went out in Gtown with the gals, booked a holiday, saw the family, Fiona & Kirsten's ceilidh and Christine & Marcus announced that they're having a baby!!!! Not bad for one week.

Aaand this weekend I should have been in Paris but it's kind of impossible without a passport. Third time lucky!!! So instead I decided to see a bit more of Sweden J.