midsummer

I'm still laughing. Like the gut busting, can't breath, tears streaming down the face, laughing from Friday night's Midsummer Festival. Let's just say it had something to do with a dance around the May Pole called "Carousel" and getting extra close and extra awkward with strangers. One of the many highlights of this past weekend. Anyways, off we went after work on Friday down to the tip of Battery Park to celebrate the start of Summer, Svenska style. The weather was surprisingly perfect and the sun was streaming through the piercing clouds at the waterfront venue. Happy as clams based on the weather alone, we immediately got in line for the massive Swedish buffet (which was $15 by the way, not $20) and piled our plates mile high with an assortment of Scandinavian (and not so Scandinavian) goodies: Gravlax, Swedish Meatballs, Herring, cabbage, potatoes, beet salads, and more. We happily shoveled the food in our faces and sipped on ice cold Heinekens (where was the Carlsberg?!) to fend the welcomed heat of sunshine. I almost forgot what that felt like.
I will be seriously saddened if this was, in fact, the last Midsummer Festival because it was such a lovely little event filled with happy faces and friendly people adorned with crowns made from flowers and foliage. The kind of thing that just makes you feel better simply by being present. We left feeling genuinely content with stomachs full, abs slightly throbbing from laughter, an overwhelming desire to start up Rosetta Stone: Swedish, and huge smiles from ear to ear. Go Svenska. For real.