Added piece of information: while Erin was away, I became the sort of person who eats cake for lunch.
Snus and Chew
After walking all over the city to acquaint Erin with the flowers that bloomed and the fountains that came alive during her absence, we stopped by Hamnkrogen, one of our favorite places to have a glass of wine by the sea.
Seated at the table next to us was a man, a woman, and a child of about eight years old (they also had a 12-week-old puppy in a carrier; more on that later), all of whom had tall glasses of milk. It's strange enough that three people were drinking large glasses of milk at a bar with a semi-fancy lunch menu, but the woman also had a small container of chewing tobacco out on the table. She took a wad out, jammed it in her cheek, and then proceeded to eat the semi-fancy lunch that was set in front of her. A short time later, I noticed a second container of tobacco on the table near the man.
I covertly took the following pic as proof.
Let me say that these people were delightful, as they put the 12-week-old puppy in front of me and let her lick my face while I explained in a baby voice that she was both pretty and sweet (she was). I don't wish to pick on them particularly, but I'm using this situation as a path to my point: Swedes seem to chew a lot of tobacco. It's an observation I've made when watching people buy the stuff at grocery stores or jam a bit in their cheeks while out and about, and I've noticed the outline of small circular containers in pants pockets more than once.
In trying to find statistics to support this observation, I learned that Sweden produces something called snus, a moist, powdered tobacco that is crammed under the upper lip for extended periods of time and which does not require the user to spit. Swedish Match, a company that makes snus, claims that 18 percent of all Swedish men use snus on a daily basis, which is a pretty impressive number when you think about it. Because the use of smokeless tobacco is so widespread, Sweden actually has lower rates of tobacco-related diseases than any other EU country. Say what?
The following is a direct quote from northerner.com, a website from which you can purchase Scandinavian snus:
"Since the 1970s the sales of snus is up. Now a can of snus may be found not only in the breast pocket of a pair of overalls, but also in the inner pocket of a dinner jacket or in a purse accompanying a ball gown."Lund
Last Thursday, my friend Julie and I took a trip to Lund, a college town about 40 minutes by car from Helsingborg that is also the oldest city in present-day Sweden. While there, we visited Kulturen, an open-air museum that takes up two city blocks and consists of houses and other buildings from the Middle Ages to the present that you can walk around and explore. Some of the buildings are on the original site where they were built, while others were reconstructed using their original materials.
In addition to seeing old furniture and art and knocking my head on one of the low doorways, it was super cool to climb through these buildings and get a feel for how people used to live. Some of the buildings also involved exhibits; for example, one had a collection of Swedish folk art, another was a museum of Lund University containing, among other things, a letter written and signed by Charles Darwin, and still another was a fashion exhibit of traditional Swedish clothing worn hundreds of years ago.
After Kulturen, we made our way to the Lund Cathedral, a truly impressive and spectacular building that was built in the 11th century. The ceilings in the church area are around 180 feet high, and it contains a working astronomical clock that is nearly 700 years old. Beneath the church lies the crypt, which is guarded by the statue of a giant named Finn, who, according to legend, built the church and was later tricked, shrunken, and turned to stone after he wanted to destroy it.
This week, we will celebrate Walpurgis Eve and May Day, which I will report on in my next post. Until then!
