back with Gunda

We met back up with Gunda and Gert (pronouned Goon-dah and Yairt, by the way) at a cute restaurant just down the road.  To say I was obsessed with the decor in this restaurant would be a bit of an understatement.

The view from the restaurant's walls made of windows was largely of gorgeous boats docked just steps outside.

Barn light? Check.  Vintage prints of sailboats and sailors? Check.  Whitewashed walls? Check.  Natural butcherblock tables? Check.  Wood-paneled ceiling? Why on earth not?

Here's me and Kerstin (pronounced Share-stin) with my large plate of food.  I ordered fried plaice (a flat fish).  It was very fresh and not fishy at all (I was terrified when I ordered) and it came with (among other things) the most delicious homemade tartar sauce that was actually yellow due to the egg yolks it contained.  I love eating real, homemade food that doesn't have a shelf life of a million years :)

Gunda, Mary Jane and Kenneth enjoying their lunches.  Check out that Swedish flag and those skylights/the glass ceiling/I'm not really sure what that's called.

More of the decor.  I loved the four framed pictures on the left the most.  Also I loved the fabric on the patterned pillows.

Does anyone know what kind of plant that is?  I want one.  It almost looked like it was fake, but I picked off a leaf and it was not.

TOM's ad?

After we had become sufficiently full (read: stuffed) at lunch, we headed to Gunda's apartment for - you guessed it! - more food.  Ah, the surprises never ceased :)  But Gunda's apartment is very adorable and she maintains it all by herself.  She says as soon as she can no longer clean her apartment, cook for herself, or bathe herself she will move to an assisted living community.  Until then, she's on her own.  And she's doing quite well.  Let's just say that I'd be embarrassed to have her walk into my bedroom right now.

I loved this little bowl.  And that gorgeous table cloth?  Gunda made it.  NBD.

Gert was full of animated stories.  Since he doesn't speak English, they were all pretty much lost in translation.  Oh well.  Watching the reactions of the rest of the Swedes was enough to know that he is quite a humorous fellow.

In Gunda's apartment, Kenneth started rearranging all of the furniture in the living room so that we could take a couple of family portraits. Gunda stared incredulously at him while this was going on.  Then, finally she asked what he was doing and he told her to go seat herself front and center on the couch and look pretty.  She joked, "and I suppose you want me to take all of my clothes off too?" I thought that was hilarious.  Then she sat down and pouted and wiggled her feet up and down (pictured).

Mary Jane, me, Gunda, my mom (Kathy)

A few more table cloths also made by Gunda flank us in this picture.  Also, if you look at the table on the right (above) and to the left in the window (below) you will see little dolls.  These dolls were in most of the homes we entered and are seemingly very traditional Swedish dolls, usually "dressed" in very traditional looking garb.  Except they're all black.  I'm not trying to be racist here, but it confused me as the stereotypical Swede has white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. When I finally got up the nerve to ask someone why the dolls aren't white, he started laughing and said that was a good point. He had to ask somebody else, who had to ask somebody else.  They came to the conclusion that maybe the material they are made out of can't be made white.  It seemed like this random glitch in skin-color had never occurred to any of them before. 

I have come to the conclusion that you can't be anywhere for very long in Sweden without people trying to feed you.  The above picture is of round one (!) of desserts at Gunda's house, which were served with coffee and Flaggpunch.  The dishes are another version of the Royal Copenhagen line that I have come to love so much.  Also, Gunda made all of the desserts pictured, except for one, which was made by Gert. 

Of course we still hadn't learned of this whole two-desserts tradition and I, personally, ate more than I comfortably could on the first round of desserts.  They were all delicious and very impressive.  I guess it had never occurred to me before that this kind of dessert could be made at home and not in a Pepperidge Farm factory, so obviously I had to try each one at least once. Sigh.

And the second dessert was the most incredibly delicious cake made by Gert's wife earlier that morning.  No turning that one down.  Gert told some story about how he bought the strawberries from a guy and got two containers.  Everyone was dying laughing, but that's all I understood from the translation.  Clearly there was something more to the story. Whatever it was, I didn't really care.  I was too busy devouring cake on a full stomach.