Sweden!

Back at home after an early flight. Sleeping eating and stuff. The trip is over for this time. The blog? I do not know. If there is something important to relay I might do it. There are always reviews of restaurants and films and stuff. We will see. Bye for now!

Kingsburg, CA

This morning we rode through Kingsburg south of Fresno. It had sign calling it self a "Swedish Town" which intrigued us enough to turn of highway 99 for a brief expedition into all things Swedish in California... and it turned out to be as real as Anna Anka. The first place we got to was a Swedish Creamery, an icecream bar. We got to speak to the owner who one of the employees said was a Swede. It turned out he was an elderly American gentleman of mixed English/Irish heritage. He told us that the Swedishness of the town was something that they had set up 15 years ago and then run out of money. He also tried to have us eat breakfast at his "German" place over the street but unfortunately we had already eaten.
We drove into the city centre and saw several Swedish flags and almost as many Dala-hästar, the famous Valley-horses from Dalarna in middle Sweden. The Kurbits-paint was not really as it should, but we could see what they tried to do. They had also rebuilt a water tank to look like an old coffee-pan. They also had the landscape arms painted on walls all over town but at places the language barrier just could not be negotiated as in the example of Bohuslän that had been renamed to "BOIIUSLAN". The word Välkommen was also used all over, sometimes with an A instead of an Ä. We did not find anyone Swedish to talk to and at the restaurant "Dalahästen" all the employees was naturally Latin. They were serving and preparing food so what did you expect?

On our way south we discussed the possibility of opening a "American City" in Sweden, try to get some Americans to live there and then when it does not work out just fill it up with Iranians. Might be something for the future.

Reports from Sweden

These days there are two news items predominantly that get through the filter from Sweden: First thing Swedish police have apprehended 4 persons planning a terrorist attack in Göteborg. They where apprehended close to an art biennial by the national task force located some four hours away in Stockholm. No more information is readily available. The silence about the suspects and their target signals many things but at this point I am not willing to theorise here. It is most disturbing and I await further information about this with great anxiety.

The second item is of much less importance and relates to food: a so called "krovgubbe" or sausage man has since April this year made and distributed the worlds spiciest hot dog called the Harakiri Sausage for unclear reasons, but a guess would be a combination of bad imagination and a WT-disposition.
Any way I have been getting reports of people eating and trying to eat this not so food-like substance in sausage form. I have seen films of the occurrences and it seems like a very painful process. I really do not see the point in it. You want to see any of this I will reluctantly give you a link of the eating here and the aftermath here. All conversation is in Swedish, but you will get the point anyway. And a word of warning: this is not really a meaningful pre-suit.