A Riot and a Feast

The Riot

Yesterday was November 30th, the anniversary of the 1718 death of King Karl XII, Sweden's "warrior" king. King Karl had great imperialist ambitions and during his reign, the borders of Sweden were extended all over the Baltic region through a series of wars. For some reason, today Sweden celebrates the day of his death with pretty little cakes. And also Neo-Nazi riots.

The weird cakes were served at my office last week, but the latter bit came as a shock last night when my parents and I tried to take taxis to the Grand Hotel for dinner, and found that all the roads near the hotel were closed off with police barricades. Apparently, Sweden's skinheads see King Karl Day as a good time to demonstrate for their racist cause, so every year they gather at the statue of the dead king (which happens to be in a park right near the Grand Hotel). Unfortunately, another radical group, the extreme-left militant communists, also see King Karl Day as a good time to fight for their "warrior" cause, and they also gather at the statue.

So what ends up happening is the two groups annually beat the crap out of each other in a posh city park.

Luckily, there aren't very many communists or skinheads—the number of protesters is usually only about 600 people. And since they both have the right to peaceful demonstration, the government allows them all to converge on the statue each year. But inevitably there are arrests, and often the riot police have to come out with rubber bullets and shields, and the whole thing costs taxpayers a lot of money.

We didn't actually see any fighting last night, as the protest had been broken up by the time we got to the hotel, but you can see a few images and a rant from a pissed-off Swede at this site, if you'd like to learn more. He makes it seem like the Neo-Nazi problem is widespread in this country, but from what I've gathered in conversations with my Swedish friends, it's a toxic but tiny minority.


The Feast

Once we arrived at the Grand Hotel, we were treated to the most amazing spread of food I've ever seen. And I'm a pretty serious foodie, so that's not a statement I'd make lightly.

Since I "missed" Thanksgiving this year and I won't be with my parents at Christmas, I wanted to share a holiday meal with them, so I thought it would be nice to have a traditional julbord at a nice hotel. Happily, the Christmas season starts here on November 29th, so we managed to do it while they're in town this week.

Well, the food was incredible. There were probably 10 different types of pickled herrings, smoked and cured salmon and char, smoked venison, pork ribs, slow-braised pork, a whole table of interesting housemade force-meats, pates and charcuterie, deviled eggs with prawns and caviar, grain salads, beet salads, green salads, homemade pickles, jansson's temptation, Swedish meatballs, lingonberries, amazing cheeses, chocolate-covered hazelnuts, handmade caramels, chocolate pannacotta, crullers with cloudberry jam.... and I'm only naming my favorites. We also had excellent wine, tasty Christmas beer and five different kinds of aquavit (fennel and coriader, elderflower, carrot, and two others I can't remember, for obvious reasons). Wow. Wowee wow wow. Today I am taking it easy—I think I have a herring hangover.

Anyway, Mom and Dad were suitably awed by the interesting foreign food and booze, the gorgeous hotel setting and the elaborate wreaths, flowers and greenery everywhere. Today, we're downscaling to salads and tea, and there are no militant protesters or SWAT teams in sight.