(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)
Our 2012 trip to Scandinavia started off with 2 nights in Uppsala. Although it’s the 4th largest city in Sweden, it only has about 140,000 inhabitants. We chose it because it was close to the Stockholm airport and it looked like a good place to acclimatize for our upcoming journey into the former Soviet republic of Estonia. As our return flight was also departing from Stockholm, we thought we’d defer spending time in the capital until we returned from the east.
Everything about Uppsala was pleasant: the parks, the streets, the historical sites and the university (founded in 1477 and Scandinavia’s oldest centre of higher learning). As we had hoped, it was easy to get into the European rhythm. We did some very mundane things to start: we went to a local mall to buy shorts, as it was warmer than we had anticipated and I had also forgotten to bring shorts with me. As a result, I remain the proud owner of Swedish “pirate shorts”: a little longer than usual but still comfortable on a hot summer’s day.
We shed our jet lag with leisurely visits to Uppsala Castle, the adjacent Botanical Garden (both pictured at the top of this post), and the Domkyrka (Uppsala Cathedral). The Cathedral goes back to the 13th century and dominates the skyline of the small city. While I wouldn’t say that Uppsala has a lot of bucket list sights, we enjoyed wandering around the city and soaking in the academic vibe. We both thought it would be a great place to attend university, should we ever decide to pursue further studies!
I was prompted to write about Sweden today because I decided to try a Scandinavian cheese called Juustoleipa (in Finnish) or Ostbrod (in Swedish) for lunch. The name translates as “bread cheese” and it’s described on the package as a “buttery-flavoured flat and squeaky cheese”. I found it at our neighbourhood supermarket, among the other specialty cheeses.
To make Juustoleipa, you just heat it in a skillet for four minutes on each side. The end result is quite similar to fried halloumi with hints of mozzarella and the texture of cheese curd. It was warm throughout with a bread-like crust on the outside. While the instructions recommended serving it with jam, honey or syrup, we went with plain fresh croissants instead. It was delicious; I look forward to trying it again with something sweet. Speaking of sweet Swedish food, that is my favourite culinary memory of Uppsala: we enjoyed terrific crepes al fresco at a charming downtown cafe.
This post was delayed a bit because of some photo uploading challenges, although everything seems to be sorted out now. In the meantime, we were able to take care of immunizations and some logistical planning for our summer journey to the southern hemisphere. This is one of my favourite parts of travel planning: seeing everything slowly fall into place and realizing that “yes, this is actually going to happen!” We’re really going to see three new countries!