CHOCOLATE!!!!
Trip Start
Aug 18, 2011
1
10
41
Trip End
Ongoing
What I did
Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Europeans have a better understanding of how to take it easy and enjoy the simple things in life, and one part of the simple things in life is an enjoyment of sugar. Nowhere is this appreciation of sugar understood better than in the cold country of Sweden.
Swedes eat more candy per capita than any other country in Europe. I believe that it has something to do with how cold it is here, but that seems to be the excuse for everything in this country.
If you happen to be in Sweden around mid October, then one of the best places to spend your money would be at the chocolate festival in Stockholm hosted by the Nordic Museum. This is a somewhat boring museum, but the chocolate festival is well worth a visit. Plus, if you want to also see the museum you can walk around the three floors while you digest the chocolate and stave off a stomach ache before returning to the main floor to partake in more chocolate, calories and potential cavities.
I had visited this festival when I was an exchange student, so I was thrilled to find that this has now become a tradition and I could once again ruin any diet I was taking part in and dive in to chocolate land. I had however forgotten that it is wise to bring a bottle of water with you, as you become very thirsty very fast. But, like any consumerist event there were bottles of water…for a small fee.
I went to this wondrous event with Victor and his sister Frida, neither of whom had come to the festival before. We all left pretty happy. Each table has samples of the chocolate that you can buy, so if you sample something from every table you get more than your money's worth without having to spend any additional money. However, if you like what you taste, you can of course buy a bigger sample. The chocolate ranged in price from reasonable to you’ve got to be kidding me.
I do not think that it is an accident that this event is placed only a week or so before Halloween. Sweden may not really celebrate the holiday, but they are very aware that it is a holiday centered on candy. I found some very tasty and reasonably priced Halloween chocolate, so being the homesick American that I am I of course bought it, and it did last for several weeks, only disappearing when Victor and a friend stayed up all night playing video games and used my Halloween candy as munchies.
I have to say that my favorite part of the event is seeing just how many different things can be made out of chocolate. Sculptures dotted the festival, along with little figures shaped out of marzipan. Chocolate tea, hot chocolate, chocolate coffee and chocolate gloog were all available for you to buy to help wash down the three dollar fancy truffles that had every digestible flavor imaginable.
The chocolate Festival is an event that does not disappoint and leave you happy if not a little nauseous by the time you have a sugar high and need to leave the pressing crowds. I will of course be returning next year and will remember a big bottle of water next time.
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