Hi again! Spring Break flew by, but it was an amazing week! I went up to Paris for the first time this semester! It was about a three-hour train ride through the beautiful countryside. I spent the week visiting the most touristy sites, such as La Tour Eiffel, Le Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Moulin Rouge, Sacre Cœur, and Notre Dame. The last time I visited Paris, it was three weeks before Notre Dame was engulfed in flames. While I couldn’t go inside this time, it was amazing to see the reconstruction at work.
We were lucky to have great weather in Paris, not too much rain. I also used the Paris Pass, where after you purchase the pass for 1,2,3,4-6 days, you get “free” access to a bunch of sites around Paris and small restaurants for drinks and snacks. I think it was well worth the money, as long as you plan out the locations accordingly!
My boyfriend and I also visited Dublin, Ireland for a day! We did some brief sightseeing and toured the Guinness Storehouse! It was very interesting, however, Guinness is an acquired taste…
This week was incredible, and I am looking forward to returning to Paris in the near future.
Happy Våffeldagen!! March 25 is waffle day in the Scandinavian countries, where they enjoy eating their thin and crunchy waffles with jam and whipped cream. I find it interesting that these are thin, as Swedish pancakes are also a lot thinner than the American buttermilk pancakes I am used to. I don’t know why they are really into thin versions of these pastries.
This was the final morning before two of my friends visiting over DU’s spring break began their journey back to the US, so we of course had to celebrate before they left. This meant, however, that we got up at 6am in order to meet four of my Lund friends at one of their corridor rooms at 7am to begin making the waffles. It was a bit of a rough morning with such an early start, but we made the most of it by all wearing our pajamas and drinking lots of coffee (an essential). We struggled a bit with the waffle maker at first, but were successfully making the distinctive heart/snowflakes waffles before my DU visitors had to hop on a bus and go to Copenhagen airport.
Swedish waffles are really quite tasty, though I don’t know if they beat Belgium waffles in my mind. My mom has spent so long perfecting her recipe that it’s hard for me to imagine any other waffle becoming superior in my mind. There is something about the thick, soft waffle with butter and maple syrup that is perfect in my mind. However, the Swedish waffles are really tasty and I have good memories around them. The first time I tried them was when I went over to a new Swedish friend’s place for fika a couple weeks ago. She and I met through the ecotoxicology course, so it was nice to enjoy a fika with her and her boyfriend outside of the ecology building. It was very nice to enjoy waffles with jam, whipped cream, ice cream and lemon curd with them. Today was my second time, and I was happy to see that the jam, whipped cream, and ice cream made it back on the table as toppings for the waffles. I’m not sure how much their waffles are dependent upon the special waffle maker shape, but I am now going to keep my eyes out for one at thrift stores when I’m back in the US. Overall, I am very happy that there is another official pastry day in Sweden. Their pastries are delicious and play a crucial role within their culture, which is certainly something I won’t complain about.
DU Abroad 