A midsummer night's eve to remember

Current location: Äspskär

The only real expectation I had on midsummer’s eve was to successfully construct a flower wreath for my hair, be it made of flowers or seaweed. But it turned out quite a lot more memorable than that. The weather forecast had doomed our night with predictions of rain and horrible winds a day before we headed out, but when the day came, there was no rain to be seen. To my foreign friends I always explain that the midsummer celebration in Sweden probably can be considered just as important as the celebration of Christmas. It is a tribute to the the lightest night of the year – and the night really is a very light one. The sun dips below the horizon for just an hour or so, before coming up again, but darkness, there is none. Just a mild pastel colored light. All night long. Kristoffer, Katja and I headed out with our boat a little later than planned, but as a result we were completely alone in this almost magical grey landscape that seemed to be taken straight out of some Disney movie. Small granite islands passed on by as if they were floating on the water, and not the other way around. It was unreal. So beautiful. In time for our arrival to a tiny little island, the sun came out and we had our barbeque dinner and enjoyed midsummer’s eve like any Swede would. It was so warm I could even wear my dress whilst I was looking for flowers for my wreath. The sun set, and as we crawled into our sleeping bags we were all just so amazed at how perfect this midsummer’s night had been.