Tag: swedish

Nordic Christmas Bazaars in the Washington, DC Area

M's Adventures
Icelandic.

As I have a hankering for Nordic food all the time (Cinnamon and pearl sugar buns, anyone? Liver pate and smelly cheese, no?).

Icelandic.

I wanted to make sure that I visited all the Nordic (There are five Nordic countries which include the three Scandinavian countries, just so you know) Christmas bazaars between last year and this year. Last year, I managed to go to the Finnish Christmas fair.

Christmas in Icelandic.

This year, the Danish and Icelandic bazaars were on the same day, November 9. So I went to those.

The Danish flag.

For those interested, the Finnish bazaar is on November 23 this year. The Swedish and Norwegian ones are on December 7.

Danish meatball open faced sandwiches. $7 bucks.

The Icelandic Christmas fair was out in Fairfax, Virginia. It is the only one of the Nordic Christmas fairs held out in Virginia. It was extremely busy which surprised me because I had no idea there were so many Iceland-o-philes in the area. Maybe everyone else realized that you have to go early if you want to get the good stuff.

Danish open faced fish filet sandwiches.

Then, I raced off to Rockville to the Danish Christmas bazaar. Wowza, were there a lot of people. Who’s left in Denmark?

I immediately got in line. It was the bakery line. Luckily someone came out to tell us that there was a separate line for the food… yes! Oh, but it was still a line. Just not as long as the bakery one.

The Danish Christmas bazaar only takes cash or personal check. Um. Oh. Kay. So I bought what I could get for the cash I had managed to find.

Danish apple cake.

I was delighted by the “apple cake” which is a legit thing but is so easy to make. It’s a trifle basically and you can make it anytime. This one was homemade with good sized chunks of cooked apple in the apple sauce.

Cheese, liver pate, curry herring, pickled gourd, and tinned fish for sale at the Danish bazaar.

As I was trying to buy cheese and liver pate, I heard some folks discussing if they should buy the “strong” cheese. I dissuaded them. Maybe it was wrong but I am fairly sure that they would have hated it. The cheese was a Danbo which is like havarti in texture. But the strong one has high uric acid making the umami part taste a bit like toe cheese. I didn’t explain it that well. But they thanked me. I wish there had been samples. But, these Christmas fairs are for a targeted audience who know what they want. It’s hard if you have no idea. Danish smelly cheese is a unique thing and I can’t really explain it except that it’s stronger than any other cheese out there. Forget the stinky bishops and French blue cheeses. But I digress. I got my chunk. And I will have it all to myself.

Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, there is still lots of stuff for you at these Nordic bazaars/fairs.

Best Massage in Bogota

M's Adventures

Some things are difficult to find in Bogota. Thai massage is one of them. The closest one gets is from Alvaro Silva. His phone number is 314-357-6656. Email address is sinergia79@gmail.com. His massages are 90 minutes long and cost 150,000 pesos. (Massage therapists don’t usually receive tips, and some refuse, so that’s the set price.)  Alvaro does Thai-, hot rock-, pressure point-, oil-, and Swedish massage. Plus, he also offers other wellness products like personal training sessions and exercise classes.

His massages are usually done on the floor on yoga mats (so he can pretzel your legs and arms) but he also uses a massage table if you have one. Only caveat with Alvaro is that he doesn’t speak English. It’s still easy to communicate with him and he can usually tell where you are in pain. Another thing that I like about him is that he doesn’t talk during the massage (unless you want to) and he doesn’t keep checking on how you like the session (I usually play music from a relaxation app on my phone so I tend to zone out and concentrate). Sometimes I wish that I had booked more than one massage because he’s spent the whole 90 minutes unknotting my back.IMG_2716

Most hotels have spas so one can get massages in fancy environments. I’ve only tried a few massage therapists and spas in Colombia. As this is Bogota, you can get the massage therapist to come to your house. The style of massage in Colombia seems to be mainly “Swedish.” I prefer pressure point and deep tissue. The other massages I’ve had here cost about half the price of Alvaro’s, but they were also only half as good. Most of the other massages involved lots of oil and Swedish style (light sweeping strokes). But, some people don’t agree with me and tell me that they get strong massages from other therapists (but each person has a different level of pressure that they like — one person’s pain is another person’s so-so).

My advice is to try them out and see which one you like.