What is fika?

Have you heard of fika? I was first introduced to the concept when watching the Stockholm episode of Travel Man (highly recommend the show if you enjoy dry, British humor). After learning about it, I knew it was something I had to experience when visiting Sweden. We found a fika tour through Tours of Stockholm. 

According to the Tours of Stockholm fika tour description, fika is the word to describe meeting up for coffee and pastry. However, it has come to mean any mini break.

Our fika tour guide was a transplant from Brazil (Italian heritage) who came to Sweden and fell in love with the country. It was really interesting to have an "outsider's" perspective about living in Sweden and it gave us the opportunity to learn so much about her experience moving to the country. She had such a great vibe and was so easy to spend time with. 

Our first stop on the fika tour was to a little candy shop inside Hotorgshallen, one of Stockholm's food markets. Neither Charles or I are fans of licorice, but it's very popular in Scandinavia. We tried a few different types--traditional sweet and progressively more salty types. We ended with some candy covered licorice which was actually tasty.

Another stop was to a café for some coffee and pastries. Charles enjoyed a cinnamon bun and I had a saffron bun. 

Another café visit where I had a cinnamon bun and Charles ordered a cardamom bun. This café was located in the Old Town near the colored buildings and famous fountain that we saw during our Old Town walking tour the previous day, but I don't remember the name.

At the chocolate shop stop, I had some yummy ice cream and Charles tried the hot chocolate. 

The last experience, not part of the fika tour, was a visit to the ice bar. This was also featured on the Travel Man episode for Stockholm and Charles was very keen to experience it. It was COLD inside! They don you with a warm cape and gloves, but it was still a bit too chilly for me to really enjoy it for very long. Entrance to the ice bar includes one drink of your choice and they are served in ice cups. Very cool (excuse my pun) experience! If you visit during the summer, go ahead and wear pants and a long sleeve. The cape only keeps you so warm.

Albufeira, Portugal

Portugal was not really on my radar until last year when I saw someone's pictures from the Algarve region, Portugal's southern coast. It was rocky with tons of caves to explore. It looked beautiful and I wanted to go! 

For President's Day weekend, we found a direct flight from Karlsruhe to Faro, Portugal and decided it would be a great time to go! The weather would be warmer than Germany, but not yet too hot to be enjoyable. 

We booked an Airbnb in Albufeira, just about 40 minutes drive from Faro. It was very convenient to the center of town with lots of restaurants and shops, but far enough outside the center to still be peaceful. And it was a close walk to the beach.

One of the best things about our Airbnb is that it was nearby to a bakery with amazing pastel de nata. I should have brought a whole box of them home!

Walking along the beach and snapping photos from above was part of the fun of the trip!

The weekend coincided with the Carnival celebrations. We are not big partiers, so we did not seek out the Carnival events. But we did happen upon one of the parades after getting some gelato. Carnival is the pre-Lent celebration where they get dressed up in costume and have a lot of fun! I have seen a lot of my German friend posts about Fasching which is their equivalent to Carnival. It sounds like a wild and crazy experience!

Being the crazy cat lady that I am, my husband knew I would be interested to visit Albufeira's cat park. It was basically just a pier where a bunch of cats live. But it did give us some great views!

Like much of the rest of Europe, Portugal has a thriving wine making industry. We booked a wine and tapas tour where we were picked up from our Airbnb in a tuk tuk and driven through town to one of the local wineries. We saw carob trees and learned a bit about caring for vines in the fields. We saw inside the winery where all the tanks are and then tasted four wines while nibbling on meats and cheeses. It was a delightfully sunny day which made it even better!

Bergen, Norway

Our next big trip was a two-part one. The first part being Bergen, Norway. If I am being technical, it was really three parts. One night in Bergen, several nights in the Faroe Islands and then back to Bergen for a few more nights before heading home. But for the purpose of this blog, I am going to lump all of our Norway information together. 

Bergen is famously rainy. I went in with low expectations in regards to the weather. We were pleasantly surprised with decent weather while we were in town! Sure we had some rain and chilly wind, but we also lucked out with some sunshine!

On our first day in Bergen we took a walking tour which led us down cute alleys. We learned some of the history of Bergen.

Bergen was rife with street art! 

Another outing while in Bergen was a "fjord" cruise. It was pretty much just the fjords closest to Bergen, so it was more populated and less scenic than I would have liked. But it was a relaxing boat trip. 

We rode the funicular up to the top of the mountain for some panoramic views of the city. 

We did not eat nearly enough pastries while in Bergen. This was like a cheese Danish. Charles was happy to see mochas on most of the café menus. Surprisingly, we haven't seen that a lot in Germany.

We mostly avoid Mexican food in Germany. It's just not good. I saw a taco place with good ratings and thought we'd give it a try. It was actually pretty tasty!

We also enjoyed some Thai food while in Bergen. Yum, yum, yum!

This was the view from our Airbnb which was located outside of Bergen. Downstairs is an Italian pizzeria with some of the best pizza we have had in a while. The owner was so friendly and brought us fresh croissants every morning of our stay. His story about living in Italy and how he came to relocate to Norway was fascinating!

Blueberry Danish

I had purchased a box of puff pastry with no real plans on how to use it. With an HOA board meeting coming up (yes, I'm one of those crazy people who served on an HOA board), I wanted to bring something to share with my fellow board members. I found this recipe on Pinterest and thought I would give it a try because I love cheese Danish and adding blueberry and almond could only make it better! They turned out really great. I really should make these again soon...