Kivik: The Apple of My Eye

I have just come back from a crazy trip to Paris and Scotland, but first I want to write a little about the Kivik Apple Market Festival trip that Lena, Jess, two Germans from church: Christoph and Ronny, and I took a few weeks ago in September.
Lena, Jess, and I had heard about this amazing apple festival some time ago and were planning on taking the train to the eastern side of Skåne (the region in the south where I live) to see it. However, after mentioning it to Ronny, he graciously offered to drive us all there and to the national park nearby to boot!

We set off early in the morning and were afraid that the dark clouds would make for a rainy day. Thankfully, they held off, and while it was not very warm, it was at least dry (a rarity for this time of year!).

When we came to the city about an hour and a half later, we were greeted by throngs of people who were as ready as we were to partake in the apple festivities. Our first stop was the tented apple museum, which was filled with more apples than I thought possible.

The group is excited for the festival!

Lena almost couldn't resist eating the exhibit

Outside, a marching band with a giant dancing apple man paraded down the street. After some seemingly momentous speeches, the giant mural constructed of over 35,000 apples was unveiled amid much applause and oohing and ahhing (mostly by us foreigners).

it's a bird...it's a plane...

it's four tons of apple horses!

Seeing our fill of apple art, we set out to eat our fill of apple foods. The market was crammed with everything apple related: aprons; ceramics; and more importantly, tarts, cakes, ciders, donuts, pastries, etc. Many places were giving out free samples of their wares, which us girls took full advantage of.

delicious AND free-- does it get any better?

After eating numerous apple slices, juices, jams, and chutneys, we took a break for lunch to try some apple burgers. They weren't my favorite-- just slices of apple on a hamburger--but everyone else seemed to enjoy them. However, the view out on the pier was very nice and the company was even more so. With our stomachs properly primed, we felt ready to take on the rest of the market. And so for dessert we had some delicious apple cake with cream and freshly pressed hot apple cider.

Lunch on the pier

Dessert a la creme!

A band began playing on the main stage, and we went out to dance our traditional dances: Jess and I did the Russian dance, Lena did a country sort of dance, and the Germans...well they took pictures of us and laughed. Now Swedes typically don't dance at concerts, especially the middle aged ones who made up the majority of the audience. However, they were quite willing to laugh at/with us and even clap in time to the music.

Калинка, Калинка, Калинка!

The dancing had caused us to become hungry again, so we stopped for some freshly baked apple Danishes and donuts and stocked up on some excellent looking apples.

Lena and a yummy Swedish danish

Next we went to the Kivik apple cider factory and sortof museum. There wasn't much there, just more juice samples, a giant puzzle that we could put together, and a dunk tank that we could not do (too old, apparently).

By far it was the biggest puzzle I have ever done.

The giant apple man got to dunk him but we couldn't?

After that, we went off in search of the Stenshuvud National Park. After a few off-roading twists and turns, we found the place and took a very pretty walk through trees up to a hill. The view was spectacular: the ocean dominated on side and the beautiful autumn trees, the other.

The trees were ideal for climbing

The windy view. picture doesn't do it justice.

The wind eventually drove us back down, otherwise I could have stayed there for longer. We finished the perfect trip off with some fun and yummy Kinder eggs and the Amelie soundtrack on the drive home.

A very happy group (especially after seeing Lena's face in this picture)

Oh, I almost forgot. That night, we met up with some other guys from church, watched the second Bourne movie, and ate our 7th or 8th apple item of the day-- a scrumptious apple crisp we made ourselves. Then I felt finally full.