Life in Sweden: Halloween Shopping

So since the party is official, time to get in gear and get decorated for Halloween. Ellie, Angie and I set off this morning with quite a to-do list. First on our list, find the bookstore a few blocks away that sells English books. Strike one. They are not at the address that the web gave. A quick call to David and a few google searches later – they are out of business. Okay moving on to Gray’s American Store. Maybe we can find some fun Halloween goodies there. Strike two – they are not at their listed address either. Do the Swedes ever update the internet? Our next goal, shoes for David. He needs tennis shoes to play bandi and didn’t bring his pair from Greenville. Of course they are from 1988 so an update is probably good. We hop on the elevator to head down into the subway station. It descends without a problem but when we get to the bottom the doors won’t open. Okay, rearrange everyone. They still won’t open. The elevator also won’t go up. None of the buttons are working. Giggle fest begins while trying not to breathe in through our nose (of course it is a stinky one). David calls in the middle of all of this and once he understands the problem directs us on how to stand to get the doors to open. Should using an elevator really be this hard?

David had run out at lunch and bought shoes so that is off our list. After grabbing a quick lunch, we were off to Buttericks. It is similar to a party city in the states. Buttericks along with the Hard Rock Café, Stockholm began trying to start the Halloween celebration movement in 1990. While more Swedes are celebrating the holiday, it is still a very limited movement.

http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

Buttericks does have a wide variety of all things Halloween, decorations and costumes. It was wildly crowded but we made our way through the whole store and bought some things for the party. After Buttericks, it was off to the outdoor market to buy a pumpkin to carve. I knew I was going to get taken the minute the salesman said, “You are American. You need pumpkin for Halloween. I give you a special deal.” Yeah right. The pumpkins were either not in great shape or fairly big. We picked out a good sized pumpkin with a good side for carving. Thirty-five dollars later, I was the proud owner of a pumpkin. He even “threw in” a small pumpkin for Ellie. Suddenly the $58 turkey is not looking that expensive.