I definitely just cut myself with a cheese slicer…

It’s Tuesday, and since class hasn’t picked up really from introductory classes (Library Tutorial, 10-12.00; How to Write Academic English, Part 1, 13-15.00…), I’ve been alternating between reading my new museum texts and soaking up what’s left of the sun in true Swedish fashion…

But anyway—good news! Today I found (to my utter delight) the Pike Place equivalent in Göteborg, called Stora Saluhallen, located down right in Kungsportsplatsen where, in the last days of summer, you can still find people wearing sunglasses and nomming on sandwiches on the sides of the canals. Saluhallen is a great big building, built in late 1880s, by an architect by Hans Hedlund, whose work you can spot pretty regularly around the city. It sits in a great open courtyard, where, if you get there on time, there are outside vendors from neighboring Swedish farms selling their own produce, and smaller bakeries selling decent lunch deals to the throngs of tourists and locals.

Inside is quite stunning—a grand, light-filled hall that’s ripe with the smells of spices, cheese, bread, and peppered meat, and everything echoes with the talk of people. In narrow lines, there are dozens of smaller, private stores that sell nearly everything tasty on this Earth that exists. In my slow dance around the place, there were bread and cakes for sale, plentiful white cheeses, green and maroon olives alongside handmade gnocchi and truffles, dried fruit and exotic nuts, bright red coffee tins and glass jars of spices, rows of white-marbled meats and ribs…

I’m actually quite at peace, just thinking about it, really.