Victory for Finja IF

SWEDISH FACT-OF-THE-DAY:

Hässleholm, Sweden is located at latitude 56.15 North. This latitude places Hässleholm 600 miles north of Seattle, Washington's 47.36 latitude North.

Laurie did the laundry in the morning so I went to Malmö in search of a few hard to find items to make packing easier for my upcoming Camino de Santiago pilgrimage walk in Spain. I start it two weeks from today in St. Jean Pied-de-Port, France. Over the Pyrenees Mountains on the first day and then across the north of Spain. The Camino is about 500 miles long total and I hope to finish it in 28 days which is about the average for most pilgrims.

Just a wee stretch of the legs.

Ryan and I distributed posters of Saturday's game against the Carlshamn Oakleaves around town in the afternoon and then it was off for a soccer road trip with Johan and Henning Hammarqvist to watch our beloved Finja IF in their first game after their Summer Break.

Finja IF at Vanvika IF

A Critical Division VI Match

Vanvika's answer to all of those

American jockey statues

Are they playing with a huge

driving range ball?

Finja IF is in blue.

Slide tackle . . . no foul???

Ryan, Henning and Johan

marvel at the action packed match

Cool Game Clock

The stands were packed.

Korv med Bröd

It's halftime, 1-1 score, time for some nourishment.

The Penalty Kick Wall

"Henning, beer me please!"

Our hero, Markus Nilsson

Magnus Andersson in the middle

Normally, Magnus works the ticket booth at Finja IF home games and dispenses some liquid fortification for your coffee on cold nights as well during halftime.

Tonight Magnus was reactivated to help provide much needed depth to the Finja IF roster.

Markus with the ball, Magnus trailing

In the second half, Finja IF's superior conditioning would come into play.

Magnus is #7 on the right

Here he is about to take the cross goal pass and tap it into the open right side of the net for an insurance goal.

The visiting fans went wild!

Now Magnus is just plain showing off!

Kind of like trash talking with your body language by doing an Irish jig with the ball.

Magnus' face is the picture of Finja IF's

INTENSITY!

I hope Magnus doesn't eat the little guy

VICTORY!!!

The Skåne sky turned Finja IF blue

FINAL SCORE:

Finja IF 4 - Vankiva IF 1

On our return to Hässleholm, and after reuniting with Laurie, we decided to take yet another walk through the ongoing FESTIVALDAX 2010.

Time for a crepe made by a genuine Parisian!

Strawberry Crepe . . . YUM!!!

"Three forks please." We shared.

Ryan was still hungry, so we just had to try something else exotic and good for us.

Well, Langos it is then

Grandma, on the right, has been living in Sweden for 20 years after immigrating from Romania.

She and her two granddaughters, seen here, specialize in these deep fried Langos which are a specialty from Budapest, Hungary she said.

For some crazy reason I trusted her cross-cultural cooking talents to the max!

She had me at "Hello."

Our first ever Langos

We shared this simple one with just cheese, onions and not one, but two special white sauces.

SO GOOD!

Well, let's face it, just about anything deep fried is SO GOOD!

I'll be back Saturday for at least one more of these but this time, NO SHARING!

I drew the line at candy

A very thin line I admit, but I drew it nonetheless.

I just love a good town festival!

Home game day Saturday at 1:00 p.m. against the 0-7 Carlshamn Oakleaves. Finally, after nine weeks off, an American football game. Having Ryan with us will be a huge help!

GO CANES!!!