Birthday!

Yesterday was a milestone birthday, at least for those of us who are fans of the Beatles.  We started with caviar and blinis, along with a great Vouvray sparkling wine.  We'd never seen a sparkler like it before in the US and Mark was skeptical of my choice, but it was delicious.  The next course was rack of venison and potatoes, with a nebbiolo.  We ended with the chocolate dessert we had picked up from Mr. Cake (right now we can't bake as the apartment is not well-equipped), and finished up the bottle of the sparkler.  

Caviar seems really popular here.  There is quite a selection at just our local ICA grocery store, both cheap (which is what we had last night, although it was plenty tasty) and expensive (in a locked case).    And one can buy blini packs easily, which we did from a fancy fish purveyor.

The alcohol buying situation seems worse than in Pennsylvania, which we didn't think was possible.  There are state stores and they have limited hours - they close at 3 on Saturday and are totally closed on Sunday.  In fact we were out walking again today (to buy bread and pastries from a new bakery, to keep stocking up on groceries, and to buy pots of forced crocus and grape hyacinths) and many stores seem closed on Sunday.  Lots of people out walking with kids and dogs.  Stockholm seems like a dog kind of town. People bring their dogs into shops, for example.  Today we also passed a "cat cafe" although we didn't see any cats through the window.