Take me to church!

6-30-2015:  Every time I visit Sweden, I take away a memory or two that lasts me a lifetime.  Some are good, some bad, and some downright depressing, enough to make a grown man cry; like the time I filled up my father-in-law's gas tank to the tune of $100+.  This visit was no different.  Here's what I'll remember for as long as I have my faculties together:

For the past few summers, I've been eating yummy pancakes for 20 Swedish Krona - $2.40 at the current exchange rate - at the Nobbelov Church in Lund, built in the 12th century.  Every summer, they hold a kids arts and crafts program  from Tuesdays through Thursdays, and today was the first of this summer season's.  At 12 p.m., the church bells ring for a few minutes, and the volunteer workers drop everything and mosey their way into church like zombies.   For breakfast/brunch, they serve coffee, tea, fruit juice, cookies, pancakes and a couple of other miscellaneous breakfast items I can't name.  The attendees are old people and mothers with kids, but every now and then a father shows up.  I go to church for pancakes only.  Just today, I had two plates full.  Swedish pancakes are really crepes, but they call them pancakes.  I spoke to a church Choir leader today, a lady in her 60's.  She said she'd just come back from NY for her son's 30th birthday, and the pancakes there were very "thick".

The last time I came to Lund was a couple of years ago.  On our visit downtown this year, there must've been a beggars' convention in force.  There was one in every corner, and sometimes just a couple of stores apart.  These are the Roma.  They come from Bulgaria and Romania primarily, and their numbers have doubled in just one year.  I'd never seen any in Lund before.  This is a sad state of affairs, and downtown Lund isn't quite as desirable as it used to be.  The Swedish government has been seemingly powerless to stop them.  "We have seen this group grow every year. This is about discrimination and poverty in their home countries, which don't live up to their responsibilities. It's difficult to predict the future, but I think we need to get used to the thought that this situation will continue to be the norm," said Marina Johansson, representing the Social Democrats in Gothenburg's municipality."

And can someone please import these to the U.S. supermarkets???

Handbaskets with wheels - what a concept!