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The Swedish need no encouragement to celebrate any occasion. They make a really big deal out of Mid-summer’s Eve and on Saturday we were invited to another great Swedish tradition…a Crayfish party. This celebrates the time that they harvest the seafood and seems as important a part of Swedish tradition as Christmas is to us.

Rowan and Marcus hosted the party at there flat and put on a wonderful spread. Our starter of quiche was delicious and washed down with a lovely punch that was a violent combination of various alcoholic spirits. The way to dissect, suck and peel our crayfish was demonstrated beautifully by Marcus. We all got stuck in making sure we slurped loudly and of course remembering to chop off the heads of each crayfish consumed as a trophy. Not wanting to blow my own trumpet, but at 13 I think I was officially the winner! Every now and then we sang a traditional song and necked a shot of snaps (Swedish tipple.) We also had home-made sushi, not a normal addition to crayfish celebrations but delicious nonetheless.

The party went on into the wee hours where we entertained ourselves with face Art and playing unrecognisable tunes on a tiny piano for everyone else to guess. On our return home the club night in the basement of our hotel was in full swing, so we joined in dancing on the smallest, sweatiest dance floor in the world. A great night was had by all and despite really deserving it we didn’t have a hang-over!

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