my name is mwd

On the first day in Stockholm, both Laura and I were catching up on work at our Airbnb, which was based in the suburb of Solna, not far from the city centre, but far enough to be a quiet residential part. It was very hot that week, and so when we heard the ice-cream van call, we rushed down to get an treat.

However, what we found wasn’t what we expected - ice cream vans, at least in Solna, are somewhat different to home. As you can see from the blue van in the photo, it is somewhat more industrial looking than what you’d see in the UK, though it clearly says “Hemglass” (home ice cream) on the side, and once we got to the van we saw that on the rear it did have a board listing all the ice creams we might buy.

But the difference wasn’t just looks, but also in what it sold: it wasn’t selling individual ice creams as back home, it instead was selling boxes of ice creams like you’d find in the freezer section of the supermarket! Given that we were there for the week, and the weather predictions were for it to be quite hot, we gladly bought a box of Glassbåt (ice cream boats) as they were the option that looked most different to what we’d get at home. We ate a few over the course of the week, and the rest we left behind for the next visitors to the airbnb to enjoy!