How to Tell When It's Midsummer in Stockholm

10. The streets are empty. The only people you see are frantically packing their Volvos with crates of strawberries and new potatos and gallons of alcohol.
9. ICA has been sold out of sill for weeks.
8. The whole country is attired in shorts and tank tops, still in denial that Mother Nature won't deliver the sun they've been praying for since December. (Although Swedes aren't religious and most don't pray, they will make an exception and appeal to a higher power to request good weather).
7. Although not an official holiday, every store and business in the entire country is closed for the de facto National Drinking Day.
6. The ONLY business on the entire street that is open is a nail salon run by two lovely girls from Turkey. They've spent the day doing each other's nails, for the fifth time.
5. The waiter looks at you with a stare of incomprehension, as if he didn't understand the question, when you ask if they would be open on Midsommarsafton. OF COURSE no one would be working on a holiday that isn't even official!
4. It's the only day of the year that you don't have to book a date with the tvättstuga six months ahead of time. You can just walk downstairs and start your laundry.
3. Small children (and drunk adults) can be seen hopping around, pretending to be frogs.
2. A giant herring has been spotted swimming for its life, as desperate Swedes seek any way to alieviate their craving for pickled fish, which ran out weeks ago (see number 9).
1. No one is going to read this post until Monday because everyone is hiding in their summer cabins, munching on pickled fish and strawberries (hopefully not at the same time) and holding their thumbs, waiting for the rain to stop.