Blogs from Norrbotten County, Sweden, Europe - page 2

Gestern bin ich also nach dem Fruehstueck (seit ein paar Tagen gibt es auch in den Hotels keine Butter mehr, dafuer waren aber wieder Corn Flakes da) mit dem Bus von Kemi an den schwedisch-finnischen Grenzort Haparanda-Tornio gefahren. Dort gibt es eine schöne neue Busstation nur leider ohne Geldwechselstube. Aber in der kleinen Innenstadt ein paar hundert Meter weiter konnte ich mir dann doch schwedische Kronen besorgen. Hier hat der Euro durchaus sein positives, nur sollte man sich trotzdem an gueltige europäische Vertraege halten. Nach einem Kaffee bin ich dann weiter nach Lulea gefahren, eine schwedische Kleinstadt mit einer schönen Sehenswuerdigkeit, die ich mit am naechsten Tag ansehen wollte. Dort habe ich mein Hotel leicht gefunden, bin ein bisschen in der kleinen Fussgängerzone und am Ufer umhergelaufen und habe im schönen und vorbildlichen Kulturzentrum meine Internetgeschäfte ... read more

Space exploration, iron mining and aurora watching A few weeks ago I, Ake that is, had the chance to go on a business trip to the town Kiruna in northern Sweden. The main purpose was to visit a few research centres. But I also managed to squeeze in a bit of sightseeing as a bonus. Actually visiting those research centres was not only very educating and informative but also very fun. So the entire visit in Kiruna was good and enjoyable. Kiruna has around 20,000 inhabitants and is situated in the far north of Sweden. Kiruna once held an unexpected record. For a while it was considered to be the largest town in the world, largest when it comes to the area it covered. Most of that area was of course wilderness. The city limits were ... read more

0625 – Jokkmokk– (S) -345km Jokkmokk ligt nog juist boven de Poolcircel. In het centrum van Zweeds Lapland. Veel plaatsnamen zijn er aangeduid in 2 talen. Zeker Zweeds, en misschien Fins, of Sami. Wie kent het verschil. Het is hier al een stuk warmer. De jongeren zitten hier al in het zwembad. Ik denk dat het verwarmd is want eens uit het water draperen ze zich vlug in hun handdoeken. Onderweg meer bergachtig, steeds ongerept woud, langs zeer brede bergrivieren en meren zoals in Finland. Opmerkelijk toch al wat meer bewoning langs de weg. In vergelijking met Finland zijn de wegen smaller, meer bobbels en veel Crevitskens (dwz ongevulde putten in de weg). We zagen er een vos op wandel langs de E45. Ook een eenzame Eland midden op de weg. Wel van het schuchter type, ... read more

It was the day from hell. Hell, it was the week from hell. The week before Christmas, and I’m pulling twelve hour days trying to get my big work project delivered on time. There was a shitload of things to do on my last day of work before my Christmas break but I had rather annoyingly and inconveniently been called to the Slough office for a meeting I couldn’t really miss. That’s OK – I’ll go all the way out there in the morning and then go back into London in the afternoon, pick up my luggage from home, pop into the office to do work shit I need to do, before hot-stepping it to Stansted Airport. The meeting runs two hours overtime; and then the ridiculously persistent rain we’d been having all month delays my ... read more

As I adjust to living life in Northern Sweden, I figured I should start a little blog so that people who want to know how I'm doing can keep up to date by reading! I've now been in Sweden for about a week and a half and am starting to settle in. Luleå has a similiar climate to Northern Saskatchewan and similiar terrain as well. The weather has been steady around 12-15 degrees Celcius the past few days with a lot of rain. There are about 80,000 people that live here. My university is called the Luleå University of Technology, or in Swedish, the Luleå tekniska universitet (LTU). About 16,000 students go to the university, so in a lot of ways the size of the city and university are similiar to Regina and the University of ... read more