Blogs from Sweden, Europe - page 209

So, this year I've decided I deserve some vacation :) Not knowing exactly where I want to go or what I want to do except travel around and do what I feel like for a while, I bought a one-way ticket to London a few weeks ago. The rough plan is to leave for London on friday the 15'th of July, spend the weekend there and probably go somewhere south the next week. Either by train (Dover-Calais) to Paris, or some flight down towards the Riviera. I wasn't too happy about what happened in London today, lets just hope nothing more happens and I don't have to pick somewhere else to go, that would be just great... the only destination I have booked and they blow it up :( If I arrive at London ok I'll ... read more

Motorhome News from Europe 25. Sweden 28th June 2005 Heading north along the Baltic coast The eight hotels in the small town of Tallberg (pop 400) on Lake Siljan fill up with tourists each year for the few weeks of summer. Even the Japanese come here on their four day tour of Europe we’re told! Hans Christian Andersen came here once too, in 1850 (did he come by horse-drawn carriage?). It was his record of the beautiful hilltop views across the lake and the charismatic traditional dwellings that put the village on the map - though it’s my belief that it comes nowhere near Stow-on-the Wold or Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds! Nice though, and the craft workshops were fascinating. They were busy cutting the grass and dressing the Mid-Summer pole for this weekend’s celebrations. Bright red ... read more

Went to the post office today to have my passport sent to the Indonesian Embassy per recorded delivery. Well, it is not exactly a post office, seeing as Posten AB went cheap and had these services taken over by ambitious merchants in a vain hope to cut costs, and the store owners no doubt hoping to attract more customers to their grocery stores and newspaper stands. Having had some unique experiences with the former postal agent I was a bit concerned about sending my passport per an outift that had recently taken over the honourable mail service only a few weeks ago. It all went through in the end, although it took several attempts to get the proper postage cost calculated. The guy at the counter then carefully drowned the stamps in water before attempting to ... read more

Tradition overload. I was bombarded with Swedish stereotypes this weekend! Midsummer is a Swedish pagan festival to celebrate the longest day of the year and the beginning of summer. Traffic is horrendous as everyone evacuates the cities for the country (prefereably near water). Linn and I drove to Uppsala on Thursday night (that's where she goes to school and has her apartment) after standing in lines at the grocery store and the liquor store. We went for a long walk through the woods in Uppsala to collect wildflowers to make our crowns. The crowns are made of birch branches and you tie the flowers on with string. Friday we picked up Linn's friend Stella and drove to a camp ground (with really cute cabins) near Gävle. We had lunch around 1:00. It consisted of: meatballs, potatoes, ... read more

I've been asked by the people in the lab where I work to bring in some Canadian music to play in the lab... Wasn't too smart in my packing and didn't think to bring any... SO... It would be great if you guys could e-mail me your favourite Canadian song (does not have to be traditional... Tragically Hip, Sarah Mc (sp?), etc, although maybe a few traditional ones would be good too - Rankin Family??). Yesterday one of the guys at work held a self-defense class... Turns out he's on the Swedish National Tae-Kwon-Do Team. It ended up being a 3 hour hard core work-out! Needless to say, I'm a little bit sore today, and I have a few blisters on my knuckles. But, I can now defend myself against any attackers (all these Scandinavians with ... read more