Update from Borlänge

Well it's been a while, but I've finally managed to find a computer that allows me to upload pictures from my camera!



Almost more than anything else, this clown (advertising GB Glace ice cream products) represents Sweden for me.  He's everywhere!  And I don't think the logo has changed since at least the 60s.  I saw a documentary made in 1969 and it was exactly the same!




View of Helsingborg.  It was incredibly windy that day.  I almost couldn't hold up my camera.



At Hovs Hallar, playing chess with myself.  I guess I'm trying to figure out how to set up the pieces.

Hovs Hallar - lots of great rocks and trails all along the beach.

Another picture of the beach at Hovs Hallar.  The people in it give an idea of the scale.  Some of the cliffs were huge!

A homecooked meal of pasta, zuchinni, tomatos and "fiskebullar" in a creamy dill sauce.  The fishballs come in a can.  Maybe not so classy, but tasty!

View looking down "Avenyn" in Göteborg, a famous (and touristy) street that's popular to walk down.

Looking a little wind-blown on Vrångö, an island in Göteborg's archipelago.  The islands are similar to the archipelago in Stockholm, but in Göteborg the islands are much closer, and you can reach them using the city's public transit.  Picture courtesy of my friend Carles from Barcelona.

Finally, on my fourth trip to Europe, I went to a football match!  We saw Göteborg IFK play Halmstad (in Göteborg).  The teams play in "Allsvenskan", which is Sweden's highest football league.  The league is ranked 28th in the world according to UEFA, just behind Serbia and ahead of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  But as one Swedish person told me, everyone knows the league isn't good, but they love it anyways.  And it was a lot of fun!  Constant singing/chanting/dancing/drumming.  The fans really got into it.  Just what I was hoping for!



Göteborg ended up winning 3-1.  They are the blue team.



Not sure if these videos will work, and I'm also not really sure which ones they are since I can't preview them before I upload them, but they are from the football match.

View of a canal in Göteborg at dusk. 

Unfortunately I can't figure out how to rotate the picture, but I just had to post it because I've never seen anything like it.  The tall thing in the middle of the table is some kind of beer pitcher.  And there is a nozzle at the bottom where you pour out your drinks.  Crazy!

View from a hiking trail in Borlänge

Update from Malmö

The stairs going up to the Film Museum in Kristianstad (the only film museum in Sweden).  It's located in a building that was built specifically to be a film studio in 1909, the oldest in the world apparently.  But films were only made there for 2 years before the studio moved closer to Stockholm.  It has one of the original sets, along with some costumes used from those early films.

View from a bridge in Malmö.

There is currently a summer festival going on in Malmö, so there have been free concerts all over the city.  I went to one, which turned out to be less of a concert and more of a cabaret show, with performers ranging from the "human slinky" (seen here) to a guy juggling a soccer ball to people dressed up as random characters, like a spanish singer and an old lady.  The english program for the show called it a "popular, interactive and bizarre experience."  I think that about sums it up.  It was pretty entertaining though. 

  During the curtain call for the cabaret show, they brought out a cut-out of Alf for some reason.

The Öresund bridge, which links Malmö to Copenhagen.

The Turning Torso - it's the tallest skyscraper in Sweden, and twists 45° from the base to the top (I think)

Half-timbered house in Malmö.  They are very common here, but are apparently more Danish and German than Swedish.

Street in Gamla Staden, Malmö.

Another free concert, this time by a band playing Balkan music.  The musicians were great, as were all the dancers.

In the Malmö Musem.  The museum is housed in the Malmö Castle (originally built in 1434), which was a prison for a bit.  Part of the museum is a modern-artish exhibit on the prison and it's effects on prisoners.  I'm in a room full of mirrors and tiny lights.  I'm smiling, but the exhibit was pretty creppy!  Lots of weird noises, creaking doors, chains clanking, people crying out...

The Malmö Museum actually has a decommissioned submarine that was in service from 1943 until 1960!  And you could go on board too.

At Foteviken Viking Museum.  People actually live here like they did back in 1134 (late Viking/early Medieval Period).  This person here is mixing up some mud/clay to use as the final layer for the wall of a house.

Gravad lax (raw salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill) along with potatoes in a creamy dill sauce from a restaurant called Basement Cafe in Malmö.  Probably my favourite Swedish food so far!

A home-cooked meal of meatballs (bought from the grocery store), fresh potatos, green beans and carrots.  And some Nils Oscar porter.

Pictures

 Ok, I've finally managed to upload some pictures!  The library computer in Kristianstad (where I currently am) is much better than the one in Oskarshamn.


Grey Wolf at Skansen open air musem in Stockholm.  You can't really see the others, but there were 3 wolves and they were all watching me closely.  It was raining heavily that morning and I was the only person around.

The main gate to Filmstaden ("Film Town"), where lots of Swedish movies were filmed beginning in 1919 up into the 80s.

Wall painting of a knight playing chess with death in Täby church (just north of Stockholm).  Unfortunately there was a spotlight shining directly on it, making it hard to take a good picture. 

That was the view from the front door of my cabin on Fjärdlång island in the Stockholm archipelago.

Another picture from Fjärdlång.

Sunset from the deck of the ferry to Gotland.

My rented bike in front of a typical stone wall on Fåro.

Sunset at Langhammer on Fårö.  The big rocks are called "raukar" and are formed by erosion over many years.  There are a lot of them on the island.

Another rauk.

Example of a barn with a thatched roof.  They are all over the island.  Apparently thatched roofs are good because moisture can't really penetrate them, so condensation doesn't build up.  Up in the top left corner it looks like it's been newly-patched.

Some fishing huts on Fårö.  Unfortunately there really isn't a fishing industry there anymore.  I was told that the Baltic Sea is very messed up.

Typical rocky beach on Fårö.

A house close to the shores of Fårö.  A good place to live if you're a reclusive film director.

The city walls of Visby.

Kristianstad - it was founded in 1614 by the Danish King Christian IV and is known as Sweden's most Danish City.

This is from the Vasa Museum.  It's an almost completely salvaged 17th century warship called 'Vasa' that sank in Stockholm's harbour in 1628 about 20 minutes into her maiden voyage.  I believe the main reasons were too many guns and not enough balast.

 

Internet at last!

I have finally found a place to use the internet!  Since I left Stockholm on June 21, my access has been very limited.  Now I am at the library in Oskarshamn, using their free computers.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that I can't seem to upload pictures.  Everything is very slow. 

Ok, lets see...  Well my last few days in Stockholm I spent checking out various museums (Vasa, Skansen, Nordiska, Historika, Nobel, Modern Art...), going on a bike tour and canal tour of the city, and taking a little trip up to Täby Kyrkby to see the wall painting in Täby Church of a knight playing chess with death.  One highlight was going up to 'Filmstaden' (Film Town), where many Swedish movies were filmed, up until the 80s I believe.  The funny thing was that I was the first person ever to use their English audio guide.  I felt special!

Then I took a ferry from downtown Stockholm (it's amazing you can do this right from downtown) to an island in the Stockholm archipelago called Fjärdlång.  It's a beautiful place.  Very remote and not many people there.  I went on lots of great hikes, and even got to dance around the Maypole on Midsummer's Eve!  Luckily, I have no pictures of my dancing.

From there, I made my way (via Nynäshamn and Visby) up to Fårö, an island just north of Gotland island in the Baltic Sea.  I rented a bike and spent a week just exploring.  It's a very cool island.  Very rugged, lots of rocks (but then also beautiful, Grand Bend-nice beaches), knarled trees, thatched-roof barns, windmills and sheep just roaming around.  The weather cooperated too.  I also went to various events at the Ingmar Bergman Week festival that was going on.  I got to see a few movies I've never seen before, which made me very happy!

It's taken me almost an hour to upload this randomly selected, and kind of washed out picture.  It's of an uprooted tree on the island of Fjärdlång.  Unfortunately, I don't think I have time to try to upload anything else.  At least this is better than nothing!