Dreaming of Freedom

It’s All Helgona here in Sweden or All Hallows as it would be called in England - at least it was yesterday. Although we went on the Critical Mass last night I didn’t see anyone out on the street dressed up in silly costumes as you would in England. Although earlier in the day my friends showed me their carved pumpkin and costumes so I think the American traditions are taking over here too. Apparently this is the weekend that the Swedes honour their dead so often graveyards are lit up and people are visiting the graves.

It’s very cold here. Yesterday as we cycled round with our small but persistent band of cyclists our hands and feet were absolutely frozen and it took an ages to warm them up once we got home. There weren’t that many people out on the street although the bars and restaurants were aglow with people filling up to eat the weekly ‘after work’ buffets. The cars were super aggressive - whizzing past us as soon as they could, driving up on the pavement when they couldn’t. Not to mention the constant beeping and the one crazy guy who buffered a couple of bikes out of his way by getting his bumper up close to their bikes and shaving the metal off their mudguards with it. It’s very odd how the drivers are hardly inconvenienced by a Critical Mass at all - at worst it’s like a slow moving traffic jam for a couple of minutes, but as soon as a lot of drivers see cyclists they see red. There seems to be a genuine hatred there. Someone must have written about the psychology of drivers once they get into cars, because these metal boxes seem to be an amour for people. It’s quite shocking that so many people still use their cars in a city with such a good transport infrastructure.

Talking of which … big up to Ellie who now cycles the 7 miles to work and 7 miles back everyday - pretty impressive

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It’s a damp autumnal day in Gothenburg. The leaves have turned yellow and red and the bush outside my window is thinning to an alarming degree. The sky is heavy with clouds and there is a invigorating freshness in the air. I got back here yesterday after whizzing all over the Eastern region of England. I spent a day in Market Harborough quite happily wandering around all the little shops tucked down alleys and round corners. The library there lets you use the internet all day it would seem so I spent a few happy hours there too.
Back in Norwich for the weekend I managed to catch up with old friends and meet little Liberty for the first time. She is without a doubt the cutest baby in the world and I spent a good deal of time on Saturday night ahhing over her tiny fingers and chubby cheeks. To finish off the all too brief time in England I went back to Cambridge and spent lots of time in Kettles Yard - a little yet wonderful modern art gallery attached to a most interesting house that has been donated to the University. You are perfectly welcome to go in and sit down among the art and treasure objects of its past owner and read a book or sketch a drawing. There is a wonderful homely atmosphere there. I also wandered in and out of the Fitzwilliam which has so much to see that you just want to return. The center of Cambridge is lovely to wander around and the market is great. It’s quite amazing being so close to the fantastically old buildings, it gives you the most amazing sense of continuity and security.
I stood watching the grasshoppper clock opposite Kings College - a definite favourite among the tourists and had the sense of being enveloped and awed by human desire to explain symbolically. You get this feeling there often.
There are scores of museums and places I haven’t been to and so I think a return to Cambridge is inevitable.

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I arrived in England last night and it was drizzling. I’d forgotten all about English drizzle. But luckily by the time I got to Cambridge the weather was ok and today you wouldn’t believe how glorious it’s been. I have spent the whole day wandering around Cambridge city centre and it’s such a lovely place. I popped into the fudge shop opposite Kings
College to try the toffee fudge, wandered around the market and then went into all the really Englishy shops that I might have been missing! I then met up with Tim and had a tour of some of the Colleges here. It’s great walking round with a student. They just flash their card and you get instant admittance. So I got to see inside Kings College Chapel - which is so old and holy that it almost makes you believe again as well as a whole host of colleges with forbidding porters at their gates. I think my favourite was Queens College which has the loveliest little courtyard.
Of course I had to go to the FitzWilliam, which is a gem of a musuem. We spent some time looking at Picasso’s stuff and a weird collection of Dutch paintings.
Cambridge is absolutely packed with students, they spill off the pavements looking frightfully clever. The first years only arrived yesterday so they still look a little nervous. The veterans of a year or more loudly discuss tests, questions and other such academic things. The vibe is totally different to my own university town where it was rare to hear students discussing work of any kind.
What I love most is the old buildings. The place is literally steeped in history and tradition. Everywhere you look there is something old and venerable… here is the (descendant of the) apple tree Newton sat under and there a 16th century rood screen.

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So firstly, out of context and belatedly a big hugs and kisses congratulations to Will and Ella!

Secondly you all need to be buying Now or Never because it’s as irreverent and hilarious as ever. Although it’s been out for ages I’ve only just seen it so you’re getting this sales pitch now.

And thirdly why is it either boiling sunburning hot or blooming raining in Sweden?

Apart from the last gripe the love affair with Sweden is continuing. I’ve spent several days with Ellie exploring the city and convincing her that Gothenburg is the best place in the world. We’ve been to the now completely open Art Museum, the library (which I have now joined), Gunnebo House, Klippan, The Botanical Gardens, Lindholmen on the ferry, the coast, all the other museums, several parks, and all the nice little streets and churches hidden away. We’re now both convinced that it’s just much much nicer than England. I think it’s the sensible attitude here - communal heating systems and laundry rooms, recycling, a interest in healthy lifestyle, the cleanliness and quietness, the efficiency, the general politeness, and perhaps the fact that we live in the city centre and can walk and cycle everywhere and have no need for a car but have the option of using a good transport infrastructure if we want.

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So being back in Norwich was great. Mum and I spent many productive hours restoring the garden to it’s former glory. We also re-felted the roof on the garden shed. There is a general roofing problem at the house at the moment and roofers are up on the roof re-roofing it to match our brilliant shed job.
It was nice catching up with friends and enjoying the English sunshine for a while. I wandered around Norwich, spent time in the steel and glass Forum, and followed part of the trail of elephants scattered throughout the city. The elephants are lovely works of art and people in Norwich were obviously enjoying looking at them.
I’m now back in Sweden and the weather is of course lovely. After several days of gardening and cleaning in Norwich it was a relief to lie in this morning and wake to muesli and yoghurt.

I’ve just been watching a video of my cousin’s trip from Market Harborough to Mongolia. It looks so cool and I’m so impressed that not only did he do it but he followed it up by cycling across China. Was it China? Email me George and tell me all the details so that I will no longer be ignorant of your exploits.

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I am having a well earned rest today after Keyvan and I trekked for miles in the Swedish countryside yesterday. It all started when we caught the first train to Strömstad and went in search of the iron age burial mounds, stone circle and stone ship settings. After we arrived and visited the tourist information office to collect a free map we finally found and followed a tiny, unused path from the north of town to the iron age burial mounds. It was lovely and also kind of strange. We don’t really have such large forests in England and we were surprised to find ourselves in what seemed to be a large, isolated forest with large deers and possibly other unseen animals. The trail was definitely only for walkers as some scrambling over rocks was required and a bike wouldn’t have been at all useful. You follow the bright splashes of orange paint on trees and rocks for about 6 km and it’s a lovely walk until the end when you have to cross the motorway to get to the mounds.

Although they have been excavated you can’t go inside - you can only look at them - and as the site is right next to the E6 motorway it’s not the quietest area in the world. However if you were arriving by car and could read maps properly you’d probably have a lovely walk in the wooded area and enjoy the experience. Unfortunately on our way from the mounds to see the stones at Blomsholm we foolishly got lost and wandered for what seemed like miles until we found a road. For the first time in years I actually hitched a lift, so we could finally get to Blomsholm as we had no idea where it was. On arriving we saw a few wooden houses and not realizing the stones were so close we hitched a lift back to Strömstad in time to catch the last train back to Gothenburg. It’s a bit of pain to get up to Strömstad for the day because the train takes about 2.5 hours and the first doesn’t leave until 8am and the last one back is at 18.02 so it doesn’t leave much time there especially if you want to walk to the stones, it is however possible and we even had about an hour in Strömstad to have a little look around! On the hitching side - I’ve never had it so easy - I stuck my thumb out and about 2 cars later we had a lift! The second lift was from a Norwegian couple who had popped over the border to stock up on cheaper Swedish goods.

Although Strömstad isn’t large, it is quite touristy as quite a lot of Norwegian tourists come over. While the fishing harbour was quite sweet, I didn’t take to the rest of the town. Although there were some nice elements: you could buy fresh fish from a little shop near one of the harbours and although we didn’t partake there was a swimming pool area in the sea that you could take a dip in for 20 ske. There is a little museum there but as there was an entrance fee we didn’t go in. There are also frequent ferries to the islands of Koster which are supposed to be very nice.

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I went back to the Röhsska Museum today and wandered around looking at the beautiful objects. It’s such a nice little museum and it always makes me want to study art and design which is all the more tantalizing because the building is opposite the School of Design and Craft.
Afterwards I cycled around Gothenburg in the sunshine and popped into the famous fish market. From the outside it looks like a long low church. Inside the walls are lined with stalls selling everything from shrimps to scary looking fish. Apart from stopping to listen to a three man band do a rendition of the Beatles song - Can’t Buy Me Love - I cycled non stop along the beautiful cycle paths back home and discovered that the Esperanto Centre for Gothenburg is located really close to my flat.

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I spend some time in the Stadsmuseum on Wednesday was I was really impressed at the layout and design of the museum. A lot of the subject matter has explanations in English which is really nice if you’re incapable of speaking Swedish like me. A lot of time and thought has gone into creating the museum and it’s not at all boring or overwhelming like some. There is the most fantastic area for children to play in at the top of the museum which has to be seen to be believed - it includes recreations of rooms to play in. There seems to be a really sensible approach to children here in Sweden - you often find great play areas for them. In one of our local supermarkets there is a wooden boat for them to sit in and watch a tv showing children’s films. Outside most of the flats I’ve seen there are areas of grass and playgrounds for children. It’s as if children playing is a part of life here and not condemned to a designated area that you have to make a special journey to. I would recommend Gothenburg to anyone who has kids and is looking for a place to take them on holiday.

The Stadsmuseum is large and takes some time to go round so a couple of visits there seems to be the way to approach it. The is the fifth and final museum I have got into with my 40 kroner ticket (about £3.40). It’s ridiculously cheap - not just that it gets you into 5 museums with their free toilets and great displays but it lasts for a whole year.

Yesterday Keyvan and I spent the day in the Botanical Gardens eating a picnic and soaking up the sun - it’s the most gorgeous place in Gothenburg and I just can’t get enough of the place. It is as I suspected a lot quieter during the week and the only downfall is it’s lack of really nice toilets and a cute cafe - but then there are plenty of those to be found in other places - the closest possibly being the Natural History Museum.

This morning I have been negotiating the washing machine facilities here at our flats - it’s an incredibly interesting system - each day of the month has 4 time slots and using your special key you can move your designated lock to a free time slot. There is a host of washing machines and drying facilities all for free use of the occupants of this block. I’m dreaming of a day when we have something so sensible in England.

I put some pictures up yesterday from the last week or so but I have to say they are just snap shots because it’s hard to capture the feel of the place with just a camera.

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We had a pretty busy weekend here and so I’ve not done much exploring of the city. Saturday was the big move and involved spring cleaning the old flat before we left and then moving in to the new flat and doing all the cleaning, settling in and working out how to turn the tv on that that involves. Our new flat looks out over Gothenburg and is built into a hill. You enter the small looking building at ground level from pedestrian only paths and through beautifully maintained communal gardens. The back has quite a different feel - the building has that typical flat look common in the architecture here - and is several stories high. Looking out of the huge windows, that open surprisingly far, you get vertigo if you’re a wimp like me!

We can see over some of Gothenburg from the back - our claim to fame is that we can see the famous lipstick building. We can also see the cranes on the dock and the top of the ferry when it’s in! The absolutely best bit is the great wide view of the sky which is especially nice when dawn breaks or the sun sets. The area we’re in is called Masthugget and we’re near the famous church here. I’m told that the area used to be inhabitated by dock workers due to it’s proximity to the dock and gained it’s name that way.

I’ve been on a bit of an explore up the river and it’s pretty industrial in parts - Gothenburg is Sweden’s biggest port so lots of stuff comes through here including most of Sweden’s oil. I’ve also been checking out where all the cheapest supermarkets are nearby which is quite satisfying because Sweden isn’t cheap to live in. At the moment though it is so hot here that I’m actually hiding in the flat until it cools down!

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It’s been a whirlwind of a time here. Mum has been staying for a few days and we explored the city - parks, museums, nooks and crannies and the Southern Gothenburg Archipelago. The later is truly lovely - it’s a collection of little islands - for the most part free of cars and dotted with houses and surrounded by bobbing fishing boats, sailing boats and yachts. We cycled out to Saltholmen to catch the ferry, bicycles and all and then cycled round the islands.

It’s pretty easy to get across to the islands. You can get tram number 11 from the city centre right out to Saltholmen. Ferries leave regularly so you can just turn up and hop on one. If you’re more of a cyclist you can cycle out there and take your bike on with you although they may charge you 10 kroner (about 80p) for each bike and they’ll only let you take them on if they have room. We didn’t get charged or turned away so I guess that’s when it’s busy. You can see people from the mainland taking all sorts of things across with them and there are a variety of transport options on each island depending on the size. My favourite was Asperö because the inhabitants use wheelbarrows to transport their stuff from the ferry home. You can see them as you stop off there, all leaning against one another waiting to be used.

We stopped off at Styrso, one of the larger islands and cycled around getting a feel for the place. We’d read that cars weren’t used on island so we were disappointed to find that there were vans and cars driving around - however there weren’t many and lots of people were using bikes or golf carts as well as mopeds with huge trays stuck on the front. We saw this ingenious vehicles being used for everything from grannies to babies, from wheelbarrows to shopping and we came away determined to have our own! We cycled over the bridge to Brännö - a smaller island with a noticeable fishing community and cycled round until we found a little spot by the sea where we could look at the jelly fish and marvel at the people swimming. There seemed to be a real sense of community on the islands from the little we saw although from what I’ve read the population doubles in the summer months. Other interesting facts about the island - they were apparently used from Holmgangs or duels by vikings/Norsemen about 1000 years ago.

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