A chilly Critical Mass

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 🙂

Leave a Reply