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Hey?!

Isn't there something from our new country we've forgotten to present?

mmmm...

aahhh-yeeesss...

the Swedish mailboxes, often seen pairwise in appropriate colours - as in other large European countries separated into local and ..less local.. mail.

Our new rides

Since we will both have longer commutes for uni/work than we had in Geneva as well as in Santa Barbara we decided to buy new bikes instead of relying on the second hand market. Where Tue found his bike the first day he went shopping for one, it took Lisbeth a little longer - Stockholm's selection of shops and bikes is not impressive for an ex-Copenhagener - but in this past week wonder bike no. 2 was brought home.

And now that we both have bikes, Stockholm is opening up with plenty of new excursion options: last night we had a picnic in Hagaparken and today we'll explore Djurgården.

Midsummer

Midsummer is an important thing in Sweden!
So important in fact that it doesn't always coincide exactly with the solstice, but always on the Saturday closest to the solstice, which causes the Swedes to be off on the Friday (for midsummer's eve) and thereby getting a small vacation. The day of midsummer's eve is in fact also the day when the event is really taking place, and as such midsummer in Sweden was on the 19^th this year.


Readers of Astrid Lindgren should know that midsummer is celebrated by decorating a midsummer's pole with leaves and flowers and then dance around it - girls preferably with a crown of leaves in their hair - but our experience in Vasa Park suggests that the modern version consists primarily of watching a show by folk dancers in traditional garments and a few dances for all - although mostly for the kids (including a quite lively dance to a song about a frog that doesn't have ears nor tail) - around the midsummer's pole. The adult midsummer activities seem then to consist of enjoying the contents of the picnic basket which should of course contain herrings and snaps. Tue did notice that snaps in handy picnic sized bottles were given a prominent placement this past week in Systembolaget (the national Swedish alcohol monopoly)..

Spring in Solna II

Another consequence of the arrival of spring is the hatching of eggs - accordingly we have lately had rich opportunities to see ducklings, goslings, and ..eehh.. 'cootlings'.

Particularly the geese are abundant in numbers - and they are not exactly shy. When we stopped to take a picture they did not walk away. Rather, they came straight at us and crossed the path right in front of us.

A funny thing about geese is that goslings have a tendency for following the more dominant couple of geese they encounter, which is why we've seen a cluster of some 20-30 goslings.

A completely different story is the fact that geese are displacing other species and are considered a plague. Accordingly they suffer the trauma of occasionally having their eggs punctured.

Click the image for a larger version.

Spring in Solna I

It has to be realised that we moved further north - and thereby got an opportunity to experience spring 2-3 times this year (first in Geneva, a little in Copenhagen and then in Stockholm). Nybodagatan is close to a green area, Skytteholm park, and here it is particularly easy to observe the difference it made when spring came to Sweden shortly after we did.