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Its all here, the herring, the schnapps, the singing...
Swedish Midsummer celebration at its best |
The summer has gone quick as always, a fine balance between full time work for NOAA and seeing family and hunting down friends all over Sweden. The equation have at large been saved by a sun
that hardly goes down (i.e. little time to sleep) and the exceptionally
cold weather that have given my work motivation an extra boost. Little time to write blogs in the end.. but I have brought my camera around so got a good load of pics to share with you.
First thing I did when I got home was to set up my new "office". Which have since then done some traveling.
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| It quite great what you can do with a few laptops and mobile internet |
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| My new lunch and "fika" (coffey and cake) place, Vikbolandet |
A few days later me and Anna went to Småland to celebrate Grisens 30th birthday and Midsummer (Solstice).
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| Swedish man making his flower arrangement for the Midsummer dance |
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| Still think it looks better on her... |
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| ....the little frog dance around the midsummer pole |
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| The thing to do in the land of wood and lakes |
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| A good fire to stay warm and keep the mosquitoes away |
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| Classic swedish hot dog, raw on one side, burned healthy black on the other. |
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| Olson, Kvacket and Morris |
From Småland the tour went on to Gothenburg, and when the weekend came around me and Jonas took the chance to excape the city for a kayak trip on the West Coast - Magic!
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| The archipelago outside Orust |
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| Jonas handling the cows(?) at arrival... |
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| Camp |
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| Best part of kayaking - eating gourmet food. |
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| When the sun set around 11 PM we went down to take a few casts... |
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| ...and we got some real action! |
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A total count of 10 sea trouts in one night, and just as many that got away.
All but two unlucky ones got to keep swimming |
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| Sunrise - time to sleep |
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| Downtown Gothenburg or a forest? |
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| Alex visiting from the States - happy with his Swedish company. |
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| A good old time party outside "Bunkern", our apartment in Gothenburg |
After some time in Gothenburg we moved on to Annas summerhouse outside Åmål to visit her grand parents. They have a great place by Vänern, Swedens biggest lake, that they have build themselves with wood form their own forest. Also they love fishing so needless to say we get along well.
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| Anna Grand parents, Kjell and Edith |
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| Alex getting a treat with Swedish herring |
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| Jan fetching some more fish to the table |
From Åmål we moved on to Norrköping again for the next family gathering (...), and later on Stockholm for some sailing with friends.
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Alexander, Oliver and William - My sister Annas kids and my primary
focus here (somebody got to teach them how to get in trouble). |
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| Lots of things to catch |
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| One of them - a brave crayfish |
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| Small big adventures |
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| Alexander with a nice rainbow trout |
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Oliver catching a northern pike. After he said: Gustav, I love fishing,
but I think you love fishing even more. Kids are so smart. |
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| Everybody in one spot! |
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| Anna black and Anna white! Photo shoot for my sisters outdoor training form "CrossNature" |
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| Kung fu fighting next? |
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| Time to hang out with the boys |
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| Most people have a dingy that is smaller then the mother ship, not this one |
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| Anna, Linus and Lisa leaving planet earth |
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| Next stop: Back to the 1940's at Herräng Dance Camp |
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| Lots of energy in the lindy hop training tent |
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| Anna with her mum and dad, ready for a long night dancing |
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| Summer colors |
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| The Tranquil forest... |
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| ...and its candy |
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| I am getting older apparently. But can you tell me apart from the others? |
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| Mums contribution to the birthday cake contest. |
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| Dads entry. Credit for cooking it up on his sailboat |
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When you pass "Kejsaren", you have to drink one schnapps in his honor.
Brilliant. |
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| St.Anna Archipelago |
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| Back to fika at dads low energy house that he has finally finished building. |
Now awaits just a few more weeks of summer and working from home in Sweden before it is time to go back to Baltimore. It sure feels far away at the moment. I have been preparing with lots of friend and family time though so I am starting to feel quite happy about going back for the next round in the US. And I think there are some interesting work challenges around the corner.
