Mooses, Wild Boars, and Camels, Oh My!

Did you know that 80 people a day haven an encounter with a moose in Sweden? Neither did I. There are fences to keep the moose off the highways all along the roads, with many warning signs. indeed, at one Moose Preserve we stopped at, they had graphically illustrated what could happen if you hit a moose with a life sized diorama:

Don't worry, there were live moose at the preseve as well:

As well as goats:

and wild boars:

and later on Öland we saw a herd of camel:

but I did think the moose was flirting with my Mom:

Don't you?

Photos by Siv, 2010

Kingdom of Crystal, Part 1

Thursday and Friday we spent in The Kingdom of Crystal, a region of Sweden famous for the glassworks - blown, etched, molded and recycled! Once over 300 glassblowers had factories here; now there are 16. This was easily the highlight of my trip.

First we stopped for coffee in Växjö, wandering the cobblestone streets and noting the architecture, very traditional, baskets of flowers just bursting with color everywhere, hanging from porches, filling containers, spilling the smell of roses into the streets. The Swedish people take their ice cream very seriously, and everywhere were little stalls selling Glace.

Next we visited Lessebo, where we watched them make hand-made paper from rags and linen, using a huge zinc press to dry the individual sheets. Established in 1693, today an exclusive product mainly used for finer documents, we got to see how they made watermarks and what happened to an unfortunate spider that fell into a vat of soaking paper mush.

 This is a tower of glass, filled with bowls, vases, sculptures, and these incredible glass heads, in a range of colors that kept shifting as you walked around the perimeter. It was such a massive piece of art, really impressive, and somehow you just wanted to reach in and see if you could shift one of the pieces, like a giant game of jenga.

We went on the visit Kosta Boda, Orrefors, Mäleräs, Pukeburg, which has an outstanding school of design, and ended in Kalmar. We stopped for lunch for a little bakery outside of Mats Jonasson glassworks for shrimp sandwhiches and the ubiquitous coffee seemingly served everwhere. 

Photos by Siv, 2010

More Adventures in Sweden

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Wednesday morning we woke up around 7am, had breakfast, and were picked up in a Volvo limo to go out to the factory. There we ran into our new friends, Jan and Merv, along with 22 other new car owners, all a part of their Overseas Deliver Program.

After signing papers and test driving my Mom's new Volvo C30 - a tiny car, in a beautiful blue-grey, with no trunk space to speak of - we got lunch and a tour of the factory. It was fascinating - huge robots were picking up the components, sparks from the welding a flying, with a preciceness and speed that almost spooky. We literally saw from start to finish, beginning with the rolls of steel and the steel presses, and it was clear from the tour guides voice just how much pride she had in her company.

In the afternoon we drove down to Kungsbacka, after getting lost driving back into Göteborg. This became our theme over the next few days: something between the 9 hour difference, jetlag, the sun not seeming to be in the right place in the sky, and the distinct lack of signage along the roads led us in many a circle. Indeed, out motto became "We came, We saw, We turned around."

 We went to the market and picked up some dinner supplies, before settling into our hotel room. Around 2 am a huge fight broke outside the hotel, with a dozen or so youths fully in a fist fight, breaking bottles and plant containers in the process. Three police cars finally showed up, arresting the lot. So much for a quiet night....

Map by Google; Photos by Siv 2010

Dreams are Whispers

Adventures in Sweden: Land of the Midnight Sun

I've just returned from spending 11 days touring the southern parts of Sweden, the Spruce-Moose biome. My Mom bought a Volvo through their Overseas Deliver Program, where they pay your airfare if you pick up the car and ship it yourself. Included in the deal was a free night at the Risson Blu hotel in Göteborg, lunch and a tour of the factory. Whatta bargain!

We left from Monterey on a Monday morning, our first plane delayed by fog. We got to hang out at the SAS lounge in San Francisco, where we met Merv and Jan, also new Volvo owners on their way to pick up their new car. Merv, recently retired, had been a pharmacist for 50 years. When I told him I was a Certified Hypnotherapist and working on my PhD in Holistic Healing, he said, "Oh, that's good, because you know, medications are what make people sick!"

We flew in to Chicago, then to Copenhagen, finally ending in Göteborg close to 24 hours later. I was exhausted. As my brother says, flying is like a 24 hour prison sentence. After checking in to our hotel, we went to the train station to exchange money. I was surprised that the Swedes are still using kronor, as I'd assumed they'd switched to Euros. 

The Swedes are very ecological minded, evidenced by needing to insert the hotel key in a slot to turn anything electronic on, ensuring that the lights would be turned out upon exiting. The toilets had a half flush and full flush; and every hotel had instructions on how to reuse your towel in order to save on laundry. There was a disappointing amount of litter in the streets, and not all the towns had public trash cans. we made a point of picking up 7 pieces of trash everyday. Another interesting I thought was that in one market the shopping carts were chained together, and you had to insert 5 kronor to detach one, which was returned once you put the cart back.

We found a random restaurant where I had a ceasar salad, a little overpowered by anchovies, and a nice dry white wine from Italy. We went back to our room prepared to get some rest, but so began my week of not sleeping. It was really hot (apparently the hottest summer in some ten years) and while we'd pulled the curtains, it was so light I kept waking up. Pretty much the sun would set around 11pm and sunrise was at 4:30am, but it didn't really get dark, there was always a greenish cast to the sky. The more North we traveled, the shorter the nights became.

It was an interesting start to our adventures through Sweden...

All photos by Siv; Flag sketch by Kayla: Midnight Sun Image from Google

Fabulous

The Nature of Your Song