July 11

Suddenly sun and happiness. Days of depression are over.

July 10

It’s vacation time in Sweden. Almost nobody is working. The big industrials are closed. Social services like medical information, news papers and communal transportation are on a minimum level and only the most important services are still open.  And the only thing that really matters to Swedish people on vacation is the weather.

It’s a question of national interest, and national stress, how the weather is going to be in July. The forecasting starts already in May. The newspapers scream with their headlines:

It is going to be a sunny summer! Hurray!

The best weather will be in Tornedalen! 

Make sure not to be on the west coast this summer!

July will be the rainiest summer for centuries. Try to get a ticket to Greece NOW!

This summer turned out to be one of those nightmare summers. It’s cold, rainy and windy. Depression is a fact. I think some Swedes would prefer to be Greeks and rather stand the economical depression than this weather depression.

And how about my situation in this depressed country? We have been travelling 900 km south and it’s not better here than in the north. Wherever we come the cities and villages are wrapped in some sort of silence.  It’s like if Sweden was muted. The sound of laughing people is not there. The sound of children who get cold water splashed on them doesn’t exist. Nor do the music from the garden parties.

When I check Facebook to see what people are up to - they aren’t up to anything. They continue discussing politics and financial crisis and lost dogs or cats, like if they where just taking a five minute break at their job. No pictures from the beach or the hammock.

And I am ill again. Having a cold. It’s almost ironic, but mostly sad and cold.

July 03

Visiting Sweden can be an adventure, even for a Swede like myself. There is always a surprise hidden where you didn't expect it. And the surprise is never what you expected a surprise to be. Let's conclude this to the fact that you have to be open minded enought to know that you are being surprised. 

We followed Vindelälven to the metropol Björksele where my private biologist joined a running competition. It's a competition where a team run all the way from Ammarnäs, where Vindelälven begins, to Vännäsby where it joins another river called Umeälven. When he was finished for the day we went sightseeing. This is what we found: Stortallen (Big pine). Ok, let's remember that pine is basically the tree you see everywhere when you are in Västerbotten. Thus, the Stortallen must be something really surprising. Something specatcular!

The information sign told us to go 3 km on a dirt road. Then walk 1 km on a trail in the forest. We were more and more sceptical the further we got. "Can it really be that big?", we asked each other. "Can it really be worth walking here with all the mosquitos and getting out shoes wet?", we asked each other. 

Then we saw it. And it was HUGE! It was the biggest pine I have ever seen. I was really surprised.