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.