While many Australians will not be convinced, Sweden now feels like it is in summer. The days are wonderfully long, people are wearing shorts and t-shirts to work, and everyone seems happier.
Wanting to take advantage of the fine weather, Oziel and I decided to ride our newly repaired bikes to the beach at Åhus, home of Absolut Vodka. This trip is 19 km each way, but felt much further when 13 km into the trip my back wheel realigned itself into a non-rotational position. Our best efforts at repairing the bike ended with me balancing my bike upside-down on top of Oziel’s bike for the six kilometre walk to Åhus.
With 3 km to go we realised it was uncomfortably close to 14:00, when all shops close. So Oziel went ahead as a scout – to either ensure something stayed open, or buy an adjustable spanner, while I continued carrying my bike in. After 2 km of trying various techniques for carrying a bike, Oziel and I regrouped. Oziel had ascertained that Åhus does not have a bike shop and the supermarket did not sell anything tool like.
Ready to forget all about the bike, and catch the bus back to Kristianstad, we found a service station with a shop (these are rarer that one might think in Sweden). At the far back corner, in a locked cabinet there was a small adjustable spanner. Only 15 minutes and 79 SEK (12.66 AUD) later we were riding the remaining kilometre to ‘downtown’ Åhus.
By this time it had reached 14:15, and Åhus had turned from a bustling village to a veritable ghost town. One place for lunch remained opened for lunch. Starved, we went to this pizza place for kabab.
We were both surprised how busy the beach was. There was a beach soccer comp, with six or so simultaneous games, two music areas, and you could hire human sized clear plastic gerbil balls – allowing you to go out in the water without getting wet. The sea was too cold for Oziel and he wouldn’t go in the human sized gerbil balls. But wanting to cool off and relax I ventured out the hundred metres required to get the water level past my knees.