Archive for the ‘Sweden’ Category
Not a secluded beach
Yesterday a small village 45 minutes drive north of our place recorded the hottest temperature in Sweden since 1994,it was 34.5ºC. While Oziel and I spent most of the day in the air conditioned comfort of IKEA, it took us the better part of three hours to get there on a train with faulty airconditioning on a train line with faltering power. Getting home was worse – Sweden is not designed to handle “heat waves.”
Today started off somewhat similar to yesterday, so we wanted to go somewhere to escape the heat. Our experience the previous day lead us to conclude that the bus would provide a safer mode of transport.
Oziel found what appeared to be a secluded beach a couple of kilometres from a bus stop in the difficult to pronounce hamlet of Yngsjö, 35 minutes drive south from our place.
The bus was full leaving Kristianstad, but almost everyone got off in Åhus. By the time we made it Yngsjö, there were only five passengers left on the bus – and the other three were lost. So we were expecting to find the quiet and secluded location for which we had searched.
Our plan went somewhat awry. After walking through the sleeping hamlet and a pine forrest we arrived to a beach that made Bondi Beach look quiet and secluded. We have no idea from where everyone came!?
First swim for the summer
After work today Oziel and I headed to Åhus for our first beach swim of summer 2010. Between leaving home and arriving at the beach the sun disappeared behind the clouds and the wind started blowing. But I have missed the water sufficiently and jumped into the 17ºC water.
My first attempt ended quickly – the minimum length of time required to swim from the end of the peer to first lader. But for the second attempt I managed to Swim out to the pontoon.
My “new” campus
Until now I have been working at the Ronneby Campus of Blekinge Institute of Technology. However, given the small student population, a decision was made to consolidate this campus with the larger Karlskrona Campus. Henceforth I have a new office located in Karlskrona.
Today I unpacked and the above picture is the result. It’s basically the same as my old office, except for location and outlook. Before I looked across a car park, where now I look into the library and a computer lab. Plus the new building is waterside (except in the winter, when it is ice-side).
On the run from Copenhagen
This weekend past Oziel and I ran in the half-marathon celebrating 10th anniversary of the Øresund Bridge, linking Copenhagen in Denmark and Malmö in Sweden.
Normally this impressive feat of architecture is only open to motorised vehicles (cars and trains and such), so truth be known, our primary reasons for participation was to see this thing up close, with enough time to really take it in. But we decided we may as well use the opportunity to get fitter.
We have both been training for this event since our trip to Australia. For me training resulted my first visit to the doctor in Sweden, after pulling a muscle in my foot. Oziel, however, preferred to wage war on his knees.
After both taking three weeks to recover from our injuries, just before the race, we didn’t think we would finish within our registered completion time of two-hours to two-hours-and-fifteen-minutes.
In total 30,000 people participated in the race. I didn’t fully appreciate the sheer quantity of this number, until it took us almost 17 minutes to get part the start line from when the starting pistol was fired.
The race started with four kilometres through a tunnel, to a man-made island between Denmark and Sweden. The tunnel was very hot and smelt of sweat. Every couple of minutes the runners started clapping and cheering. The sound was intense. As soon as we reached the fresh air at the tunnel exit the runners I let out a sigh of relief with the two runners on either side of me.
View Half Marathon in a larger map
The next four kilometres were across the man-made island. Oziel told me to push myself here so that I could take it easy on the climb to the top of the bridge. But it was at kilometre 7 seven that I found my energy. Up until this point I felt like everyone was running past me. But from this point in the race I felt like people were getting in my way.
The bridge was spectacular (8 km). I slowed down to take some photos on my phone, but didn’t want to break my rhythm. That’s why the towers appear at a less structurally sound angle than expected. (The cameras in our phones obviously require us to stay more still than running allowed.)
The final five kilometres, through the streets of Sweden, was when I found people were really getting in my way. It was during this time that I saw the pace-keepers for the two-hour finish. They started before me, so I knew as I overtook them that I was going much better than I expected. This gave me even more energy. But the streets were crowded, and I felt like I was running much further than the official distance as I zigzagged through the crowd.
As I reached the finish line I hit a wall of runners who had given up. My final sprint turned to a death march as people groaned with pain, awaiting their bananas, water and medals.
My official time was 1:53:13, putting me in 6293rd place. This [unexpectedly] beat Oziel’s 7811th place at 1:57:43.
Fiasco turns to desperation
The historic first failure of Sweden to make the Eurovision final seems to have prompted four days of quiet reflection across the nation. Today the results of this introspection were published.
Sweden uses an Idol style tv-series, entitled Melodifestivalen, to select who will represent the nation in Eurovision. With the most SMS votes, the winner this year was Anna Bergendahl with This is My Life. Unfortunately this performance was not “strong” enough to make it to the Eurovision final.
At the time of publishing Anna had 3500 Facebook fans.
Meanwhile the Facebook fanpage entitled The Swedish guy from Eurovision 2010 was so hot has accumulated 6000 fans. This guy is Eric Saade, and he was the runner-up in Melodifestivalen this year with the disturbingly named Manboy.
This has lead to the obvious conclusion that Eric should have represented Sweden this year. While I think the Manboy tune is far more catchy than Anna’s, I just can’t get over the title.
(Personally I think This is My Life was better than many of the songs that made the Eurovision final.)
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sebastian
