7 October 2013

Postcards from Sweden

Despite the fact that south of Sweden is notorious for bad weather, we had only one rainy evening during our trip. I spend it making postcards out of, as usually, found flyers, newspapers, maps and tourist-brochures.

The exciting part was, that we were camping in the forest that night, on a spot between the lake without a beach, where we planned to swim and and empty house. And another tent, which belonged, as it turned out, to some nice, but rather boring two Berlin teenagers.

But Summer and forest is definitely not my thing. Way too much insects and sounds. That was actually a bit scary.

But I like the postcards anyway.

6 October 2013

Swedish Summer

I went to Sweden in the beginning of July for one week, with completely different companion and in completely different context as planned in the beginning.
Instead of sweet-couple vacation I went with a friend on a relaxed hanging out in search of lost emotional independence.
A lot happened after that, masses of things. Relationship situation changed drastically several times but the feeling of self-consciousness and independence didn't.
That's one of the reasons, why I post the backpack pictures now. The other is, that there were just so many pictures to edit and I find doing it really pretty boring.

Anyway, we made really relaxed travel through Scania and I would lie if I would say that I wasn't a bit of disappointed.

Sweden is cloudy, neat, clean, expensive, friendly, speaks English and sometimes even German, does sports and gives a ride to hitch-hikers (except one 10 km walk on a countryside road). The nature is of course nice, you can camp anywhere you want (e.g. in the city park at the beach) and people don't ask questions. I also didn't notice too many tourists.

Wild Nils Holgersson's goose are everywhere on the lawns and parks looking like fake, also peacocks and five different species of seagulls. Food is expensive like hell except for french fries and vegan ice-cream, which are cheaper than cow-milk ones.
The only alternative spot in Malmö was nice anarchist vegan café-infoshop, where we saw an old lady who tried (in our comprehension) to sell flowers to the bar tender. In the end she just gave him one and stayed a longer while chatting, looking like a regular customer or just a friend.

But there was no thrill. No much of this extraordinary feeling I usually get when I visit another country. Good or bad, it doesn't matter, but I expect sensations.
And from Sweden, as a regular fan of Swedish movies, music and literature I expected even more. Maybe too much.

And got a little bit of Bergman mood when we found an abandoned farm which looked exactly like from one of the movies, or at the sea side, on the quay, in wind and silence on the beach or in the bizarre but cheerful sculptures, fountains and other street decorations. But I found Sweden so modest, moderate, calm and somehow unreachable. Maybe it just needs more time, focus and attention.

Maybe next time.
We'll see each other again, Sweden.