I'm writing from a hotel room in the town of Vänersborg. I spent the day in another town (Halmstad) and when I booked my evening's travel from Halmstad to Vänersborg I sighed. The only way to get between these two towns just now is to take a short train ride followed by a long bus ride. A long day. Followed by a long ride on a freaking bus. Sigh ( Read more... )

I was in Stockholm five days last week enjoying sunny skies, able to be outside without a jacket or sweater, sleeping with the hotel room window open to let in the fresh air ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

It's Midsommar here in Sweden (actually it's Midsommar Eve but Swedes celebrate holidays bigger on the day before than on the day ( Read more... )

Björn likes soccer (but he calls it fotboll because he's sweeeeedish).

Those who don't necessarily love and follow sports might not be aware that the European Championship games are being played this week.

There's a fun little website In Sweden where fans can guess the final scores of all the games and get ranked according to how right their guesses ( Read more... )

There are rare days when I think "Sweden? Really?"

It's the 5th of June.

And I'm freezing my toes off.

I've started a cosy fire in the wood burning stove to try to get warm.

I enjoy the cold of the winter season. I do not enjoy a cold June. Not even a little bit.

Here is my experience of Sweden's relationship to religious holidays in a nutshell ( Read more... )

I can't remember ever needing - really NEEDING - a vacation from work as much I as do right now. For several reasons (almost all of them unavoidable) I have had unusually high stress with my job the past few months.

My vacation is about a month away and I've developed strategies to get through this last month of deadlines and travelling but to be ( Read more... )

Our local library recently had a sale on older magazines. I got six issues of a women's magazine for just 20 kronor. For you American readers that's approximately 3 bucks. (A few days later they were giving away those that hadn't sold and I got five more magazines for free!)

I now have a nice little pile of these magazines on the coffee table out on ( Read more... )

A few weeks ago I asked for some help of my LJ. I was looking for a word to describe me. I promised to explain later.

I'm ready to explain.

I've been thinking for a long time about getting a small tattoo. I've been collecting pictures of word-tattoos and trying to find the one perfect word that I felt just right about permanently inking into my skin ( Read more... )