The Fun Theory - from Stockholm

I love this video - testing the theory if making things fun will get people to change their behavior. One thing for sure - I would love to have stairs like that at home - if you could turn them off now and then...

Fun thing is - the experiments are done in downtowns Stockholm! The escalator pictured in the movie is one at Odenplan, not far from where I lived. I've gone up and down this entrance to the subway over and over again when I lived in Stockholm.

They have three more movies at the site "TheFunTheory.com" - all from Stockholm.

Air balloon over Stockholm

Even though I've seen these air balloons over Stockholm for years and years, I have never actually been in one myself. It should be the perfect way to see Stockholm, slowly and quietly (well, almost at least) floating over Stockholm. One of these summers I really have to do it - imagine the beautiful pictures...

Swedish Waffles

Swedish waffles, made outdoors on the patio with Swedish fresh strawberries and whipped cream.

Mmm....

When you get unexpected visitors...

... or as we would say in Swedish "När du får oväntad besök", referring to an old commercial campaign for coffee...

This is what landed on the water this afternoon when we were sitting in the hammock watching the hundreds of boats passing by going inland after the Midsummer weekend. I hope our neighbors had their coffee ready...

A view from the window

Midsummer - the most important weekend of the summer in Sweden. Midsummer Eve is always on the Friday the week of the solstice. And the most important question is "what will the weather be like?". Not to break a habit - it's going to rain. I'm happy that I know that I will have months and months of pure sunshine and heat when I get back to California. Living out of your rain clothes gets a bit easier then. And no, we won't be wearing our summer dresses when we dance around the Midsummer pole tomorrow afternoon. But we will be wearing flowers in our hair, picking seven flowers to put under the pillow and eat strawberry cake.

This is the view from the kitchen window on the island. Normally you can see across the water to the other island - but with the pouring rain this afternoon, it was mostly a shadow in the rain.

Volvo Ocean Race arrives in Stockholm

No one in Stockholm have missed the arrival of the Volvo Ocean Race boats this week. The north bound lanes of Skeppsbron have been closed off, creating a massive traffic jam in the whole city. But today - they finally arrived, followed by hundreds of boats. It was quite an impressive sight - and I happened to have a pretty good spot to watch them arrive.

They choose a good day - the sky was, at least for a couple of hours, more blue than grey and they actually had some wind.

The two first pictures are my own, the last picture is from the official Volvo Ocean Race image gallery - to give you an idea that this is actually in the middle of Stockholm. See more beautiful pictures from Stockholm and the Stockholm archipelago here.

Boat trip

My office had arranged a "end of the summer" trip this week.

By boat...

Out to the archipelago...

Seems I've spend enough time out there lately. Well, it was kind of nice to actually go under the bridges I usually go over - and see the houses I see from above from water level. The Stockholm archipelago sure is fantastic! And we actually got to see some blue skies - even if it still was kind of chilly.

The coldest June in history

So far, June in Sweden has officially been the coldest in history. We've had days with +5C. Not kidding. At least it hasn't been snowing. It's been raining instead.

The only good thing is that you can light cozy fires. If you can find dry wood. I love the smell and sound and sight of a fire - you can sit for hours just relaxing. And it tunes out the sound of the pouring rain.

Commute

When I'm not commuting to work from the island like I usually do in the summer time, I commute with bus line 3 to Old Town. Probably one of the best commutes in the world.

June "night"

I only had my small Canon PowerShot camera available, - but you might get the idea. This picture was taken a couple of days ago at 11 pm, on a rare clear night. 

I'm standing on the front porch of the summer house in the archipelago. It's about as dark as it gets, especially when the moon is up. You better have good shades when you are used to dark nights - especially if you want to stay sleeping when the sun is up at 3 am. 

Our ride

Since I hang out on an island I have to be picked up by boat to get to the house. I usually wait on this dock for my ride. 

Here it comes! It's the small boat,.. Not the big one, unfortunately. 

Heading downtown and meeting aliens

I took the kids to Djurgården and Rosendals Trädgårdar today. I was meeting up with dear online friends that I have been hanging out with in cyberspace for the past six years, sharing joys and sorrows and laughs and cries. They are all Swedish aliens from different part of the world and we have "clicked" online. The kids hung out in the park while the grown-ups tried to talk and catch up live what was going on in different parts of the world. What a fantastic network this is - my life would be so much more boring without these dear friends! 

My kids were not as impressed - at least not as impressed by getting to go on the Djurgårdsfärja and ride the red SL busses... 

Strawberry cake

Another good reward with going to Sweden in summer is homemade Swedish strawberry cake...

"It's really warm!"

One of the best rewards after a long, exhausting trip to Sweden is to see the kids enjoy themselves so much and meet family and having a real Swedish summer holiday. We were greeted by the most fantastic weather and the kids were running around like happy puppies - and falling over all the time. Walking on uneven surfaces is trick yhen you're not used to it... 

Too keep them awake the second day I took them to the "beach". My daughter claimed the water was warm... 

Arrived!

After almost 26 hours we're finally arriving to the island in the archipelago
outside Stockholm, greeted by perfect summer weather. No more words necessary. 

Nice fabric on the Stockholm subway

I really like the fabric on the seats on the Stockholm subway. I happened to take the subway during lunch today and it was pretty empty so I took a picture. The picture is taken with my BlackBerry - not the best pictures. It's a dark blue-purple color with drawings of known buildings in Stockholm (looks like Lasse Åberg drawings but I'm not sure). 

Korvstånd

I passed this "korvstånd" (hot dog stand) today, felt the smell and had to turn around - and take a picture (wasn't hungry so I passed on the hot dog). I had forgotten about these quite common hot dog stands you can find downtown Stockholm. 

Stockholm by dusk

View from the office. Beautiful Stockholm April evening. 

Last day in Stockholm

After my quick visit, today is my last day in Stockholm and I was happy to finally see the sun - the first during my stay (I did see it briefly on Saturday for a few minutes). It was a cold, calm and beautiful morning when walking to work. I haven't hardly had time to take any pictures - but today I risked cold fingers and shot a quick pictures when walking over Slussen.

Tomorrow I'm taking the SAS flight to New York - interesting change from taking the Chicago bus, oups, I mean flight. I'm spending about 28 hours in New York before heading back to California. I wonder it that will make my westbound jet lag easier or harder...

A bit homesick...

I don't like fall – never have done, no matter where in the world I am – and coming here meant being thrown straight into full blown fall. Leaves are colorful (I prefer them green) and starting to fall off, winter is approaching. When you live here it comes gradually, maybe making it a bit easier. I just feel sad. Fall sad. And being away from my family also doesn't make it easier. I feel every inch of the distance from them and the time difference making it impossible to call and check in, makes things worse.

I have to focus on hönökaka, leverpastej, smågodis and hallonkräm...

Outside the Skogskyrkogården.

Greta Garbo's grave.