Hej då Sweden

As I write this I am sitting in my new (old - I got my former apartment back) apartment in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The weather is gorgeous and later today I'll head out to enjoy Symphony Splash along with about 40,000 others. It is good to be back in Canada and I am certainly enjoying the luxury of having my own place - no more sharing of kitchen and bathroom - although it is daunting to have to start pretty much from scratch in terms of furnishings and kitchen stuff and linens and ... (especially with no IKEA just a bus ride away - the nearest IKEA is on the mainland which entails a way too expensive ferry ride if you're going to take a vehicle).

I am certainly missing all my fabulous classmates who are scattered around the world either vacationing or returned to their countries. Here is a favourite graduation photo of us on the steps of the University Main Building. For now it is hello Victoria and goodbye Uppsala. For at least the next year or two.

A Wonderful Ride on a Vintage Train

One of the last things I did in Sweden was to go for a ride on Lennakatten - the vintage, wooden steam train that runs in the summer time between Uppsala and Faringe. It was a lovely trip - good weather and the pretty Swedish countryside all around. I went all the way to Faringe, which in retrospect was not such a good idea since I went on a Sunday and NOTHING was open there so I was left cooling my heels for an hour and a half (as I recall) with no activity to pass the time (don't know why I didn't take a book). Solution is to take a picnic if you are going on a Sunday or get off at one of the other stops (Marielund or Almunge) where there are refreshments available.

The steam engine is powered by coal - keep this in mind if you sit by an open window (you'll get sooty)

The front of the locomotive

Close up of the locomotive

Letting off steam

Wooden interior of train

Playground with a train motif (just after you leave Uppsala station)

There is something so evocative about the hissing and chugging of a steam-powered train

A view of the passenger cars that make up the train

Famous Swedes

I enjoyed the photo exhibit (think it was called Crossroads) at the airport on June 11, 2014 (and yes again the date on the camera was set wrong but since the poor old thing is now consigned to the garbage ...) when I left for India. Was surprised how many of the Swedes I now recognize either from their image or their name or both. How many do you recognize?

Noomi Rapace from The Millennium Trilogy films (and of course other Swedish productions not as well known to North Americans)

Michael Nyqvist - also from the Millennium Trilogy films (and of course other Swedish productions not as well known to North Americans)

Hans Rosling - our class's hero!

Writer Jonas Gardell author of  'Don't Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves' a trilogy of novels about the effects of HIV/AIDS on the gay community in Stockholm in the 1980s

The one and only Zlatan