sweden

the ferry was to stockholm was a long slow affair, weaving around the archipelago of both finland and sweden with a brief stop at marienhamn in åland. i didn't see any other 'traveller' types on the ship, reminding me that this wasn't really traveller season now... if there is such a thing. maybe tourist season was over but travellers just plod on, all year round.


it was dark when the boat docked, and i had to walk from the terminal to downtown stockholm, straight to my usual busking spot on drottingsgatan by the kulturhuset. i got hassled by a drunk there, but after i sought refuge in the coffee place for a bit, i ventured out again and got a 50kroner drop.... enough now to get the bus to uppsala.

the bus got into uppsala and i found my way to alan and åsa's place at the other end of town. it was a complete surprise for them, but the timing was spot on as åsa had just returned from the states 3 hours before, after being away on a 2-week presentation tour. so my favourite scientists were doing great, and the kids were all thriving too, and growing up fast. elsa had taken a break from the football, and god-daughter molly was more into indoor hockey and horses too, but james was still into it, and we went to see him play a couple of training games.

football politics had pervaded into the 10-year old's game: a rival team was 'poaching' the best talent from alan's uif team, and james also wanted to play for the prokion team cos all his mates were there too. apart from the busking, which was good, i got to make molly a hand-make book with her own drawing of a horse as the cover, and time also to read something from the packed bookshelves, richard dawkin's book, 'the god delusion'. agreed pretty much with his total rejection of organised religion, and his god-like reverence for darwinism (his religion?), but somehow, it left an impression that his rationality couldn't just dismiss the whole spectrum of spirituality completely.
a misunderstanding meant that i had to walk to the hitching point out of uppsala, from where i waited 30 minutes and got a lift from george and his son, originally from romania but living in sweden for 20 years or so. it was good to talk to them about their experiences, and mine, in this country. george was kind enough to drive me out of his way to the centre of town, and then slapped a 50kroner note into my hand. i tried to refuse, but he insisted: 'get yourself a coffee'.
great guy. i made my way to the kulturhuset and the library... and, yes, i got myself another library card. nice collection i have now. and yes, it was to use the free internet service they provide. then back to the corner and some drumming. it wasn't so cold like the raw weather i had the saturday before, but the skin on the hands was cracking up enough to make busking painful. i had phoned sophia from uppsala to meet at the kulturhuset at 4, and so just before, i went to get a last 15 minute session on the internet. and that's when she came up to me as i passed her on the way to the library.
we went to get my ticket made for the bus to oslo, cheaper via internet and credit/debit card, courtesy of sophia. i gave her the cash equivalent, and then we took a coffee to catch up on the news since we had last met at that gathering in that amazing place in the north of norway known as dividalen.

sophia was staying at her parent's summer cottage in the countryside, a metro and a long bus ride west of stockholm. and so i got to stay there for a day and a couple of nights. a quite and relaxing place away from the hustle and bustle of the city life. sophia is a graphic artist, studying and soon to be working on an internship at a place in gothenburg.

she was critical of my wishy-washy plans to change my traveller ways, not because of wanting to change but of the wishy-washy way of going about it. i was grateful for that, most people would just have gone along with my way of thinking, thinking that of course i knew what i wanted and where i was heading and where i wanted to go... where the wind blows... but then, only dead fish go with the flow.


back to stockholm, sophia had to get her train to gothenburg, and i had another day and night to wait for the bus to oslo. sophia was wondering where i would spend the night as nothing had come back from the requests i had sent to couchsurfing/hc hosts. "something´ll come up", i said, "it always does". there was nothing for it but to have another go on couchsurfing website.

so back to the kulturhuset library, 11 o´clock on a sunday morning, i'm surfing the couchsurfing list for stockholm, not feeling very confident. a couple had also come in, i could hear them on the computer to my right, and with half an eye on what i was doing and half an eye on them, i pointed out the other internet computer to the left of mine for them. at this point, the guy calls out from behind me, "ahh, couchsurfing". i turn around and face him. "yes, that´s right, are you on couchsurfing too?" "yes", he says. "do you live here in stockholm?", i ask. "yes". "oh, i'm looking for a place to stay for tonight". he talks to his friend who is busy logging in on the other computer, and they confer a bit, and then he turns to me and says, "yes, you can stay with us". great!! i introduce myself to alberto, originally from pulgia in italy, and maja from stockholm, and her 3 year-old daughter estelle.

i got to hang out with them the whole day as i had "no plans" at all. apart from other artistic pursuits and talents, alberto had an eye for finding 'stuff' on the streets, usually very good stuff with only a little bit 'wrong' with it. it was the scandanavian disease to throw out perfectly good stuff. "it´s crazy", he said. "they throw away good things and then they go to 'trendy' flea-markets and 2nd-hand places and buy it back it again!" he had just found an abandoned bike whilst we had been walking, the back wheel was off, it was missing a brake lever and cable, but otherwise, all the other parts were in almost mint condition. we put the back wheel on and wheeled the bike off. and after meeting up with his sri lankan friend/manager at the lebanese restaurant, we met up with maja again; taking the wheels off the bike with the help of my swiss army tool and chucking it in the back of the car. and then finally to maja's place in ropsten. i cooked a pasta dinner for everyone with some leftovers from what i made at sophia's place, turned out great. and early next morning, i left the flat with those magic people still sleeping and took the metro to t-centralen, and the bus-station at city-terminalen. i was just chilling out there with a cheap coffee and croissant i got with the last of my coins when who do i see come to greet me? it's petri, from finland. he was with some friends from his yoga group ("ah, the sex-cult", i said, teasing him), on their way back to hki from copenhagen.
the busking had been good in sweden, not just for grub, but enough for the bus to oslo and also to change into some euros.