(Used to be) Living in Luleåland

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Bangkok


So, with the flood of Scandinavians going to Thailand trying to get some real summer, planes were full and my plans for a quick stopover became 4 days in Bangkok.

The city was crowded, hot, and hectic. A big change from up north, and initially I realised just how much I missed lively street culture. But the fun wore off very quickly. I went to the largest weekend market in the world, and had barely enough room to pull my wallet out of my pants (and none to pull my camera out of my bag) I was very quickly was over the whole "masses of people" thing. Plenty of bargains to be had, and much haggling to be done, but the crowds were horrendous.

Haggling also became tedious very quickly. Almost any taxi fare enquiry started at 200 to 400 baht (6-12$) , before bargaining down to about 80-100 baht to get home from the areas I mostly visited. The only honest taxi driver in Bangkok made me discover 70 was probably too much. Actually he was only honest because had had absolutely no English ability whatsoever except for the word 'meter', so he couldn't try to convince me that it was very far, and there was lots of traffic, or that the market I wanted to go to was closed so he could take me shopping elsewhere, or he had a sister that I could 'meet', or...

But I also managed to check out some of the main sights - the Reclining Bhudda, the Grand Palace, the Golden Tower, Jim Morrison's house, and some more markets and shopping.

Pics, as usual now on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13091&l=690e0&id=731953277



Helsingfors & The Best Coffee in Sweden


From Germany I had to come back to Sweden before leaving for good, and I had 1 hour to kill at Arlanda airport. Much to my surprise I had the best coffee I've had in my 2 years there. Yes, at the airport! The last thing I would ever do in Sweden, trying to use up the very last few kronor in my pocket, was to purchase a märkligt gott kaffe!

So next time you are in transit, it was the Razzia(?) coffee stand when you walk from terminal 5 towards 4 and Skycity. A sandwhichboard advertised that the barrista there was a finalist in the barrista world championships in Rome, and it really showed.

Then it was on to Helsinki, the capital of Sweden's arch enemy and ex-colony, Finland. I had less than 24 hours there, to basically catch up with friends from the Monash Choir Monucs, Gudrun and Al, who have survived there for 4 years.

Helsinki is a small capital city, with some nice buildings and the bay. Stockholm it isn't, but I managed to spend a pleasant few hours there in the sun. Pics, now on facebook. Click the link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13052&l=781ba&id=731953277

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Wallerfangen



Hej Ho Folks, So, going back to July, after all the last-minute cleaning, file copying, and handing over gigabytes of data files and masses of stock cubes to various nerdy and culinary types, I left Lulea to go to Wallerfangen. This is the 'village' Christina comes from, in the Saarland region of Germany in the south-west. Within a few minutes' drive are the borders of France and Luxembourg (which is notable for its low taxes and thus rows of petrol stations at the border serviced many german and french cars). Saarland was the last province to become part of Germany after the war, after voting down a motion to be independent. Being on the border, it has very French tendencies, and they do things there that no-one else does, like schwenking.

A friend into all things berliner said to me that Germans look at Saarland as mainlanders ("Australians") look at Tasmania. When I told this to Christina, (after explaining what a Tasmania is), she agreed and admitted that Saarlanders were very happy after reunification of the East, because now there was a new , younger, basket-case area in Germany to be picked on, and Saarland was now left alone.

I was there to visit Christina's family, and go with her to a wedding, and check out the region. Her family were very welcoming and tried very hard with their english (harder than I did with german). It was an interesting experience being scrutinised at every level ("Oh, so that's how you fold your clothes").

Due to the hassle of loading lots of photos onto Blogger, I am trying another way to show you the photos. Facebook is the name of the new game. I have a profile, but this gallery should be public. Check it out by clicking on the link:


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12791&l=6a33a&id=731953277

Double-click on the first pic to enlarge, and then use 'previous' and 'next' on the top-right to move through them. Descriptions are beneath them.

写真を見るため上記のリンクにクリックして下さい。最初の写真をダッブルクリックしたら大きなり、上右にある”previous" と”next" を押すと前と次に変わります。コメントは下に書いてあります。

Friday, August 17, 2007

Back Home

Before I get to the Germany and Bangkok pics, just a quick post to say I am back home. I have taken it easy so far, mostly just spending time with the family and trying to adjust to the weather and the old houses - needing to wear shoes and a fleece jacket indoors is something I haven't done for a long time!

My UK work visa application process hasn't started yet, so I will be here for at least 6-8 weeks, (~middle of October in all likelihood). Next week we ski at Hotham, so once I am back on the 25th, it will be time to start catching up with you all.

Ciao for now

Monday, August 06, 2007

Leaving Lulealand



Yes, I have left Lulealand. But never fear, though my arctic adventure ends here, there is more blog to come!


So my time was up. After Stockholm, and entertaining the ‘out-laws’ for a couple of days while trying to clean up the apartment and finish work and start relocation and visa applications etc, it was over.

My almost 2 years in Lulea were full of great experiences. I met many cool and interesting people, including of course the lovely Christina, and got to do many things in an environment that few people ever get to.

It is amazing to think just how far away Lulea is. Get a globe, a physical, 3D one, and you realise that I have been sitting on the top of the world, not hanging sideways off it like in Melbourne. It is hard to be astounded constantly when living there, but every now and then I would get a sudden burst of realisation of just how unique a place I have landed in. Whether it was the streaky cloud formations as if all the clouds were racing to the north pole, or the barren Norwegian landscape, or the neverending forests of tall, straight, pine trees as orderly as bad graphics in an old computer game.


Admittedly, I am subject to very strong pre-impressions, and talk of the arctic always meant windy, snowy, barren land with just a few simple triangle roofed sheds as buildings. Yes I was imagning the far reaches of Antarctica. So mosquitos were a big surprise! There was actually one spot in an industry-park on my way home to my first flat in Kallkallan where all you could see were triangular roofed grey shed-like buildings, and the forest. And there, walking home alone, it felt like I was really in the wilderness. More out and back than in the outback.

But the 2 years weren’t just full of warm dinners in Christmas-card scenery locations. There are some things that I will forget soon without realising it, and some things that I will be glad to be rid of. Here are a few pet whinges:

- The infernal sunshine in summer. I loved the long days, but when it was time for bed why couldn’t there be decent curtains to cut out the sunshine? Here was my rather crappy, but effective solution of overlaying extra curtains on top of those provided to make the place dark enough. And you would be surprised how hard it was to find decent sun-block curtains. Even these didn’t do what was advertised.



- the student apartment of 26m3. Not only was the apartment itself just small enough to be uncomfortable, when any public holiday appeared Porsön became a ghost town when all the students fled back home. Seriously, on the last day of exams there were more people at the central bus stop and train station than partying at the uni bar. It is also related to the smallness of Lulea, and lack of connection between the uni and the city. To go to a very rare jazz gig in town and then have nothing to do at 10pm and no cheap way to get home... no wonder the students just stay in Porson and drink.

- The food. There is only so much good salmon and moosemeat a man can eat. In short, I think I have complained at every opportunity about the prices, the quality, especially of the asian food, the coffee, the pizza.., Melbourne is seriously blessed with its food culture. Sorry to the Swedes out there reading this, but I just cant think right now of anything that I know I will miss. Gifflar cinnamon buns (If you see them at Ikea, don’t hesitate!), and good crackerbread probably. But I should say thank-you to those who invited me into their homes for meals – I can say that without exception the home-cooked Swedish meals I ate were great.

- The alcohol culture. It might not appear to be much different to any typical uni environment, but the enthusiasm with which people drink to get drunk was amazing and in-grained like reindeer going to the fells to mate. I have never seen nightclub toilets as covered in spew or as full of fuller (pissed people) as in Lule. And the town of 75,000 people being serviced by only 2 bottle shops, which close at 3 on a Saturday...unbelievable..

- fitting to my SAXS data. If this isn’t the most frustrating, imprecise, and dare I say un-scientific excercise that I have undertaken in my career so far... it is hard to describe here, but the process was so subjective, that depending on which point I chose (and there were a lot to choose from), or which day of the week I worked, I got wildly different solutions. As my colleague in the US would say about modelling, it is very easy to make a meaningless model to which you could fit an elephant if you wanted to. I was being careful, but I still think I’m getting giraffes. At least my giraffes behave consistently!

But these are small gripes, and it is easy to complain about the food and small apartments. I also had many great experiences that are much harder to describe, but are also much closer to my heart and much more memorable. How do I really describe the freshness of that first breath of dry, sub-zero air when stepping outside for the first time in the morning every winter day?

Some of the experiences that were unforgettable:

- Trudging through knee-high snow during a snowfall for an hour to get to an argentinian tango course?

- Snowboarding in the French Alps (ok, it wasn’t in Lulea, but hey)

- The long summer sunsets

- The long fikas, and some of the skitsnäck

- Riding a bike through forest to get to work. Even in the snow.

- Leaving band practice and walking home under the northern lights

- The melodic Swedish language. Probably too easy to forget, actually, but I hope with a bit of webcasting and all the unread novels I’ve bought, I can maintain my half-fluency.

- And the people. Sweden is simply full of gorgeous people, more than you could think possible. One of my friends has warned me about the UK...

- And many kind and funny and cool people that I’ve been able to meet, that really made my time in Lulealand something special.

Tack och hej, och Adjö. And keep reading about my new life in Loughboroughland!


Some Misc Pics:




Kattilakoski


Yet another trip up to the Polar Circle, this time with Christina’s family, and this time with a booking already made at Kattilakoski, one of the premiere restaurants in Sweden that lies on the polar circle. Winner of Best Restaurant 2006. It was a beautiful setting, out on the riverside. The food was really good – not the most outstanding meal I’ve ever had but one of the best in Sweden absolutely.



Christina's Mum and Aunt on the cliffs



The Torneälvan


Kattilakoski



One of the plagues of summer, aside from ultra-repetetive summer songs, is mosquitoes. At times they form a literal cloud around you. The land up here is quite swampy and wet after all the melting snow. When we got to the polar circle marker, the ‘men’ Detlef and Michael, were too chicken to leave the car.

On the way back we went to Aavasakksanvara – the tower, to try and see the midnight sun, but unfortunately the clouds got in the way. Still was perty though.







Sunday, August 05, 2007

Sista Stunder i Stockholm

Spot the cameraman!

So I am here in Germany, trying to update my blog on a very slow computer and with much better things to do, so things are now a bit out of order. But here we go anyway.


Trendy new apartments in what would have been the Stockholm Olympic Village.

The Nordiska Museet and Vasa Museum


Trendy Östermalm

Södermalm



Even though I’m in Germany now, I still have some unfinished bloggness, so lets go back now to the start of July, when I went to Stockholm, again, for 10 days.
The first week of July was the International Vacuum Conference in Stockholm, a combination of 7 different conferences relating to vacuum-, surface-, and nano-science. I spent most of the time in the hotel room working on my presentation so didn’t see alot of it. What I can say though is that it is a snåla conference indeed that saves money by not providing lunch or even biscuits with the coffee...


We had a welcoming reception in the City Hall (Stadshuset) where the Nobel Prize dinner and ceremony is held every year, perhaps to inspire us to work harder.


The downstairs hall is where the dinner is held. Unlike the very formal Nobel dinner, we were left standing for the buffet. It was a bit of a scramble for the food, without much orderly lining up, which i found all very un-Swedish. Damn foreigners! I was suggesting that a food fight should break out – I mean it was probably the only time most of us scientists would ever actually be invited in here, so why not do something...memorable. But I wasn’t brave enough to actually start the fight. I did try insulting the French about the wine we were drinking but it didn’t work. One cool thing though was a plastic clip which you can stick to the plate to hold your wineglass while you eat. Nifty.


The room upstairs is where the dance is held after the dinner, and the walls and ceilings lined with mosaics in gold leaf.



After the conference Christina came to join me and due to the rain, any major outdoor plans were cancelled and it was a Stockholm Card inspired museum tour that we embarked upon. The SC is a pass that gives you free travel and entry to most of the museums. Interestingly our salesperson really tried to disuade us from buying the card unless we planned to visit enough museums (about 5) to make economical use of it.

Christina hadn’t spent much time in Stockholm before, so it was time to (re)do some of the classics. The Vasa museum, of the boat that sank 400m into its maiden voyage.




Changing of the guard at the palace in Gamla stan. After last winter’s disappointment when I was in Stockholm with Boo I didn’t recommend it to Christina, thinking it wasn’t much. But we happened across it and waited, and it was a lot more interesting in the summer. There was a band, and much more ceremony.







Junibacken was Christina’s must do – the Astrid Lindberg ‘museum’, celebrating all her characters such as Pippi Longstocking and Emil and so on. She was definitely the biggest kid there.





Karlsson på taket.


Riding Pippi’s horse. She didn’t want to get off. Not because it was so much fun, but because she split her pants!




Skansen. A marimba (large wooden glockenspiel) duo played in the church, which was really cool.






Lemurs





Lynx

Wild boar-lets



Moose. I think they are ugly and ungainly animals.


Molting reindeer




Hasse and Ida. He now working in Stockholm, and she visting, cooking all his meals, ironing all his shirts etc.


My friend Jenny Best, from Aus. No, actually, a canadian goose. But had I remembered to transfer the pictures of Jenny, here would she be. One of my first contacts in Lulea, she is now down in the big smoke becoming a real Stockholmer, with an uber-expensive apartment and everything.


Fjäderholmen. This is the closest set of islands to Stockholm city, a precursor to the archipelago.We just didn’t have time to go out 2 hours to the archipelago so we got a bit of a taste here. The whole island can be walked around in 5 mins, 10 if you take your time. And being so close to the city, it gets a whole lot of tourists. 6000 a day! Unbelievable. Lucky we went on an early morning cruise out there before the hordes descended.


Stockholm from Katrina elevator. Dinner was up here at Eriks grill, with... dum, da dum dum: Christinas family. Thez came to Sweden for a holiday and for help with the return voyage. More pics of them later.