In a Winter Wonderland (but dreaming of a sun burnt country)

I realise that being surrounded by the cold and snow at Christmas makes all of the carols with their talk of sleighs and reindeer and snow make sense, but it just doesn't feel quite right. It's difficult to not feel the Christmas spirit with the enormous tree up at my department at uni and being forced to listen to George Michael's heart-renching tale of giving his heart away at every shop I venture into, but my heart just wasn't in it.

Until today. The Christmas spirit came to me while I was sitting in my too-warm room (from the heater) and decided to have a listen to the cricket over the radio. Being hot and listening to the familiar voices droning on about test statistics was just the ticket.

My corridor had collectively decided to chop down a tree in the cover of darkness (apparently it's 'tradition' to steal your tree) but as the execution of this grand plan proved difficult we then thought to buy a tree. Well, it's now a week to go and we still haven't done this either, though I got up this morning and found a surprise in the lounge room. A lot of pieces of white paper have been stuck on the wall, and a big green Christmas tree has been drawn on them. Lots of balls and decorations have also been drawn and cut out, to be stuck on later today. Being the tight-arse student that I am, I applaud this idea. Plus it's super easy to take down after Christmas. No more leaving the tree up until Easter as you can't be arsed putting it away...just rip the paper off and chuck it in the recycling! Mind you, given the collective cleaning skills of this corridor they will probably be up there for some time. It was quite funny when Stella suggested her idea of getting a tree for the corridor to one of the more cleanliness-challenged members of our fair corridor and his first thought was to ask who was going to clean it up afterwards. Of course we felt like saying "obviously not you, you dirty slob" but bit our tongues to keep the peace.

I'm heading off to England on Friday to spend Christmas with my family and New Years with Kate. This may well be my last post before I leave, so I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sleepy but happy

What a great weekend! Kate arrived in Sweden on Friday, and we went to see Laura sing in her choir at a church in town. It was a performance for Lucia, which is tomorrow (13 December) and so we were expecting a traditional churchy sort of performance. Well we got that, plus a very impressive rendition of the Beverly Hills Cop theme (with the words changed to suit the occasion). Damn that song for being so catchy!

Friday night, my toilet decided to go to toilet heaven and stop working. The one time that I have someone staying in my room. Handy. It wasn't blocked at least so it could be flushed with a bucket, so luckily I'm Australian and have a bit of experience with such toilets. At least it wasn't outside.

After a lovely sleep-in and scrambled egg breakfast, Kate and I treated ourselves to a sauna. I couldn't let Kate come all the way to Sweden without experiencing one. I noticed while we were in there that there was a radiator in the sauna room. What on earth would possess you to put on the radiator whilst having a sauna? And given the meagre amount of heat put out by the radiators in this building, it seems quite pointless when you have a pile of steaming rocks in the same room. Perhaps it's for the more sensitive sauna user who wants the sauna experience without the heat.

On Saturday night we had a corridor Jul dinner, with all sorts of delicious treats. We started off wth glögg (the photo above shows Tomas serving it), before moving onto the mains of gnocchi, ham, german meatballs, potato bake, salad, sill (pickled herring), rödkol (red cabbage) and some sort of christmas bread which was like raisin bread. After a break it was onto dessert, which included luccekatt, which is a saffron/raisin treat, shown being made below. Very yummy. It was another great corridor dinner and a most enjoyable night.

Kate and I got up fairly early Sunday morning to get on the bus to go into Stockholm. After dropping our stuff off at the backpackers we had booked a room in, we headed off to Gamla Stan, which is Stockholm's Old Town. It's really a lovely area, with narrow cobblestoned streets and lots of nice handicrafts shops. A tourist district really. This time of year there are Christmas markets in the StorTorget (big square), selling lots of glögg, sausages, handicrafts, misteltoe etc. One of the stalls (shown below) sold ceramics, and Kate bought herself a mug which we learnt was called Emily. She was tossing up between that and Johanna, but Emily won her over.The afternoon consisted of seeing the changing of the guards at the castle, spending more money, and eating more goodies, before we wandered back to the backpackers for a bit of a rest before heading back out and eating some more. We went to a nice Japanese restaurant and had some great sashimi. Didn't realise how much I missed it until I ate it.

Poor Kate had to catch the bus from the Cityterminalen at 3:45 so we had a fairly early night in anticipation of the very early rise. We got there on time, I saw her off, then wandered back to the backpackers to get a couple more hours of sleep before heading home to Uppsala. I'm incredibly tired now, and looking forward to getting to sleep tonight.

Might have another early start tomorrow, as it is Lucia and my department at uni is having their Lucia singing at 8:00. Am thinking of going just to see my lecturers singing their hearts out, but I guess I'll see how I feel in the morning. Some of the nations are holding Lucia functions tomorrow night so perhaps I'll just go to one of those. Apparently the singers dress up in white costumes not unlike those of the Klu Klux Klan which will be quite strange to see.

Oh and I should finish the broken toilet story before I go. I called Studenstaden on Saturday to get someone out to fix it, and was very impressed when someone turned up 10 minutes later. Unfortunately it was broken beyond his abilities to fix it, and he told me he would contact someone on Monday to come and fix it. I wasn't holding my breath (though perhaps I was holding something else) as Studenstaden are notorious for being very unreliable but it was a nice surprise when someone turned up today and fixed it. It took him a few curses (in Swedish) and he had to call a friend in (who just seemed to hang around and look at my photos) but he got there in the end. Hooray!

Alright time for me to get some proper sleep I think! I have been having very odd dreams lately so I wonder what's in store for me tonight?

Jul Fair

Laura and I got up early yesterday morning to make our way into Sigtuna, Sweden's oldest town. They had a Christmas fair on all day, and we wanted to get there for the start given that the sun is now setting before 3pm. It was a cold, rainy day which wasn't too pleasant but we had a good time. The fair was mainly lots of stalls selling Christmas ornaments, handicrafts, sausages, lollies, glögg, bulle, sausages and lollies. We also saw Santa, who was even dodgier than usual with dirty trousers and workboots, and the room he was in smelt badly of old sweat. I guess it must be hard, dirty work getting here from his workshop in Finland. After meeting up with Michael, Marco and Daniela who decided to come see the fair after we had left, we went and checked out the church ruins.It was a bit treacherous getting around as the weather had heated up a little and all the snow was melting into slippery ice. I was hoping the rain had gone for good but it's back again, with grey skies and wet jeans. Hopefully the snow will return soon.

I forgot to report the drive-by shooting we had in Uppsala a couple of weeks ago. Not sure if it counts if it was on a moped though.

Marco returned to Italy today, so I fear my nights of sipping cocktails have come to an end. Well I could set up my own little bar but with the prices of alcohol here I don't think it's a wise move. Everyone is drinking glögg at the moment, which is a spiced wine which you heat up and then put raisins and almonds in before drinking/eating. They are even selling it at the canteen at uni. You can get different varieties though, so I assume that the one they are selling is low/non-alcoholic. You never know with Swedes though.

Am a bit bummed with the weather as it was really nice when everything was white and the skies had cleared up, and the return of the constant grey skies and rain makes your mood a bit grey and rainy too. Just booked my tickets to England for Christmas/New Years though which got me excited, plus the knowledge that Kate will be here on Friday is quite exciting too!

The Italian girls (Stella, Laura, Daniela) and I are currently in the middle of organising a trip up to Kiruna and Abisko in January to check out the Ice Hotel and go dogsledding. After many emails to various companies up there, we have got bookings on the days we need and now just need to book our train tickets. You can fly up there but all the cheap tickets have been taken already so we are going to go by train. It takes around 15 hours but you get a bed to sleep in so it shouldn't be too bad. I am really really hoping to see the northern lights while we're up there, but trying to quash my hopes in advance so I'm not too disapointed if we don't see them. Well even if we don't, I'll still get to see the Ice Hotel, and go dogsledding, and probably experience the coldest temperatures of my life, within the Arctic Circle!

That's it for now.
Conor
xx