No need to panic...

With only three months until our landlady returns and a serious housing shortage in Uppsala we had a bit of a panic this week. The custom here is to give notice three months in advance and we thought that now is a critical time to get one of these apartments that will open in three months. An additional worry is that all interested individuals (including us) register on a queuing list to obtain an apartment BUT the average waiting time is 7 years. The situation is however not that bad and we were able to find a new apartment, after one day's search, in Gottsunda (a suburb in Uppsala, 7km from the city center) through a private renting agency called Graflunds. We will move in the begining of May and Carina will have two kilometers more to travel to work while I still only have three. If we are approved (the renting agency need to check our credit and working status), we will have an 82 square meter, two bedroom, completely unfurnished apartment. Anyone is therefore welcome to come and visit us, just bring your own bed. Thus, we went to IKEA to look at furniture. There are many nice pieces (all requiring some assembly) that we are interested in but today we only invested in a "starter box" for the kitchen that include pots, pans and other kitchen utensils.

Allthough browsing through IKEA is a very Swedish thing to do it is completely different from another Swedish weekend activity that we grown to enjoy. Here are a few pictures of last weekends ice skating adventure were we skated 15 km.

Crossroads on the ice, with the necessary signpost.

An outing for the whole family.

Note the icepicks around Carina's neck, needed for if she falls through the ice (does the required safety equipment raise some questions about the previous picture...).

Our current focus now is on doing enough work before our trip to Africa, but more on this later.

R&C

On thin Ice?

Most of Europe was crippled by the unusual cold spell the last few weeks. However, in Uppsala life was not disrupted as people went back to work after the Christmas holiday. We experienced an all time record low (as South Africans) when the temperatures dropped to -21.8°C. We went for a walk and the photo was taken at sub -20° at 01:15 in the afternoon (the camera stopped working for a while after this picture):

One of the things that we were looking forward to were to skate on the frozen lake (spanning about 60km from Uppsala to Stockholm). As South Africans we were slightly apprehensive to test the ice ourselves but we heard that a track was scraped during this week and safe to skate on. Still worried, both about our skill level on ice skates and falling though the ice (and drowning and freezing), we went to lake Mälaren. We saw many people on the scraped track, including mothers skating while pushing their babies in prams, and we deemed it safe to go for it.

Here are a few pictures of us on the track about 2km from the shore:

Although it was a beautiful day with ample sun and a relatively warm -10°C, anything sticking out still tend to freeze:
This is something we will definitely do often.

R&C

Holiday on Ice.

Today is the last day of our 2 week holiday spanning Christmas and New Year. Although we started slowly with both of us contracting flu (the non swine variety), our holiday was still very exciting and eventful. We will briefly provide a few highlights on our first winter holiday in Sweden:

We roasted chestnuts (in the oven):

Attended the Nobel lectures held in Uppsala:

Enjoyed the fist serious snow for this season:

Went to Uppsala city center many times, but marveled at the scenery every time.

Here is a picture (Uppsala city center) of Carina sitting on "man fish", what is strange about this picture?

We also went to Stockholm for a day:

For Christmas we made tradiditonal Swedish food. Following is a video of us on Christmas eve:


The following morning we went to church:

We visited the lake (the big flat white part in the background of the picture, not necessarily safe to walk on yet):

There are only a few hills in Uppsala and they are optimally used for sliding down on. We also bought a polystyrene device looking similar to a body board and went down a few times:

One of the best parts of the holiday was ice skating. The first time we were a bit unstable on the ice but enjoyed it so much that we bought our own skates to continue with this activity:

And naturally we enjoyed more snow...

We are looking forward to the coming year and still more Swedish culture. Hope everyone have a wonderful 2010.

R&C

Ice Skating...Day 1.

Today we rented ice skates and started to lean to skate (the only skates available for hire are long distance skates as most people have their own "normal" ice skates). After a slow start we got the hang of it and the following are two videos of our first try at one of Uppsala's public ice rinks:

Footage of Carina on the ice (note the long skates):


Footage of Ronnie on the ice (note that the ending doesn't count as a fall but I had a more serious incident just prior to the filming):


After we got home we walked to the small ice rink at a nearby school (see post on Necessities for the holidays), and practiced some more. It was very nice skating in the moonlight with the whole rink to ourselves:

We decided to buy our own skates tomorrow as it will be much cheaper if we continue with this activity. However, hockey or figure skates have much shorter blades and we may need adjust our day old technique.

R&C

Christmas food

As promised I will write a short blog on the special Christmas (Jul) food here in Sweden. Traditions connected to the celebration of specific feasts are very strong here. Similarly are the food connected to these festivals, as they are only available during these periods and can't be found on the shelves the rest of the year. Foods connected with Christmas are Julmust (Christmas Cola), Julöl (Christmas beer), Glögg (warm spiced wine), Julskinka with Senap (Christmas ham with mustard), Lussekatter (Saffron buns), Pepperkakor (Gingerbread), Risgrynsgröt with Lingon (Ricepudding with Lingonberry jam). These special Christmas food are usaully accompanied by other traditional Swedish food to make up the rest of the Julbord (Christmas table). A variety of fish (salmon, herring, whitefish and eel) are served as a first course. Fish are preserved on a variety of ways e.g. smoking, fermenting, pickled, etc. (warning: fermented fish can make you feel very queasy very quickly). The fish course is usually accompanied by snaps (aka akvavit, which is vodka with some kind of flavouring - commonly dill). A selection of cold sliced meats with cheese, pickled cucumbers and crisp breads are next. Warm dishes follow and include the Julskinka, Swedish meatballs (köttbullar), roasted pork ribs (revbenspjäll), and a warm potato casserole called Janssons frestelse (Jansson's Temptation, which is anchovies, potato sticks and onions layered with cream).

All of these are obviously too much for two people to consume, thus our Julbort only included a selection. We have, however, tasted the other dishes while dining with our friends and at restaurants. Below is a picture of our Julbord.


In the middle of the picture is the julskinka which we had with senap... very tasty. Our Julbord also included some red cabbage, prinskorv, baked and fried potato, crispbread with a selection of cheese, salami and pickles. We ended the meal with rice pudding and lingon (in front) and pepparkakor (to the right). Our drinks in the back included Glögg and Julmust.

Some additional interesting bits:
Julmust is the most popular softdrink in Sweden around Christmas and much to the dismay of the CocaCola Company cause the sales of Coke to drop by 50% during this time of the year.
You can get Glögg in various alcoholic "strengths" and various brands. You can buy the alcohol free and 2.5% alcohol (latt Glögg) varieties at the supermarket. The good stuff however is the 'starkvin Glögg' (15%), which really warms you up when coming into the house from a -10 degrees outside adventure. This variety can however only be bought from the state-controlled liquor outlet - Systembolaget. Its worth the effort however.

Wishing everybody 'God Jul och Gott Nytt År'

C

Necessities for the holidays.

Being on holiday we went strolling around Uppsala and Stockholm. Here are a few pictures of us with the necessary clothing as the temperatures remain between -15°C and -2°C (baie dankie vir die gebreide musse en serpe Ma).

Around Uppsala:

Local activities: (ice rink created at school 500m from where we live)

Uppsala city:

Stockholm:

However, here are some of the other necessities after being outside during the last few days:

God Jul (Merry Christmas), R&C

Life after snow

Finally after 3 months of waiting we had a serious snowfall and temperatures that indicate the real winter is here. It started snowing 3 days ago and we had about 30cm of snow in one night. Since then the temperature stayed between -5°C and -10°C (currently -11.9°C, the lowest we have experienced yet). However, life in Uppsala goes on as usual with one exception, people seem generally happier and there is an increase in outdoor activity. Following is a series of photos taken the last 3 days of the new environment we are experiencing:

On the way to work after the first night of heavy snowfall (yes, I am still walking in):

View from my office window:

This is a very typical picture, people driving on roads that are very slippery when you walk on them (by law all cars must have snow tires on by the 1st of December in Uppsala). Slightly more disturbing are the number of people on bicycles, most of them without snow tires (and some even without helmets):

Pictures from the area surrounding our complex (all taken at approximately 12 noon, temperature outside -9°C, notice the height of the sun):

A typical Swedish home:

Children at school (outside most of the day even in chilling temperatures):

The view from our house. It is very sitting next to the window with snow outside, while we are cozy and warm (always 20°C):

We are anxious to see how cold it can get and are looking forward to going out in even lower temperatures. We leave you with this picture of ice crystals on the grass and will continue to report on the interesting weather in the North:

R&C