Longskating -- Långfärdskridskoåkning

One of my colleagues, Eje, shown in the lead position in the photo, is an avid long skater. The photo was taken by Gregor L. and is available in the original size here. Long skating is known as långfärdskridskoåkning in Swedish. I asked Eje about his hobby and here's some info he provided:

The poles are "ice probes", which are used to check the thickness of the ice, but also used as support when stepping over wider cracks in the ice, and as normal ski poles on bad ice in a tough headwind.

Drafting, like bicycle racers or race cars do, is very common in head wind, but as you see on the flag I am carrying the picture is taken in downwind, hence people spread out and don't draft.

In all normal cases the safest spot is the same track. That is, every skater follows the leader, skating over the same ice. Ice that is so weak that it might break has a "critical radius" of half a meter, hence it doesn't really matter. However, a group of skaters in high speed on thin ice pulls a big wave, to avoid that you would normally skate with some meters distance, but the same track.

Weak "black ice" sometimes experiences a wear effect, hence it could be advantageous
to skate your own track some meters away.

We carry maps, GPS, compass, the lot. Navigation is very similiar to what you do in a boat doing 10-15 knots, but like in orienteering it all becomes more difficult while doing physical exercise.

The speed and distance varies a lot depending on the skill of the skater and the ice of the day. Stronger skaters do day tours well over 100 km every year, when conditions are really favorable.

Groups I lead ofte do distance between 40 and 80 km in a day, the shorter in December/January due to thinner ice and shorter daylight. Speeds in excess of 30 kmph are common among the strongest skaters, I normally try to offer
my groups a very constant pace in the region of 17 (headwind) thru 23 (tailwind) kmph, which is normally very appreciated, rather than short sprints.

A lot of valuable skating time can easily be wasted probing thin ice, passing difficult cracks or walking on land between lakes. Hence I rather skate around all problems, again often very appreciated in groups I lead.

Ice is a very special material (the only having material lower density in solid form than as a liquid?), and I could talk forever about it...

You can see a 7 minute video of Longskating by clicking here. I got this video by searching YouTube - it is not of Eje.

Picnic & Kayak & Stockholm Marathon & Sushi

Saturday was a busy day. J and I walked 2.5 miles to Brunnsviken kanotklubb to meet M and J and their kids for a picnic and kayak rental. That we did and it was nice. We spread out blankets on the lawn of the club and watched the kayak crowd hustle and bustle around.


We left to go home and decided to explore Fredhelmsplan. Then we happened upon the Stockholm marathon which has around 17,000 runners. We wandered around and finally got back to our neighborhood where we found a nice little sushi restaurant. We'll be returning there sometime soon.

Multi-Cultural Apartment Grill-Out on National Day

According to Po Tidholm and Agneta Lilja in ther small book Celebrating the Swedish Way, Sweden has celebrated their "National" day on June 6 since 1983. They say: "This is the date on which Gustav Vasa was crowned ling in 1523 and on which a new constitution was adopted in 1809. The original idea came from Artur Hazelius, who founded the Skansen open-air museum in Stockholm and held a national day celebration there on June 6 as early as the 1890's." They go on to state: "In 1916, Hazelius's idea was officially adopted and June 6 became Swedish flag day. The name celebrated the fact that Sweden had acquired its own flag following the dissolution of the union with Norway."

So this year, J thought it would be a perfect opportunity to meet the neighbors in the apartment building by inviting them all to a bar-b-cue in the back yard. So we did. It was one of the most fun times since we've been in Sweden. There was a German man who works for the Swedish power company, a Norwegian woman who works for the transportation department, another Norwegian woman who is a writer for a large multi-national company, her Swedish husband who is a writer for a prestigious financial news organization, a Canadian woman on a 2 year assignment much like me who manages projects and has many other interests, and her Swedish friend who is retired but runs his own consulting company. Everyone brought meat to grille and a dish to share. The food was excellent but the conversation was more so. We all had a blast critiquing each other's culture. They all have lived in the United States plus other countries. J and I are plain ol' monolingual people who've only lived in one country (although some would argue that Texas is another country!). Nevertheless, our brief stay in Sweden and our few European vacations give us just enough perspective to identify with and see the humor in all that was said.


We discussed views on customer service in each country, views on nudity and especially the nude beaches in Germany, places to travel to and special tourist destinations, transportation methods, languages and especially Swedish dialects, winter sports, and about food in each culture, especially holiday food.

Near the end of the evening Janis spotted a tiny baby bird that had fallen from it's nest. So we decided to return it. However, the nest was behind a grate in the building about 10 feet (3 meters) above the ground. Plus we knew we couldn't touch the baby because the mother would kill it because of the wrong smell. So using a paper plate and the balancing skills of the tall German, we managed to save a bird. Not a bad way, at least symbolically, to end a multi-cultural grill-out.

Norrviken, Frog Stains, BBQ, and Woodworking

Last weekend, a Swedish colleague and his family invited D & J over for a barbecue at his home in Norrviken. Norrviken is just north of Kista and is a clean small community that developed on a thousand year old trade route next to a shallow swampy lake. In recent years the lake has dried up so that it's now about 3 kilometers in diameter. It's still a great spot for summer swimming and winter skating. Norrviken also borders a large forested park which is a favorite mountain biking area.

The most interesting thing about Norrviken, however, is the annual 2 week period of frogs. They emerge from the swampy areas of the lake and overwhelm the streets and neighborhoods. The city puts up signs to warn motorists of the road hazard (both to protects the motorist from sliding on squished frogs and to protect the frogs from death by Volvo tires, I suppose). The mass migration of frogs reminds me of the Mormon crickets in Utah. D & J once encountered them on a desert road in Utah and the wheel wells were full of blended cricket parts - it couldn't be helped.

The hosting family showed extreme hospitality, like all our other Swedish friends. They had a nice large yard with fruit trees, many flowers and a vegetable garden. The houses in the neighborhood were built in the 60's during some boom years for Sweden. The houses are brick which most Americans would prefer over wood, but in Sweden, wood or stucco is usually preferred. The gutters are made of copper! Imagine that today. The interiors, like most Swedish homes and buildings, have a special warmth and feeling of wood.

The hosts have an interesting life story that includes many foreign sojourns, notably in Ohio and Japan. They also own a 27 meter long freighter boat, which they spent 10 years refurbishing and actually lived on in a Stockholm marina for several years before buying the house. They take a 2 week trip in the boat each year into the interior of Sweden via a series of lakes, canals, and locks. The trip is with a group of other small freighters, all joining as a community.

The barbecue is very popular in Sweden, and is considered an American pastime that Sweden has imported. The host was a little nervous BBQ'ing for the "expert American." However, it was excellent and the American expert is not so expert. They BBQ'ed roast, wieners, and bratwurst. The dinner itself also included fresh cheeses (Sweden has great cheeses) and fresh breads. One of the delicious cheeses also had a sharp aroma. So sharp the Swedes call it balcony cheese because you should leave it on the balcony to keep it from smelling up the house. I tried it and liked it. Just goes to show you that you can't judge a cheese by it's odor... well not totally.

The dessert was glass (the Swedish words for ice cream) covered with fresh strawberries. So far every dinner D & J have had at a Swedish family's home has been excellent and this one maintained that standard. D & J worry that they can't come close to matching the culinary skills of the Swedish hosts, especially since D & J have a temporary kitchen and are less familiar with where to buy certain ingredients (all the ingredients are in Sweden but sometimes the Swedish words are not in our dictionary, especially spices).

The garage in the basement, like D's in the US, had been converted to a woodworking shop. Only this one had several industrial sized tools like an 18 inch joiner, a shaper, 20 inch bandsaw, and planer. He bought these from a Swedish tool maker for cash to get a really sweet deal. He also used German Festool routers, the brand D considers top-ot-the line. In the US, Festool's are about 70% higher than their competitors. But they are so much lighter and have higher precision than the other brands.

War Children (Krigsbarn)

Another one of my Swedish friends (of Finninsh heritage) had this to add to the post about the Battle of Hullock and the Easter Rising:

"I saw this movie Saturday and was wondering if you know about the warchildren (krigsbarn).

During the WW2, Finland was under attack and it was decided that Sweden as a "neutral" country would take some of these children to live in peace until the war was over. 70 000 children between 0-14 years of age were shipped to Sweden during 1939-1945, my father's family included. Some returned to Finland, others stayed for good.
It was emotionally very stressful for the children and their parents. The children were shipped off, all alone, with a tag around their neck, to a country were nobody understood their language.

I guess this is the tightest bond between the countries in modern time.

Norway and Denmark had effects on their children as well, but in different ways. Their description of krigsbarn is different. I'm sure they too must've sent children to Sweden, but in 1945 Norway wanted to send 9 000 children to Australia because they had German fathers, for example..."

The Battle of Hulloch and the Easter Rising

My adventure is spiced with meeting interesting people with interesting stories. An Irish colleague told me an interesting story about Irish history, with a personal irony folded in. We often hear of the human sacrifice in the Irish revolution of 1916, especially during the Easter Rising. The Easter Rising was a failure costing approximately 380 lives but did lead to eventual Irish independence from England. At about the same time, the Germans were gassing members of the Royal Dublin Fulisers in Hulluch, France. This was the first gas attack of the horrific World War I.

My colleague says "As my grandfather was fighting in the trenches with the Royal Dublin Fulisers, I regret that we, the southern Irish, don’t remember their courage and sacrifice. There were 35,000 Irish killed in WW I who are more or less forgotten. The victors write the history books and in this case it was the Irish Republican Army (the original IRA) who fought and eventually won independence. My personal irony is that my other grandfather was in the IRA shooting British at the same time as my maternal grandfather was in the British Army. Should the two of them have been in Dublin in April 1916, I might not be here saying this!!! Thankfully, my other granddad was from Cork (250 km south of Dublin!)."

This sort of imbalance is frequent all over the world.

As I write this, the BBC and CNN Europe airing in Stockholm are dwelling on the tragedy of the Virginia Tech shootings and suicide. They are interviewing the shooter's former teachers, roommates, classmates, etc. trying to understand the psychology of the shooter, a Korean immigrant named Cho. They are evaluating and scrutinizing the gun laws in the US. It seems ironic that 33 people die tragically in the US, a country of 400 million while the ticker at the bottom of the TV screen says 166 people died in a suicide bomber blast in Baghdad, Iraq, a much much smaller country. If they did a psyscho-analysis of the Baghdad suicide killer equivalent to the one afforded Cho, I think we'd all learn a lot: the West and the Islamic world. Instead we over-simplify it as a horror of war or the insanity of fundamentalism or whatever....

Ah, I wax political, sorry.