Tag Archives: Cycling

Visiting a city guerrilla style

  1. Arrive early in the morning, leave the backpack in a locker at bus station, change clothes in the toilet.
  2. Go to Valhalla swimming pool (what a great name by the way!). Shower, sauna and a 1km swim. Swedish bastu is rather bland. Cold and no löyly.
  3. See the city, do what needs to be done.
  4. Eject from the city in the evening and go to the forest to sleep,

This is how I visited Göteborg. This mode of travelling had its toll. After all the cycling, swimming, one Asian buffet and one beer, tiredness and melancholy overtook me and I just wanted to go to the base camp. But I had none, so I spent hours in a cafe wasting time on the internet and hopelessly trying to charge my phone. It is not always easy.

Göteborg lacks the polish of other cities in Sweden I’ve been to. While in our postindustrial society industry is hidden from the view, Göteborg has industrial areas standing right next to the city centre. The bank of the river is not for strolling and jogging, but a home to the cargo port. Right in the heart of the city. Never mind this oddity, Göteborg is a pretty place. Yellow brick buildings, Scandinavian architecture, a handful of walking streets, boutiques canals, one fancy opera house and plenty of green areas. Slotsskogen, Göteborg’s main park, is very enjoyable – spacious and massive. An English park at its best, just like Central Park in New York or Voldenpark in Amsterdam

I enjoyed Göteborg. Unlike with most places on my way I would like to see Göteborg once again. Not guerrilla style, though.

Horrors of 47

After the initial disappointment with cycling routes, I decided to choose regular roads instead. Straight, fast and there is no room for getting lost. That is until I hit the road 47 on the route from Jönkoping to Falköping: about 70km of heavy traffic with occasional showers. Passing by trucks surrounded by water mist triggered a mental picture of something in between medieval knights and raging demons. On a brighter side, a truck going to the same direction created a warm wind tunnel resulting in a turbo boost just like in video games. Alas like in the computer world the boost lasted only a little while bringing the misery back. To crown this horror the entry to Falköping was marked by a long uphill that just seemed to never end. When I finally saw the golden gates of McDonalds in the outskirts of Falköping, I felt like Harold & Kumar, when they reached The White Castle.

Falköping was an utter disappointment – the McDonalds did not have wi-fi. I felt adventurous and ordered a coffee with a strawberry pie. The pie took a long time to come, so they offered me a free ice-cream. And what is without complaining or asking. Both the pie and the ice-cream turned out to be complete crap. Good coffee and even better custom service, though. After getting my sugar, water and electricity fix, I spent some time war-driving around Falköping, but no wi-fi was located, so I continued further on the road 47 to Trollhättan. This time traffic and rain were too much for me, so given a first opportunity I turned to a side-road. Even weather agreed with my choice, the rain stopped and sun started shining. Not so long after I hit a small village, maybe some 300m across, which is not even marked on Google Maps, where I was greeted by these cows.

They stood there in an astonishment gazing at a shrouded traveller on a bicycle. More and more cows kept coming and I was totally flabbergasted by all this attention. The rest of the day was spent cycling the idyllic country-side in the rays of the setting sun. Lesson learnt: the straightest route is not necessarily the best one.

Husqvarna and Jönkoping.

There is nothing interesting about Husqvarna except its fascinating name, which gave the name to the company. There is something about Swedish language or rather city/town names, which make them good candidates as brand or product names. To name a few: Dingle, Tomten, Smögen, Tanum, Morup, Kvia, Floby, Demore etc. There is actually a company named Demore, something I learned only later. So if you ever need to come up for a catchy name for your brand, just take a look at the map of Sweden. Zoom in to the level of villages for real gems. In case you want to make it sound more exotic with a touch of Scandinavian aesthetics, just pick a name with umlauts. No need for such aberrations, as Häagen-Dazs.

The setting of Jönkoping reminded me of Geneve with the long lake and neatness everywhere. Similarities end here though. The town did not seem to be any exciting, apart from the fact that it is a birthplace of a matchstick. There is even a museum dedicated to matchsticks there, which was promptly skipped. The area around Jönkoping is much more interesting with it lush forests, swamps, gnomes, trolls and fairies. None were seen, but maybe another time.

1000

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1000km broken today somewhere between Falkenberg and Halmstad.

Some stats
Average speed: ~20km/h. Dropped to 17-18km/h, once I got to Western Sweden with all that wind.
Max speed: 52km/h, downhill somewhere in Gränna
Average daily distance: 100-120km

The joys of travelling

Solo cycling is a lone affair. I’ve been on my own most of the time. Most of the covesrations I’ve had have been with cashiers in supermarkets.
“Hello! How are you?”
“I’m fine, thank you”
“Is there anything to do/see here?”
“Not really. It is a very small place”

Not much of a profound conversation really.

When I left home, it was sunny and hot. In Sweden I expected even warmer weather and beautiful blonde bikini girls, but found neither. Cold and windy. I had hesitated to bring a fleece pullover with me, but luckily I did. I ended up using it along with woollen socks almost all the time. Space blanket was intended for emergencies, but I’ve been using it every night. Two first nights spent in the forest with extremely early wake ups due the coldness and was almost ready to go back home.

So this is how I felt, when I arrived to LyckebygÃ¥rden for vipassana: cold, aloof and sleep deprived. Ironically all this misery prepared myself for what was about to come. At least for the time being I had a warm bed and a hot shower and I didn’t have to cycle anywhere. Suddenly the prospect of ten days sitting did not seem so bad.