My own art-skating pieces... and craziness

Skating Scene by Hendrick Avercamp

Wow! So I've seen that my first and last post on skating has been read a few times! Not sure if these are good or bad news! Because of that, I may feel too much freedom and happiness. Let me say that I'm sorry in advance in case a crazy-skating-avalanche of posts happens. ^^

Artistic skating gives you everything

In case someone has missed out and still don't know... I'm obsessed with artistic skating, also known as figure skating, both on ice and on wheels (roller skating), partly because I used to roller skate, and compete. I've been willing to write about it for a long time, but I did not know where to start. It is kind of overwhelming. So, I am thinking I'll write about technicalities and the sport in itself further on... but, right now, I just want to explore the art within the sport.

“Chase Your Dreams” from Nikki Smith.
All Rights Reserved. Fine print arts available here.

Fast post: cycling in Barcelona

Typical bike line in Barcelona

So now that I've moved back to Barcelona, and I've been away for two years, every time I take the bike I'm like: wait. Do we have bike lanes here? Or at least, more than before? Where are they!? How can I get to where I'm going?

New Zealand: South Island itineraries

Wither Hills Farm Park, Blenheim

As I said in my North vs. South island post, I only had the chance to visit the South Island, but I think I made a really good job, so here I'm sharing you an overview of what I did, what were the itineraries and how much time I needed to do them.

In order to make everything easier, I'm going to briefly explain my trip to NZ, so you can understand what happened there. I went to NZ to take a course at Lincoln University and I used the opportunity to visit the country. So, I went there and travelled a bit before the course (13 days), I did the 2-week course that took place in the Canterbury area (in Lincoln), and then I travelled a bit more (9 days) after the course, before leaving for Barcelona (stopping in Brisbane, Australia). So my NZ adventure was divided into two parts, and here I'm going to explain them.

New Zealand islands: north vs. south!

Nowadays, more or less everyone has to work, lives on a tight schedule and doesn't have a lot of holidays. Therefore, if you have the chance to go to the other side of the world, in this case New Zealand (NZ), it's almost certain that you will have to choose to visit only one of the islands of the country. Sorry, I mean, if you want to travel a bit and spend time on each place you visit. Of course, you can always fly from one point to the other, take a picture and go home, but that's not what I mean. :) Anyway, if you are trying to choose, some will say that the South Island is the best, and others will be like "how can you miss the north one!?". Well, it's a pity but shit (or life) happens. How to choose? Of course, it depends on what are you looking for and what you are more interested in. And, here, I'm going to try and shed some light on "what you will find and can do in each place" so you can be happy and confident of your final decision.

Destination New Zealand: some tips

Jeremy Rebboh in Panoramio

I've had the chance to, finally, travel to New Zealand, after a long time wishing for it to happen. So when I realized I was going to fulfill one of my biggest dreams in life... I had to decide where to go, what to see, what to do, and how much time I could spend in there (sometimes you have to limit yourself). So, after a really good trip, I wanted to share my choices, experiences and thoughts, hoping they can be helpful for someone else. And here I start with a bit of a general introduction and some tips!

Swedish Lapland: around Kiruna and Abisko

So... almost half a year later, yes, I finally write about Swedish Lapland! It's been a busy 2015 so far. And I'm going to start from the very beginning.

For those who still don't know anything about Lapland, it is a cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sápmi people and it is located in Northern Europe, extending over Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia (you can find more info on Wikipedia, of course).

 

Weather contrasts of Sweden

Now that I'm more or less free and I have some time to look back, I wanted to share one of the curiosities of Sweden: its "weather" contrasts independently of the season. I know I always end up talking about the weather, pictures and landscapes, but you know, is one of the things I enjoyed the most. Here comes a "pic post".

These first images that I'm sharing are from Uppsala in November of 2014, on the 25th and the 26th, respectively. And you can appreciate the outstanding beauty of all of them. Different lights and colors, but all enjoyable. So we were approaching winter and we were lacking some sunlight, and autumn gave us a warm, beautiful and shiny day (maybe one of the last ones, enjoyed by all) which was followed by a foggy and wintery day that was premonitory of the exciting never-ending-grey that predominates winter, and spring.

Ice hockey in Uppsala

I just got home from my first ever ice hockey game, and I enjoyed so much I needed to write this post right away.

So we went to the ice rink (Gränby Ishall or Gränbyhallen) where I skate (I'm doing some basic ice skating there), and we witnessed this awesome sport (I had only watched it once before, from a TV!). Where I come from, we only have roller hockey or field hockey (no ice, remember?), and they are both quite important and interesting disciplines, but ice hockey is a lot more fun to watch! For starters, the speeeeeeeeed! And the fights!!!

Just as a heads up, and from what I have learned during the game, ice hockey games generally consist of three periods of twenty minutes each, the clock running only when the puck is in play. The teams change ends for the second period, again for the third period, and again at the start of each overtime that is played. I cannot say anything about the rules because it was IMPOSSIBLE to see and learn anything but, in general, all infractions of the rules lead to game stoppages, and the game is then restarted with a crazy face off. Want to know more? Let's go to Wikipedia...

Well, so the game faced Almtuna IS (from Uppsala) against Rögle BK (from Ängelholm), and it was the last game of the season (I think) from the second highest league of ice hockey in Sweden (HockeyAllsvenskan). BTW, the final result was 5-3 (2-0/0-3/3-0) for Almtuna and all goals were scored on our side/end of the rink! =D

Hiking trails through Uppsala: Gula Stigen or The Yellow Trail

Uppsala can feel quite small if you are used to live in big cities, but it can also feel very fresh, natural, and free. The city is surrounded by fields and forests and, therefore, there are a lot of opportunities in terms of outdoors activities. "Low level" hiking (of course, almost no hills here!) is one of them, and today I'm going to talk about the Gula Stigen trail.

"Gula Stigen is a hiking trail of about 10 kilometres long, running from the Studenternas sports stadium via Kronparken, Rosendalsfältet, Ultuna hagar, Gottsundagipen, and Vårdsätra Forest, to Skarholmen. It was created as a skiing and hiking trail back in the 1930’s. What is unique about this trail is that runs through an almost continuous green belt in the middle of an urban environment. The trail’s surroundings include broadleaf groves, old pine forests, arable land, and pastures. This means that you can enjoy a rich variety of countryside. The terrain is occasionally slightly hilly, with boulders and roots, but there are also easily accessible stretches in the northern part of the trail that are suitable for disabled persons" (from Uppsala Kommun).

It is an easy hike, although it can be quite tricky if done during the winter months, as ice and snow cover the path and it becomes slippery. In these case, you are never too careful! That is also one of the reasons it took so long to do it. I think it can take about 1h 30m, more or less, in spring or summer conditions.

Some pictures I took the other day (February 21, 2015):

Path through the forests

Food craziness in Sweden (intolerances, I mean)

I'm not going to complain about anything at all because, LUCKILY, I'm talking about intolerances and not allergies, but they are giving me a hard time anyways, I also have to admit that. Fact: I'm currently intolerant to lactose AND eggs.

So, last year, when I was in Copenhagen, I found some products that helped me overcome my lactose problems and I managed to be, more or less, happy with my life. You know, it's really difficult to live without dairy products. I know vegans, I know! You do it! But I have not reached that state yet, sorry, although... who knows! Ironically, vegan diet would be the best for me but, please, with a steak on the side! (another fact: I'm trying to reduce my meat consumption, there you go ^^).

Let's go back to Denmark. So I found some products in there and I was okay with that (read post about that). But when I realized I was moving again, this time to Sweden, I got scared for a second. Shit! Will they have lactosefree milk? Some cookies? Butter? I mean, scandinavian gastronomy is based on dairy food, but I didn't know what to expect and, as I said, Denmark was not heaven, you know. Moreover, lately, in Spain, they've been releasing all these fancy lactosefree products that danes didn't even had, so I was kind of jealous and all. And then, as a parting gift (thank you, btw), I developed my intolerance to eggs, which just made everything awesomly perfect (and goodbye to trying to eat less meat...).

Whatever. And August arrived, I moved to Uppsala, and I went grocery shopping for the first time. And, oh, babies, OMG!, Sweden is the LACTOSEFREE HEAVEN !!! Ok, maybe not that much, but almost!

And this is just the ICA selection (Willy's also has lots of them!)

New, nice, fun and weird experiences at swedish uni

>>> SPOILER ALERT: BOOM ! SHITTY ENGLISH AHEAD ! <<<

So... I'm just going to put together a lot of different things in one single post, which is... stuff that I did on the courses I took. I'm not going to write a lot, just post some pictures and videos that I took... which I think they make really special memories.

During my first block of courses (from september to november) I took a course called "Soils of the World", where we basically analyzed and assessed types of soils, and also learnt the typical soils that you can find around the world, according to climate conditions, etc.

So, field trips consisted basically of digging and observing the soil "wall", or just taking some soil samples here and there. Location.

One day (very very windy and cold) we went out and saw and tried how to extract sediment cores (this long piece of soil that seems a snake xD) which allows us to differentiate soil ages (every slice of different color has a different "age") and gives us information about climate and soil conditions in the past. That day was cool, in both senses. Location (somewhere around here ^^).

L'aventura de Varsòvia i la ELLS Conference 2014

Sento que fa ja mil anys... però sí, resulta que al novembre, del 12 al 16, vaig anar a Varsòvia, a una conferència relacionada amb el meu màster (EnvEuro) i, per què no assumir-ho, a fer turisme i veure els companys que l'any passat eren amb mi a Copenhaguen i que ara són a Viena.

>>> Pista: les fotos i la informació turística estan al final del post, per si interessa <<<

Doncs l'objectiu inicial d'aquest viatge és la conferència que, cada any, organitza la EuroLeague for Life Sciences (ELLS), que és l'organització que "acull" el meu màster. En aquesta trobada/conferència per estudiants i professionals s'hi duen a terme vàries activitats, com presentar les tesis de màster o grau (de la gent que ho decideix fer), pòsters sobre altres temes, entregar premis anuals dels millors estudiants, tesis, etc., algunes beques o premis monetaris, i coses així. Cada any té un lema i es duu a terme a una ciutat i una universitat europea diferent, i enguany era a Varsòvia, a la Warsaw University of Life Sciences (WULS-SGGW), i el lema era "Brave New Thinking, Brave New Sciences, Brave New World". Per qui tingui curiositat, aquí hi ha fotos de la conferència.