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. 

Riga!

Doncs... finalitzats els cursos del primer bloc (tots aprovats!) i durant les mini-vacances que teníem (un cap de setmana ¬¬), vam anar "de creuer" a Riga amb uns quants companys.

El viatge és ben simple, i ben habitual aquí a Uppsala i àrea d'Estocolm. Agafes el ferry al port d'Estocolm, passes 17 hores al vaixell (vespre, nit i matí), gaudeixes 5 hores (o menys) de la ciutat, i tornes al ferry, de camí cap a Estocolm altra vegada. No és luxós, ni còmode, ni molt agradable, però surt bé de preu si vas amb prou gent i, almenys, et permet fer una mica de turisme (i comprar alcohol, pels interessats).

A nosaltres ens va tocar viatjar amb el vaixell MS Isabelle, que té història i tot. És bastant vell (25 anys) i no és molt gran. Les cabines més barates (de 4 llits, a la segona coberta, ubicada per sota del pàrking de vehicles) són petites i els passadissos estrets. No és fashion, ni modern, i té un aire rococó bastant cutre, però almenys pots dormir en matalassos, que ja és alguna cosa. I les cabines inclouen lavabo i dutxa, que ja és tot un privilegi.

In English:

So... after finishing the courses from the first block (all passed, yeah!), some friends and I spent our holiday-break (one weekend ¬¬) in a cruise to Riga.

The trip is simple and very common here in Uppsala and Stockholm area. You take the ferry at Stockholm's harbour, spend 17 hours in the ship (evening, night and morning), enjoy the city for 5 hours or less, and go back to Stockholm that same evening. You won't have any luxury, and it is not very comfortable, but it's cheap if you go with some people and, at least, you visit the countries around you (and buy some alcohol, if you are interested in that).

We travelled with the MS Isabelle ship, which even has some history. It is quite old (25 years) and is not very large. The cheapest cabins (4 beds, in the second deck, under the vehicle's parking) are small and the hallways are quite narrow. It is not fashion, nor modern, it reminded me of the Rococo era, but at least we slept in matresses, which is something good. We also had our toilet and shower in the cabin, which I considered a privilege.

Re-visita d'un dia a Estocolm

A mitjans d'octubre va venir l'Albert a visitar-me i vam decidir passar un dels dies a Estocolm. Tots dos ja havíem visitat la ciutat al 2008, de manera que vam dedicar el dia a re-visitar les parts més cèntriques i conegudes, i gaudir del dia i del bon temps que ens va fer!

Vam agafar el tren des d'Uppsala cap a les 11.30h i vam arribar a l'estació central d'Estocolm una hora més tard, aproximadament. En cap moment vam agafar el metro, així que vam caminar tot el dia pel centre d'Estocolm, per Gamla Stan. Primer de tot, vam acostar-nos a l'edifici de l'ajuntament. Aquesta vegada no hi vam entrar pas, el vam observar des de fora. Després ens vam dirigir cap al centre de Gamla Stan, i ens vam perdre una estona pels bonics carrers.

In English (Show / Hide) ▼▲

Around mid October, Albert came to visit me and we decided to spent one of the days in Stockholm. Both of us had been there before, so we just spent the day walking, re-visiting some of the charming places in the city centre, and enjoying the day and the amazing weather we had!

We took the train in Uppsala around 11.30h and we arrived in Stockholm an hour later, approximately. We didn't take the metro, so we just walked around the whole day. First of all, we went to see the City Hall but we didn't go in, since we had visited it before. After this, we just went straight into Gamla Stan (the city centre), where we "got lost" in the beautiful streets.

Una mica d'Uppsala

Sincerament, no he vist moltíssimes coses a Uppsala i voltants, però un mini-resum sí que puc fer, almenys per donar una idea de la ciutat i la cultura d'aquí.

Quan Uppsala encara gaudia de temps d'estiu, a principis de setembre, jo i uns companys vam anar al sud de la ciutat d'Uppsala, a Sunnersta (prop d'on visc jo), al llac Ekoln. En aquest llac hi ha zones de bany, petites "platgetes", i també s'hi poden fer activitats aquàtiques, per exemple, anar amb canoa. Al voltant del llac hi ha moltes zones urbanitzades, amb casetes típiques sueques, però també hi ha moltes zones verdes i de bosc, carrils bici, camins, rierols, i racons amb molt encant.

In English (Show / Hide) ▼▲

Honestly, I have not seen a lot of places in Uppsala, but I think I can manage to sum up some, at least to give an idea of the city and the culture in here.

When Uppsala was still enjoying of the last bit of summer, early in September, we went to the south of the city, in Sunnersta (close to where I live), to lake Ekoln. The lake offers small beaches to swim and some aquatic activities can be practised, such as canoeing. The surroundings are mainly urban areas, with typical swedish houses, but there also are green areas and small forests, bike lanes, walking paths, streams, and very charming spots.