I’m such a lame jogger. I’m actually not a jogger, but a permanent wannabe jogger. My running sessions are so seldom, that the shoes I got two years ago for this, they still look new. They are, actually.

But now I have a personal trainer (in the image below), that I met on my route yesterday, from Hornsberg strand to Norbyvägen and back.

He suggested that I track my laps, so I can keep a history of my pace, speed, distance and even location. A friend told me some time ago about MapMyRun so I set up an account and added yesterday’s data. However, you need a big enough screen to actually see some information in between all the ads they put on.

And here is my lap from yesterday.

However, this is good enough if you’re not from Kenya. If this is the case, everything changes. You have to win, or if you don’t, you have to finish in under 2:30h. And win the next one.

13,718 people finished the 31st Stockholm marathon this Saturday, out of which 13,717 came after a Kenyan.

As a nerd that I am, I turned to Google for an answer to the question “why do the Kenyans run so fast?” and Google showed me this article, which I think summarizes the answer in an articulate way:
“…the answer is really kind of simple. Just live with them for awhile. You’ll quickly understand.“

Please follow this link for more photos I took during the race.

Now at the end of May, by the time I get off work at around 6PM, there are still 3-4 hours of daylight to enjoy any outdoor activity that requires light. Enough time for a short cycle trip to try out my new D300.

Yesterday it was a sunny day and I was looking on Google maps for a place with something interesting to photograph toward the east, where the warm light of the setting sun was falling. I settled on a spot in Gärdet’s easternmost tip.

After some research today I found out that the place is called Hundudden (dog peninsula).The Swedish Wikipedia states that the name has a connection with “one hundred men”, which was the meaning of the word hund (dog) in medieval Swedish and had something to do with the defense force in the event of a war.

The same page states that there was a kruthus (gunpowder house) in that place around 1700. Now there is a cafe called Kafe Kruthuset. Gunpowder house coffee … it has to taste good. Here are some other funky product names.

Getting back to the Hundudden area, it is great place for an evening picnic. You get a nice view toward Lidingö, bathed in the sunset light and you can watch the boats, including the big Silja line cruise ferries going to Riga, Tallinn and Helsinki. The place is a bit remote from the populated areas, being a cozy retreat for birds.

After playing with the too-smart-for-me AF system in the D300 and taking the photos shown below, I cycled north, following a path through the Kaknäs forest along the beach.

I also found out that the place hosts Kaknäs Djurkyrkogård, which is an animal cemetery, which I plan to look for the next time.

But unfortunately, the plane went up a little bit more to the left, screwing up my plans. The route was a little bit different than most of the planes I watch through my apartment window taking off from Bromma. Therefore my home, along with the center of Stockholm and all the beautiful buildings, were on the right side. Bummer!

A little bit sad, I started to read my book and half an hour after the take off I look out the window and I see the view from the picture below.

First I thought it’s the Öresundsbron, linking Sweden with Denmark and I resumed the reading more satisfied. But later, when I saw the image on the computer, I noticed the bridge doesn’t look quite as Öresundsbron.

One of my friends on Flickr recognized it as the Great Belt bridge between the Danish islands of Zealand and Funen. Here it is on the map:

About 10km north of Kopingsvik you will se a road sign that says Aleklinta gard, and when you reach a gas station and you probably are going to see camels, turn left from road 136.

This is how part of the driving directions to Äleklinta Gård, our accommodation place on Öland, sounded like.

“You probably are going to see camels” … come again? It must be a sign on the road, we concluded. But no, they were real camels, right there, in a farm next to the road. And just across the street from the llamas farm. The first time in my life that I see a camel for real is in Sweden, on Öland, an island in the south-east part of the country.

We checked-in our stuga (cottage), which you can see in the image below, just in time for a beautiful sunset over the sea.

The room’s window was toward the water and later that night, when I went to bed, I noticed that the light from the moon was reflecting from the water surface directly onto the ceiling. What’s better in this romantic environment than to watch Jackass: The Movie, on the small TV set sitting in the corner.

When reading about best conditions for outdoor photography, one is being told that early morning and the dusk give best light conditions. I’m not the kind of person willing to jump out of bed at 4-5-6am, to get the first rays of sunlight, but Saturday morning my throat had a different opinion. I woke up at 6 with a sore feel in the throat. It seemed like a good opportunity to take a walk on the beach, which was waiting just outside the door.

The sun was shining, with that morning soft light, the water was so calm, but the birds were very much awake and active. There weren’t many of them around, or as much as I noticed with my untrained eye, but the ones present were making as much noise as possible. Once in a while a passing duck was announcing its presence, breaking through the high pitch sounds made by other small and quick birds.

The south

Right after breakfast we started to explore the island. Öland has a long shape and its interest points are spread around the whole island, making driving around between them a little tiring. I think one needs at least 3 days to examine the whole island without missing anything. We had 1.5 days.

First on the list was the Borgholm Castle. I have nothing special to say about our visit there, aside from what you can read on the link.

After a quick lunch, our journey continued with a stop at the ceramic centre in Färjestaden, a place with plates, vases and all sort of decorative candle holders at sky-rocket prices. The place has a cozy cafe and a few steps further toward the water will bring you to a vantage point from where you can admire the 6km of Ölandsbron, the longest bridge in Sweden, which is the connection to the mainland.

Next stop, Långe Jan, the tallest lighthouse in Sweden, situated right on the south tip. Next to the lighthouse, there is one of the biggest bird observation points on the island. At the time we were there, I would estimate at least 500.000 euro worth of electronic and optical equipment being handled by all the bird watching enthusiasts around.

We wanted to get to the northern part of the island in the very same day, but the driver (me) was exhausted from the intense sunlight throughout the day and the strong and constant blowing wind. And highly unmotivated from the unending scrolling of the map of Öland, which made the destination in the north seem so far away from our location.

These being said, we concluded it’s better to postpone the trip to the north for the next day and have dinner in the town of Borgholm, then go and see the next spectacular sunset at the stuga. Which wasn’t that spectacular in any case. At least not as spectacular as the one in the first evening.

Traversing the island from east to west, to get to Borgholm, we passed by what could be described as a mini-airport. It was basically a big backyard of a house, with 3 small aircrafts pausing near the grass lane. I’m the last person you would want as a plane pilot, but even to me, the prospect of having my own small airport in the backyard seems pretty awesome.

Borgholm is one of those nice little typical Swedish towns, with pedestrian streets in the center, sided by small shops. Another typical thing about this kind of Swedish town is that everything is closed in the evening, including most of the restaurants. Eventually, we managed to find one open, crowded with all the tourists absent from the suddenly chilly streets and the exhausted driver mentioned above was able to recover some of his senses.

The north

Next day, the north of the island unveiled to us with its Långe Erik, which is another lighthouse, and Trollskogen, a forest with old pine trees twisted by the wind, which looked pretty much the same as the woods in Lord of the rings.

Between Långe Erik and Trollskogen we made a short stop for coffee, in a house next to the road. An old lady took our order for 2 coffees and we paid for each 20 kronor (about 2 euro), which is a decent price for a coffee in Stockholm. She started to brew it and 10 minutes later, she came out in the garden, where we were seated, with a 2 liter pot full of coffee. I was aware that the Swedes drink probably more coffee than water and this confirmed it once more.

Öland is abundant with wild life, formed mainly by birds, but also hares, deers, moose and probably others. On the way to the northern part, we drove on a side road and stopped next to a small pond. The place was a micro universe, where we saw around 5 types of birds. One of the them was acting annoyed by our presence, making noises and moving in random circles above us. The reason: it had some eggs laid on a small grassy bulge right on the ground.

It is said that Öland hosts about 400 windmills. Given that it has a surface of 1344 sq km, then there are about 3.3 mills per sq km. This basically means they’re everywhere and some of them are very photogenic.

After leaving the island that day, we barely had time to drop by the castle in Kalmar. It was getting late and Stockholm was far away, at about 5 hours driving.

Here you may find more images from the trip and at this link some other nice photos from Öland.

Getting back to Valborg, in the evening large fires are lit in various areas of Sweden, as a sign of celebration. There are a couple of locations in Stockholm for these fires, and that evening I went together with two friends to Riddarholmen.

The day was perfect, with a beautiful sunset happening behind the City Hall, a bit chilly, but very warm nearby the fire, if you managed to make your way there through the crowd. There were about 500 people gathered to watch that particular fire on Riddarholmen, from families with kids sitting on top of their parents’ shoulders and covering their faces from the heat, to drunken Russian tourists posing for photos taken with mobile phones in front of the fire.

After watching the fire for half an hour, we cooled down with beers in Akkurat. For a couple of hours.

There are two ways to get there, I’ve been told.

One is to drive 30km on a road from Sirdal, then hike for about 3 hours.

The second option is to take a ferry on the Lysefjord to Lysebotn and then climb 1000m to the top.

The not so enticing 1000m climb and the rental car smiling in the garage made us pick the first option. The scenery on the way there is gorgeous. Unfortunatelly, the road was closed a few km after Sirdal, because of the snow. So we stopped, switched to hiking boots and continued on foot on the road, to see the area. Even without reaching Kjerag, it made for a very nice road trip for a day.

If you get to Stavanger, you need to go and see Preikestolen. This is the number one touristic attraction in the area. It’s a rock that looks like a pulpit, hence the name, the Pulpit rock. The 604m vertical wall straight down to the fjord seemed like the best cure for my acrophobia and agoraphobia.

Fortunatelly, the fog came promptly to the rescue, as we started the ascent. With the visibility reduced to 10-15m, the prospect of walking alongside the edge of the 600m drop became much easier. Also fortunatelly, 15 minutes after we started our descent back, the fog raised a little. We decided to get back to the rock and it was a good decision, as we were rewarded with about 5 minutes of visibility down toward the fjord.

This pleased us, it pleased a sweaty and improperly dressed for climbing guy, who got lost on the other side of the cliff, but eventually managed to find the right way and it certainly pleased the young couple eating potato chips, sitting centimeters from the abyss on the edge of the rock.

Here is a detailed story of the journey to Preikestolen, not our journey though, with hints on transportation.

Please check out the set of images from Norway on Flickr.

Stavanger is not a quiet little town, as I was expecting. Coming late at night from the airport, I left behind the noise of the helicopters taking off to the oil platforms and I found the town noisy, with clubs swarming with people all around the centre. Every ten meters on the narrow streets with old wooden houses, groups of youngsters were smoking outside pubs, at around 3am, a time when probably most of the Stockholm inhabitans were sleeping.

Next day, the only sunny one I got, I drove to see the famous sand beaches, which stretch for a few km, in between the North Sea and Sola airport. It’s a popular place for windsurfing, due to the generous supplies of wind.

While waiting for another helicopter to take off toward the oil platforms, I was watching a kitesurfer teaching another one how to handle the kite. Then the more experienced one went away on the sea until almost out of sight, leaving the novice crawling in the water near the shore, in a constant struggle to communicate with the kite.

I also paid a visit to the Petroleum Museum. At first, I was reluctant of seeing pipes and boring tubes filled with various types of oil and rocks, but I have to admit I found it rewarding, both information and entertainment wise. Besides, it’s interesting to see how Norway got so expensive that one can rent a car for more than double the price of the plane ticket there.

Enlightened by a 3D movie that shows some basic and at the same time, new to me, methods for extracting oil, we drove to an island called Rennesøy, north of Stavanger.

To get there, we passed though 2 tunnels under the water, one with the length of 4.5km and the other one going for 6km underneath another island. The journey led us to an island with landscapes formed of hills of green grass, much alike the ones in Braveheart, which seems to be completely covered by private farms, each with its own scent of manure. Water, islands, hills, rocks as far as the eye can see.

Please visit the set of images from Norway on Flickr.

I went there with a friend who had a GPS device and recorded the walk, which summed up to 11km.

We went around the island, first going on the east side toward south. The terrain is flat in that area and gets more rocky on the north-west side.

It was very silent, so we could hear the snow flakes hitting the leaves, accompanied by the ice craking on the water around. Small joys of life.

Not much else to mention here other than someone left a grill near this tree that I photographed in my previous hike there and that Brostugan cafe closes at 17.

As I mentioned before, the place it’s a circular area with a diameter of about 100m, with a small chapel called S:t Eriks kapell placed between a couple of trees. The buildings that surround the small park are painted with nice vibrant colors, which I thought will look good in a day with clear sky.

That day was today. During lunch I went there and took a couple of photos, taking advantage of one of the first complete sunny days of this year so far.