Swedish adventures aka my PhD

Kungsträdgården cherry blossom. One month in to my PhD and I'm settling into things here in Stockholm, especially since I moved from the AirBnB to the south of the city to my little studio apartment, 10 minutes walk from uni.  The weather here has been exceptionally incredible since I returned from Norway; all the Swedes keep saying how unusual this is and warning me not to get used to it so I'm trying to make the most of the blue skies while they last! Since my last post I've had plenty of chance to explore Stockholm and its surrounds with a palaeoglaciology field trip to the north of the archipelago and a sunny 4 day weekend for Ascension day. Having just got back from Norway, I was straight back out into the field, just a little less extreme and a little closer to home this time. Some of the glaciology group were making a trip to Norrboda, an island about 2 hours north of the city to look at some glacial landforms, including a large boulder cave that...

View from the research centre What a way to start my PhD! After a week of getting settled into the Physical Geography department at Stockholm University I was straight on a train to Oslo and then Finse to visit my ice cap, Hardangerjøkulen, and try out some geophysical surveying. Benny (my PhD supervisor) and I set off early on Saturday morning, travelling 9 hours across Sweden and half of Norway to reach Finse via some incredible scenery on the Oslo-Bergen train. Finse is a small town, situated at the base of Hardangerjøkulen, which is not accessible by car and is currently covered in about 3m of snow. Once there, Adam (one of my lecturers from Leeds) collected Benny and I on the skidoo to whizz us over to the research station where we were staying. Heading out into the field We were greeted with a delicious meal of soup, elk stew and chocolate mousse, all cooked by Marit, the amazing cook who provided us with  hearty, Norwegian meals each morning and ...