Here comes the sun...

July 04, 2021

It’s been quite some time since I last posted on here. Over these past couple of months, I’ve been enjoying the slow return to an active life here in Stockholm. We’ve taken full advantage of the many hot and sunny days, with frequent BBQS, picnics, drinks in the park and copious amounts of ice cream (Emil and I are on a mission to find Stockholm’s best spot!). Along with outdoor eating and socialising, the arrival of summer has brought with it a return to Felicity and I’s weekly open water swims (and hopefully a swimrun, if my ankle allows, this coming Tuesday); mine and Emil’s first overnight hike with my new tent; the end of Eva’s PhD; and a big event in the Swedish calendar: Midsommar.

On the work side of things, I’ve yet again been rethinking where to take my PhD as Norway still won’t let us in to collect the data we need. I managed to get a little time in the field though as a few weeks back I took a trip to Dalarna (~3 hours northwest of Stockholm) with Simon, Stefan and Josefine, to make videos about the landscape and how it was formed, as a replacement for a cancelled student field trip. On this filming trip, we were blessed with decent weather, making lunchtime swims a welcome possibility in the numerous nearby lakes, but this also meant it was prime conditions for mosquitoes, especially when we were out collecting cores from a bog – I think there’s a lot of flapping and hair flicking in those videos!

To add to my copious mosquito bites, the following weekend Emil and I caught the train to Tyresta National Park, about 1 hour south of Stockholm, for a sweaty hike through the woods, along the water and to a large lake where we found a secluded spot to pitch our tent. While our side of the water was quiet forest, it turns out the other side was a popular bathing spot, so our tranquil evening out in nature was accompanied by some upbeat tunes until around 10 pm when the day trippers departed and left us in peace (minus 2 very persistent ducks who wanted to join us for dinner and breakfast). Despite the mosquitoes and ducks, this was a very successful trip and we just need to update Emil’s hiking boots to avoid any more blisters on the next overnight hike we have planned for this August.

Back in Stockholm, we’ve had a few occasions to celebrate. At the beginning of May it was Emil’s birthday. After a chilled evening including a treasure hunt and dinner at mine on the actual day, Emil treated us both to a meal at his favourite Stockholm restaurant, Sushi Sho. This is a tiny little restaurant serving many courses of Michelin star sushi accompanied by various sakes straight over the counter from the open kitchen. Every bite was delectable; the fish melted in our mouths, the rice was the perfect texture, temperature, and level of acidity, and I was amazed at just how varied sake can be. All in all, a very memorable night out. The next celebration came as my office mate Eva reached a monumental milestone, the end of her PhD. Here in Sweden, when you finish your PhD, you submit a thesis and then have a defence. This is a public event where you present what you’ve found over the past 4-6 years and then a panel of experts question your work and check you really know what you’re talking about. Eva, of course, passed hers and gave us cause for great celebration. In our department, tradition dictates that those celebrations include the presentation of a hat, and not just any hat. This is a hat made by the other PhD students in their unit and it should represent the defendants PhD. Eva had studied tree rings so naturally, we made a tree hat, attaching a mini Christmas tree to a top hat and decorating with this all things Eva related, from a Portuguese flag to a cornetto ice cream. The final big event over here this month was Midsummer, which this year I celebrated in true Swedish style with pickled herring, potatoes, strawberry cake, shots of snaps and games in the park along with five of Emil’s friends (a great chance to practice my Swedish). This was a great fun, but slightly eventful night as among our celebrations we met an 8-year-old boy who had run away from home so we called the police to collect him, there was a power cut in Emil’s building so three got stuck in the lift until a kind neighbour managed to prise open the doors, and one member of our party managed to crack a rib while climbing a tree. Definitely a Midsummer to remember.

I’ve decided to keep things brief this time around as much of my time over the past couple of months has been spent writing and re-writing up my research for my PhD. Instead, I’ll let the pictures do the talking, after all, they do say a picture is worth a thousand words…