December 31st: Spending quality time with quality people

New Years Eve. Last day of 2019. I wasn't feeling very connected to any symbolism with that, but it was nice that we had a good day.
We woke up in Oskarshamn and drove west. Our plan was to visit with Sweden's premier alt processing photographer in Bjuv, then head up to Falkenberg for the night. On our way to Bjuv, we stopped in Vaxsjo for some absolutely killer vegan pizza. I'm still okay with bread but can't do seitan. The fake meat they used was Oomph!, a pea and soy protein product. So I got protein on my pizza! Food makes me so happy!

Vegan pizza!

Sign in a Circle K bathroom for eating less meat

The man Per had connected with in Bjuv had moved there with his wife from Gothenburg in order to set up a larger photo studio and to host workshops. Shortly after moving, his wife got ill. She passed away two or so years ago. He hasn't had the heart to even pick up a camera since. The studio looks like she just walked out for a minute in the middle of her process, not like she has left and will never return. He was incredibly kind, and heartbreakingly honest. He was also really generous with his time. He showed us all around, and talked about their lives, and the various processes. She was really big into gum printing. There was a pile of torn prints that he let us take some of, so we walked away with a few scraps of her art. 

At 4, he paused our discussion because it was sushi time for his cat. He has a bengal named Soletlun who is his bosom companion. She gets a bit of raw cod every day at 4, and had begun to ask for it. So we went in, drank some coffee, and hung out with the cat while she ate.

After well over twice as long as we'd originially planned to stay, we finally pulled ourselves away from Hans' warm company and delightful cat. We drove up the coast to Falkenberg, where we took in the fireworks from an old bridge in the center of the city. Swedes do fireworks at New Years, not in the middle of summer when everything is dry as a tinder box. And they take their fireworks seriously. It was the best!

December 30th: Southern Gotland

We woke up earlier, hoping to catch some morning sunlight. But the sky was grey. We strolled through Visby, snooping down alleys and spying at old churches. The guy we are renting from said that the major reason for the churches all being abandoned was the plague!! We walked down to the water, then up by the wall. We found a corner fortress that you could actually get up into, so that was nice.
In the botanical garden, we found decorative English Ivy, bamboo, and butterfly bushes. It's funny that these are plants that Portland is working hard to keep at bay, but in Gotland the weather is still too cold for them to spread out of control.
All in all it was about an hour of strolling around without a crutch. I did okay until right at the end when my calf started to tighten up something fierce!
Our first stop out of Visby was to hunt down the wild horses of Gotland. They are an old breed native to the island. Or, rather native. They've been there for a few thousand years is all. And it turned out that they weren't so wild at all. We drove down a little road, looked into the fenced area to our left, and there we saw a small herd of horses munching on fresh hay. It was great big enclosure, but an enclosure none-the-less. They were beautiful. Stubby and fuzzy and completely uninterested in us, but beautiful.
After the horses, we headed a bit further south to the studio of Sweden's finest carbon printing photographer. Per had been in touch with him and he was willing to show us around his workspace. When we arrived, we were greeted by a fierce and tiny dog, and there was evidence of a studio cat as well. Peter Ragnarsson is the photographer's name. He gave us a very thorough walk through of his process. Hopefully someday we'll get to go back and take a workshop from him.
When we'd talked ourselves short on time, we headed out to catch the ferry back to the mainland. My foot still wasn't up to driving, so I had a good chance to take in the burning-red sunset.
That night we stayed at a weird little hotel in Oskarshamn, right on the water. Weird but okay. But weird.

A rose in the city. Gotland is warmer than mainland Sweden. Some say that it's maybe the fabled island of Atlantis because the roses bloom all year.

Cobblestone streets

Below: The view from inside the fortress

Below: I rant about capitalism, in two videos.

Gotland horses

Carbon print of a photo of an earth star

Burning sky

December 29: All Over Gotland!

We woke to morning light shining on the church bells in Visby. Some of the church bells. Visby has a beligerant amount of churches within its city walls. The most of any European city I think. The husband of the couple we are renting from said that it's because Visby was originally inhabited by a bunch of super rich families. And every family had their own church. It was a sign of prestige. In fact, they maintained the city wall to keep the farmers and other poor people out of the town! At least, that's what he said. Also that before it was part of Sweden, Visby itself functioned autonomously and the rest of the island was part of Denmark.

My foot has some nice coloring, don't you think? Day 7 of the sprain.

View from the window

Morning walk in Visby

Cute graffiti

A dog waiting outside the grocery store in the town square

Per walking up the hill back to where we were staying

The parking lot by us was right by the city wall, and also an adorable old fire station

We visited Furillen limestone quarry on the north eastern end of Gotland. Here is an interesting article about the workers' history of the place.

Limestone arch!

We drove to Faro, or Sheep Island. We had to take another ferry, actually. It's always fun when you have to take a boat to get somewhere. We didn't spend much time here. It was cold and windy and my foot hurt. We drove out to this old fishing establishment, Helgumannens fisklage. More on that here. 

The fishing houses had these cool hooks made out branches. Seems repeatable!

It really was out in the middle of nowhere!

Per took some photos of the village. I can't wait to see them!

Most of the restaurants in Gotland were closed for Christmas break, but there was one crepe place that, amazingly, had vegan crepes! So we got a very tasty dinner out!

December 28: Visiting with Eva and Putte, driving to Gotland

In the morning, we visited with Eva and Putte, Johan's parents. They are two of the loveliest people I know, and I'm really grateful that we got to see them. They are full of interesting stories, and I collected a few of them for the zine about Sweden.

After the visit, we went to Linkoping for Per to skate in their indoor park. It was in the same building as some community spaces. While we were there, there was a religious gathering in the space below the cafe. While there was the sound of skateboards coming in from one door, beautiful chanting was raising up from the floor. It was a little surreal.

When we left on this road trip, we hadn't really decided where to go yet. We thought about Norway, but the train was all booked. There were no flights up north to Kiruna that made sense. So we had just rented a car with a return date of January 1st, and figured we'd sort it out as we went. We did! We decided to go to Gotland. It's a big island three hours off the coast of Eastern Sweden. The ferries run late at night, so we had until 7pm to get there. We didn't quite do our calculations right, and it took a little longer than we'd thought to get dinner in Linkoping (but it was REALLY TASTY), and Per had to drive like a bat out of hell though unlit country roads to get us to our ferry on time. We couldn't figure out how to get the audio to work with my phone, so while we were driving I read from the only short stories book I had on my kindle, a collection by Frank L Baum for children. Every story ended with a moral. They were weird stories, and paired well with hurtling through the night with a do-or-die trajectory.

We made it to the ferry in time! Our airbnb for the next two nights was a tiny house inside of Visby's city wall. It was on the upper part of town, and overlooked multiple church ruins and the winding streets below. We were worn out, but the view was beautiful and we slept well.

The apartment in Vadstena

Inside the apartment

Very low ceilings 

Eva and Putte

Chocolate cake with saffron and smashed candy cane frosting. It was an unconventional and not synergistic combination.

Cake before dinner in Linkoping

Driving onto the ferry

Chilling on the ferry, as reflected in the window

December 27th: To Vadstena

We left Mats and Viveca in Karlstad and drove south to Vadstena. Not only is Vadstena an absolutely adorable town, especially at Christmas time, but we wanted to visit with our friend's parents who have hosted us multiple times.

We found snow!!

Rast Marie: Swedish roadside attraction at its best!

 

Downtown Vadstena, decked out for the holidays

We stayed in a house from the 1700s. The ceilings were low and the furnishing was antique. It was beautiful.

December 26th: Walking With a Crutch

It was another mellow day. We went into Karlstad and had lunch with an old friend of Per's. I brought just one crutch. The city's cobblestones make for uneven walking, and I went pretty slow. I mostly used the crutch for balance and social signalling. It was really interesting to watch people react. It really measured people's spacial and social awareness. I didn't do well with shifting my course side to side, so I mostly hoped that people would stay out of the line I was walking in. Most people did that naturally. A handful of middle aged, well dressed men either almost bumped into me or had to shift out of the way at the very last second.

Also I found vegan Magnum ice cream at the ica.

December 25th: Actual Christmas

Swedes are basically done celebrating by the time the 25th rolls around. We had a pretty mellow day, except that we went out for a homecoming skate session at the Karlstad skatehall. I hobbled around and watched people. I was down to really only needing 1 crutch at this point. It was helpful for balance, but it was also helpful for my ego. I didn't strictly need it to walk, but I still walked funny and appreciated folks getting out of my way and not jostling me, and a crutch communicated that really well.
The skate session was really nice. I was worried about my mood ahead of time. It's hard to be at a skate session and not be skating, so I'd thought I'd get sad and angry. We'd gotten an invite from a Gothenburg skater, Katta Sterner, who had also grown up in Karlstad. It felt good to get invited, and it's always good to say yes to things, and Per, of course, was really stoked to skate. But I'd still been worried. It was fine, though. The skaters were friendly, and there were a few 14 year olds who were really extra keen to chat with me. I photographed and interviewed one of them for the zine, so that felt useful.
Right as we were leaving, we figured it would be prudent to check the little store to see if there was anything we should buy. Katta pointed me towards a skate magazine that heavily featured female skaters, and which included a skate tour she'd done the photography for. And also there was a giant pile of Servant skate shoes. Per and I have been skating Servants for five or so years, but they went out of business. We thought our days of skating Servants were over! But one of the guys running the shop got charged with selling off all their old stock! So Per and I each came away with a few pairs of shoes!!

Swollen and bruised

More desert.

Big wall art outside the skatehall

Miniramp painted like a basketball court, and a big street section

Look at all those Servants!

That art lights up evidently!!