After having toured the booths of antiquities, I decided there was only one message that fastened in my head…Don’t throw anything away! From elaborate furniture made hundreds of years ago or exquisite Chinese statues and porcelains to the simplest collections of electrical switches, woven rag rugs or almost plain junk the exhibitors did a grand job in displaying things that were worth more than what grandma or grandpa would have imagined. Too, it was fascinating to see items from the fifties and sixties fetching interest from both the curious and the investors.

Perhaps in honor to my mother, I was one of very few men taking on the array of colors presented in an attractive Sewing Festival. She could’ve stayed the whole day trying out the new computerized sewing machines on display or sitting at one of many workshop tables discovering a new part of her lifelong interest in sewing. Having taught me how to sew, I just enjoyed the cloth and fabrics. I was also looking for booths that connected with knitting and wool with thoughts of my wife. I wished that both of them could have been there today.

And, for a bit of Shetland, I found Yorkshire native Renee Darely spinning on a Shetland spinning wheel! But, where are all the Shetlanders and their lace work? Where are the Shetland knitting belts? Where is Shetland in this festival? (Note: My wife is an exceptionally good spinner and has a Shetland spinning wheel)

As spring comes nearer, plans to visit the Wilderness Fair, International Boat Show and The Nordic Garden Show are on the agenda for me. Most assuredly the weather will then be much better than today. Aren’t fairs, shows and festivals fun?

Photo: The frozen bay is an example of the terrain near Kärgingboda Nature Reserve

Responsibility for the reserve’s upkeep and preservation lies on the shoulders of The Archipelago Foundation in Stockholm County. There is one long access road through the peninsula that covers most of the area and several paths allowing visitors to hike deeper into side areas. Toilets and parking areas are quite adequately spaced along the access road as well as natural beaches can be found for recreation. The foundation has a house that can be rented and used for group activities. This is appropriately named “Sågen”, or sawmill, and had earlier functioned with this capacity.

Winter is probably the least likely time to visit Käringboda, but I found several people out skiing across the bay or, like myself, taking a long walk. I was fascinated with all the majestic oak trees, a reminder of my Ohioan background. I was also attracted to the fact that a few farms actively exist within the reserve and mirrored a commitment to a living cultural landscape where nature and humans co-inhabit peacefully.

Photo: Oak trees in co-existence with a living cultural inheritance and typical of many places in the archipelago around Stockholm.

In spite of the dismal grey of winter, the snow gave indications of deer, fox, snowshoe hare and wild swine activity as these live amongst the sharp hillsides, cliffs and deeply cut valleys of Käringboda. One can only imagine what the place will look like this spring and upcoming summer when everything has leaves and is much greener and alive. Well worth a visit anytime of the year!

Photos: Though the boat show may look empty, most people were on platforms along side the boats to get into them and look around

Trade Show Nr. 1: Stockholm Luxury Boat Show
Ever since I was a boy and my father took us to the boat shows in Cleveland, I’ve always been enthused with this form of cheap entertainment. The Stockholm Boat Show was not disappointing. One could find water craft from large yachts to small inflatable kayaks and a variety of booths with equipment, clothing or anything that could be useful on the water. Naturally, I was thinking of Shetland and was especially wondering how my friend Willie would feel about some of the boats that were on display.

Photo: The Food & Beverage Show was most popular and quite crowded

Trade Show Nr. 2: Food and Beverage Show
For me, this was a risky place. I love to look at new kitchen utensils and the variety of food that can be had. There were a lot of people and many of these were carrying a wine glass in their hands. Being new to this kind of trade show, I discovered that the wine glass could be taken to the many wine booths and people could taste the wines. They also had whiskey-tasting booths.

But, so many people and tiring legs, made me decide not to sample the foods nor drinks and I went on to the third show…

Trade Show Nr. 3: Health, Wellness & Fitness Show
If one became slightly “heavy” from doing the Food & Beverage trade show, then a visit to the Health, Wellness & Fitness Trade Show could have been just what the doctor ordered.
Photo: A massage demonstration
This show provided new ideas and developments in health and a variety of health foods, products and solutions were on show or available. It was sooooo… healthy! But…

…three trades shows in one day was a little too much! One particularly positive side from my visit is that I finally bought myself a new camera bag. The old one, now almost 30 years old, was replaced with a watertight bag; the kind that would be found in boats. Not too big and not too small and just right together with a laptop and note taking paraphernalia when needed. And, trapsing back and forth alone in the mountains or on Shetland cliffs, the color is perfect should something happen to me. I’m pretty happy about my new bag.

Photo: Ösmo Church has origins from the middle-ages and is south of Stockholm in Nynäshamn

Photo: Interior of Ösmo Church with 15th century wall and ceiling paintings by Albertus Pictor

One thing that we enjoy together is to visit churches. Besides visiting Nynäshamn’s central church to listen to a choir concert, we also visited the old churches in Ösmo and Sorunda. If I remember right, both churches are from the middle ages, if not earlier. Ösmo Church is known for the church that the Swedish author August Strindberg first preached, when he briefly had aspirations of being a minister. Sorunda Church is the burial place for the author Moa Martinson, where she lived most of her life.

Photo: Sorunda ChurchPhoto: Gravestone of the Swedish author Moa Martinsson

It was a great weekend and even involved an unexpected autumn market in the central part of the city.

According to the Swedish Tax Agency, Swedish citizens are to register their intent of staying in another country, should this stay be more than one year. Abidingly, we did the paperwork. We left the country for Shetland. We returned to the unexpected run-around and administrative stupidity of just one of Sweden’s inability of making things work.

To be able to have a television, mobile phone, broadband, any type of identification and do many bank errands Sweden has a system of each individual being cleared via credit checks. These credit checks are based on the computer information of social services and the tax agency. Now, here’s the important part… if you’re not on this system, you can’t get television, phones, broadband, ID’s etc.

To get back in the system, one informs the Swedish Tax agency, who collaborates with Social Services. For myself, it wasn’t enough to go to the local social services to register. I had to take the time to go to the offices in Stockholm, wait in line to get a queue number and wait a couple of hours more to show my passport and register my existence in the country. This I did August 14. Worse off was for my wife. The Social Services office in Jokkmokk no longer exists and the closest office for her was a two-hour drive and one-day-away-from-work away.

In spite of registration, I am still, at this writing, not in the system. A phone call to Social Services and an overworked service administrator revealed I had to wait at least 6 months! C’mon Sweden!

It’s easy to deduct that Sweden does not work! Sweden is becoming a backward country with good marketing skills to hide its unofficial backwardness. It was easier to leave Sweden than to return to it. It was easier to start living in Shetland than returning to Sweden.

I have a feeling that, next time we consider living in another country, we will not follow Swedish laws that make the return part a real head-banging pain-in-the-butt. It feels like being punished for obeying the laws. But, that’s Sweden for ya. Think twice before leaving it…then, think a third time with returning!

As we stood on Hrossey’s deck, we passed Lerwick and Gulberwick with heavy hearts. Next day, the drive from Aberdeen to Newcastle was uneventful, except we were confronted with inconsequential and sometimes total absence of road directions and signs with the drive around Edinburgh. We came to Newcastle and got on board the ferry to Amsterdam without any mishaps or problems.

Photo: Saturday morning sunrise. Soon landing in Amsterdam

Well in Holland, our road map was giving confusing signals. Getting back on track, we hit several stretches of road maintenance (C’mon, on a Saturday??), long lines, waiting and time ticking…traffic accident on the autobahn to Kiel…long line, waiting and time wasted…

From all this, we consequently missed our ferry from Kiel to Gothenburg! Shucks! Crap! So, using the small rural roads of northern Germany, we followed an alternative route from Puttgarden, Germany and caught the ferry to Denmark. It was now nighttime. Drove through Denmark. Crossed the Öresund Bridge to Sweden and Malmö. Now on familiar turf, we were so tired that we found a scheduled castle area, dragged ourselves and sleeping bags to an elm tree and feel asleep under its branches.. It was 2 a.m. and we had been on the road for 20 hours.

Photo: Small rest at an ostrich farm outside of Stockholm

After a few hours of sleep, we drove to Växjö and stayed with an old friend, getting some R & R that Sunday. Monday morning, we continued to Nynäshamn, just south of Stockholm. I had a job interview for a teaching position next morning. Tuesday noon, after the interview, we drove to Umeå and stayed one night with our oldest son. Wednesday, August 5, we finally arrived in Jokkmokk dead tired. We had been on the go with Jeppe, who never let us down, for 6 days. What a road-trip, heh?

Photo: Circle complete. Arrival home!

Thursday evening I got a call from the school in Nynäshamn wanting me to work for them. I spent Friday & Saturday helping Brita get the essential furniture back in the house (beds, for example) Sunday afternoon, I threw essentials into the jeep and drove to Umeå, stayed with our son again, and was in Stockholm on Monday. Arrived back in Nynäshamn Tuesday morning and looked for a flat, got a flat and started to work Wednesday morning at the school.

Mentally, I’m still in Shetland. I’m missing our friends, the sea and Shetland’s peaceful respect and celebration for life. But, being up to my ears with a new challenge in education and not having the time to dwell on these thoughts, I’m not sure what topic(s) will dominate this blog. Possibly, comparative thoughts about both Shetland and Sweden? When things have settled and fall better into place, we’ll see… but, for sure, we will return to Shetland!

When we started to plan our sabbatical to Shetland, we considered sending a few “boxes” ahead of time. This idea was largely to ease the costs of gasoline required for the trip as well as thinking in an environmentally way. But, having intensely searched internet and a dozen or so phone calls to shipping and freighting companies in Sweden, the trouble and search became too negative and we had to make compromises. The Swedish excuses for this were that shipping companies didn’t know where Shetland was, they never ship things for private people only businesses (which wasn’t a problem) or they would charge colossal amounts for insurance on less than 1 cubic meter; thus giving a we-don’t-wanna-give-you-service response.

Now, when returning to Sweden and the remote rural area of the sub-arctic, we again decided to try to ship a few boxes using a local Shetland shipping and freighting company. To our wonder and amazement, we stumbled upon one of the world’s most sincere, capable, knowledgeable and service-minded professional shipper this side of the world… Streamline Shipping of Lerwick!

Our first “trial” box with Streamline got to its destination in a week’s time…door-to-door service. Today, I sent two more personal item boxes and was met with the same service enthusiasm as the first i.e. handshakes, nothing impossible, first name friendliness, yes-sirs and…”come back and we’ll treat ya t’ some ice cream”!

With my question of ever needing to freight things from the sub-arctic to Shetland in the future, there were absolutely no problems. Mike Davies, the manager of Streamline in Shetland, only needed a post number, names & addresses and Streamline would take care of the rest! It was just to contact them. I got personal help with paperwork from Ms. McDonald, office administrator, and she even followed me to the warehouse, rolled my boxes away and gave me a handshake and the invitation of ice cream.

Streamline works with other similar companies, has a large park of trucks and a container ship and centers its business with Scotland and the U.K. But, I’m confident they can deliver anything from here to yonder.

The next time we need that all important we-care-about-you service with shipping requests, I won’t even consider Swedish shippers with the attitude I was met with. Streamline is now at the top of my list and I’ll recommend Streamline Shipping in Shetland any day!

PS- This is not a paid advert but comments from a satisfied customer
PSS- Jeppe is almost loaded, the flat almost clean and we’re off soon.

Det är inte utan att jag tycker det ska bli trevligt med skog igen även om jag önskar att att litet hav med tillhörande strand kunde finnas i den.  Jag har blivit  “havstagen” med andra ord.  Att bo vid havet och uppleva havets egna liv har varit en upplevelse och jag kommer att sakna det.

Vi har träffat  fantastiska människor som också lämnar sina spår. Här kan två åldre damer nämnas som båda föddes i Kina, levde där under delar av sin barndom. Hamnade därefter i Nya Zealand och Australien, kom så småningom till England och till sist Shetland.  Tänk vilka liv!

Naturligtvis kommer vi också att sakna våra nya vänner men två av dom har faktiskt redan beställt biljetter för att besöka oss under marknaden. Det ser vi fram emot.

Ha det bra tills vi kommit hem och kan rapportera lite från vår något kringelikrokiga hemresa.

For the most part, we will be on ferries during our return. More fun to be in bunks, relaxing, than fighting traffic on freeways and roads. Safer and environmentally friendly, too

After a year we’ve discovered many things. Some things on Shetland we’ve spoken about as “a Victorian way of doing things” or “Victorian thinking”. With other things, we’ve learned some positive ideas that we will carry with us. In the broader view, Shetland’s culture is exciting, the ocean has become addictive, great friends have been made (and will be missed) and we haven’t become tired of or bored with Shetland after 1 year & 1 month.

As one of our friends once said, “you’ve gotten some roots”. I can only agree and, as we pack our bags, we have the words “We’ll Be Back” in our heads. Somehow, I think Shetland will be a bigger part of our lives in the future…only, we just don’t know when.

PS- Laplandica’s blog will return, as we will report on the trip back to Sweden and other thoughts and experiences we’ve had on the way. Right now, we’re on the move…

Photo: Cruise ship arrives in Lerwick

I’m completely convinced that this method of touring has become popular and passenger rolls have increased with each sailing. For Shetland, and especially the small town merchants of Shetland’s largest city, they provide a full till of cash that is dumped by passengers anxious to buy native wares and services. If I’m not too wrong, this season will have brought in close to 50 cruise ships of various sizes and are very important for Shetland’s commerce. This particular cruise ship, the Costa Magica, had about 2000 passengers, or about 25% of the population of Lerwick.

Photo: Each passenger is welcomed to Shetland with traditional music and a warm handshake

One intriguing event that caught my eye, as I parked Jeppe on Victoria Pier parking lot, was how Shetland welcomed these passengers onshore and to Shetland. Since the ship was so large, a series of smaller boats worked in shuttle, transporting passengers between the main vessel and Albert Wharf. As the came onshore, Shetland had arranged for local musicians to play traditional music and a local personality to shake everyone’s hand and personally welcome them to Shetland. Great PR, isn’t it?

Seaways vs Airways –
Due to recent air carrier price increases, loss of creature comforts on flights, intense and almost “paranoiac” complications with check-ins and security at airports and the ever-present “what-goes-up-could-come-down-unwantingly” sensation on monster airplanes, I personally feel that it would be positive to observe an increase in ocean travel.

Photo: The ferry to Bressey is drawfed by the size of a modern and impersonal “monster” cruise ship

But, does everyone really want to pay for 4 story shopping malls, outdoor swimming pools, activity leaders, casino machines, unknown stand-up comedians and entertainers, elevators to huge restaurants and having to hold a small map in hand so as not to get lost on board? Does one really enjoy a 6-9 hour marathon run to see popular points of interest in a world famous city? Why not simple cruises that give more time to explore foreign ports and harbors in exciting new countries and less time wasting on the ship?

Is it the destination or the journey to it, that’s fun? Consider a smaller cruise ship with adequate and quality cabin arrangements, a library of excitingly good reads, intimate eating arrangements allowing passengers to discover each other, chess boards, water-color tutoring and hours of just relaxing in fold-up chairs watching the sea pass by and using binoculars to count the aquatic bird life during the day. One can easily imagine themselves being an Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart, as these two hang over the railing, sharing a cigarette, a small scotch and talking about “love” on a moonlit ocean evening?

I would definitely be one of many that would choose a cruise with that theme, wouldn’t you?

Photo: An alternative method of ocean cruising from Sweden