20:41 Sat.
24 Aug, 2013

BBQ & Hike

Day 16 , 131 remain
Lulea , Sweden
17 °C
Fair
4:40 am
8:23 pm

Yesterday I managed to do enough work on gallery that I can say it’s finished (for now). Currently there is only one album (pictures from blog) but I will (soon) post some other albums as well.

Yesterday evening we had a get to know each other BBQ. It was in a different part of tow so we had to walk for about 30minutes to get there. It was really fun meeting and chatting with all those people from all over the world. There was a guy from Korea, Argentina, USA and of course most countries of Europe. There are really a lot of French and Germans and we are 4 Slovenians (although I still don’t know who the 4th person is). Later in the night we split in to two groups some went to a party in the centre of Lulea others stayed at BBQ area.

Today we were scheduled for a hike to the old town (Gammelstad). We walked through the forest for about 1.5 hours. The track was really narrow and through some swamps again but this time there were wooden boards on the ground so we didn’t sink in to the mud. At the midpoint we came across a (bird) watch tower. I’m sure this will be my favourite destination in winter for watching northern lights.

Swamp in Luleå
Swamp in Luleå
Swamp in Luleå
Swamp in Luleå
Watch tower
Watch tower

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we arrived to the old town we went to see the church (again), this time there was a girl singing and playing organ pipes. It was really cool. Later we went to the same coffee place as last time. Today I had this cake (see picture). It was really good but I liked the last one better.

Cupcake in old town
Cupcake in old town

Soon after we split in to two groups. Most went back with the bus, few of us walked back through the forest. When we arrived to the university we were just in time to go on a campus tour. The campus is divided in to several buildings that are interlinked with underground hallways. These will come in very handy when there will be -30 degrees outside, because you don’t have to go outside to come from one building to another

Toilet in the middle of the forest
Toilet in the middle of the forest
Different buildings around the campus are connected with underground tunnels. This comes in handy when it's -30 C outside.
Different buildings around the campus are connected with underground tunnels. This comes in handy when it’s -30 C outside.

The university is beautifully build with a lot of wood and windows. I will try and take some better pictures of it later and maybe describe it a bit more in to details. So far I’m really impressed with it and it is much better than in Slovenia (until they build us new one next year (I hope)).

After I finally came home I grabbed something to eat and took a shower. It was nice to sit down after a whole day of walking. I almost forgot. Today the last roommate arrived. So now we are Slovenian, German, Spanish and 2 French guys. There was another French here before, but he exchanged place with Spaniard because there was some mix-up with papers and contracts at the beginning so they were in wrong dorms until now.

Now we have another BBQ, but this one I’ll skip because I’m too tired from walking whole day long. Later I will probably go to a welcoming party at the university, if I’ll manage to get up from this chair.

01:19 Fri.
23 Aug, 2013

Aurora borealis

Day 15 , 132 remain
Lulea , Sweden
9 °C
Fair
4:36 am
8:27 pm

I was preparing to go to sleep. Before I went to the bathroom I gave a quick look out of the window and what a sight. Northern lights, a bit dim but still noticeable from my dorm room despite all the lights on the parking lot below. When I saw them I took my camera with light speed and took couple of shots. Here is a taste of it. My only regret is that I didn’t go with other guys out of the city lights to watch them. I wasn’t expecting them this early in the summer (there is a bit of horizon still visible at this hour).

First sight of northern lights.
First sight of northern lights.
23:58 Thu.
22 Aug, 2013

To see the princess

Day 14 , 133 remain
Lulea , Sweden
11 °C
Fair
4:34 am
8:32 pm

Today we had an academic workshop class at university. It was an information class for Erasmus students, where they told us basic information that we’ll need while studying here. After this class we went to another building to get our LTU cards. This are something like Slovenian student’s cards except here you can actually enter university with it. If I’m not mistaken, here you can come to university at 3 am in the morning, unlock it with the card and study or do whatever… There is only one problem with this cards, they took our pictures on the spot (in front of a desk) with web-cam (that couldn’t be HD) so we are all weird on this photos now.

After we got the LTU cards we (me, roommate and some friends) went to the city. The crown princess of Sweden was coming to Lulea on an old boat (buoyancy operated aquatic transport). The ship is a remake of 18th century Swedish East Indiaman. It’s the largest sailing wooden ship in the world.

East Indiaman
East Indiaman, 18th century ship.

When the ship came close to the harbour it fired few cannon shots. I managed to get a picture of it, although the sun was just behind the ship so I had terrible lighting conditions. I think Nejc managed to film the event so you can probably check it out on his blog when he’ll post it.

Canon action from 18th century ship.
Canon action from 18th century ship.

The sailors on the ship were all dressed in period clothing and when the ship docked they began to sing (in English) some pirate song. It was really cool to see. The crew was also manning the sails and running all over the place.

East Indiaman
East Indiaman 18th century ship.

When ship finally docked the princess came off the ship and to the main stage on land. Where they (city officials) told something in Swedish. Later she spoke 3 words (I was actually expecting a speech) and then she laid some memorial stone on the ground. After that she went back to the ship. She was there just to look good for the photos, I think.

Swedish princess
Swedish princess

Almost forgot; this time I went to the city with bike it took me around 15 minutes which is remarkably faster than walking (1h).

21:33 Wed.
21 Aug, 2013

World became smaller

Day 13 , 134 remain
Lulea , Sweden
14 °C
Fair
4:29 am
8:36 pm

Today I’ve been working on blog some more. I’ve almost finished gallery, you can’t enlarge photos yet, but hopefully I’ll manage to do that tomorrow.

On the other news I’ve finally managed to buy a bike. I’ve got it from some Swedish guy for 500 SEK. He said he’ll buy it back in December when I’m going home, so total price will be cheaper still. The bike is basic with only 1 gear but it has a light (which will come in handy in few months) and I got a bike lock for free. It’s a good bike for price although I’ll probably struggle with it when it comes to slopes, thankfully there aren’t that many around here.

When I came home I met my new roommate. He’s from France so I’ll probably be able to buy another bridge or a river (internal joke).

21:26 Tue.
20 Aug, 2013

Meeting new folks

Day 12 , 135 remain
Lulea , Sweden
15 °C
Fair
4:25 am
8:38 pm

The days up here are getting short really fast. Now you can barely see horizon at the darkest of the night and the sunset is well before 9pm already. This morning (or rather middle of night) the sky was coloured with really nice blue gradient. Exposure was around 10s, so the picture looks much lighter than it was in reality, but the sky is approximately the same colour, although I don’t know where those concentric circles came from.

Night sky in Luleå
Night sky in Luleå

At around 11am I and my only (for now) roommate, whose name I finally know, went to the university where we had “get to know each other” picnic. Well it wasn’t really picnic for say … When we were to go outside it started to rain so we sat in the lobby and talked, while too many people were eating salads (come on, you don’t eat salad on picnic 🙂 ). After about an hour the sky cleared so we were able to go outside. We went on a nearby field where we played some (Swedish) games.

Oh yeah, and for socializing part, I found out there are really a lot of Germans here with Erasmus and I met another Slovenian. It was quite funny actually as I didn’t know he was Slovenian and all of a sudden someone says something to me in Slovenian, I must have looked confused because everyone laughed then and he repeated sentence in English, it turns out we actually go to the same faculty in Slovenia.

Winning team
Winning team
Swedes
Swedes taking care of us. Look at the hair. 🙂

Later this evening another Slovenian, this one I know, came here. He’s name is Nejc.

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