Well, I'm back home, and I have made my photos available here:

http://www.bios.ch/photos/stockholm2004/

Greetings to all who have followed this journal, that will be finished with this entry.

Well I lost my Lucia entry because I'm sitting on a really stupid public internet terminal. Please check goolge about Lucia :-(.

I was attending a really nice Lucia concert at Engelbrektkyrka.

My Swedish course is almost finished. Tomorrow will be the last day, and that will be the day when I leave Sweden. Monday evening I will be back home.

That's it for the moment. To hell with this terminal!

I had a really great weekend in Kiruna!

When the night train arrived at 11am in Kiruna, I decided to stay in the train and make the detour to Absiko and Björkliden and come back with the next train. I think it's one of the most beautiful railway lines on the shore of Torneträsk lake and it was worth the additional 3 hours on the train.

Some info about Kiruna:

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?queryArt5665=kiruna&searchDepartmentArt5665=332&param0Art5665=xxxkeyword_articletypexweather&d=332&a=5665

The weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday is good! -4/-13 and -8/-12 degrees C.

Long time since my last entry. The weather was really bad the last week. About 5-7 degrees C, the snow hast mostly melted away. Furthermore the sun didn't show up, it was all grey.

Today for the first time we had sunny weather again and I used the opportunity to go up Kaknäs tower, the tallest building in Skandinavia (about 150 m, that's not a lot, but the view from up there is great). I did my Swedish homework there and stayed until the sun set at 14.50h.

This time I found the clubstuga of Järla IF. Most of them did the training with the skis, since the slope is just beside the cottage and the conditions were still good. But I ran with three young orienteers through Nacka and Södermalm, mostly through the city, since in the forest it would have been dark :-). We ran for almost an hour and the pace was quite high.

I moved again, to Stuvsta (belongs to Huddinge) which is about 15 min from Stockholm Central with the Pendeltåg. I'll stay there for the next two weeks. I have a one room appartment with a small kitchen. A family I know from Switzerland lives very close and it's through them that I got there.

Besides that, planning for a weekend trip to Kiruna is going on, more information follows.

Finding internet cafes is really a pain here. My usual one is closed on Mondays. I checked a list I got from the tourist office, and two of the cafes have closed in the meantime. The one Im sitting in right now is really cheap, but they disallow telnet and ssh (as most do). It sucks ...

Right now its snowing. Its cold again ...

Today I made a boat trip to Vaxholm. It's about a 5/4 hour ride. Vaxholm is a village in the Skärgården and to be honest, there is not really much to see there. Its nice to drive through the archipelago though.

The internet cafe is closing in 5 minutes, so I have to stop for today.

Thursday now, and its warmer. The snow is melting and its really wet on the streets.

Yesterday I have been to "Skansen" park. Its very nice. It is rather lonely now and I didnt stay to long outside because it was a really cold day.

I have seen the bears (not yet hibernating), lynx, a wolf, the järv (dont know what's that in English ...) and: älgen (moose). Some female älgs, two young ones and one male with a big "Geweih".

Okay, its tuesday now and I had swedish lessons the second day. Its not too hard, 2.5 hours plus the homework. We are a class of 12 people from all around the world.

Today I moved from the youth hostel to a bed and breakfast place, which has a more personal atmosphere. The host woman talks only Swedish too me, what is good :-). My room has the view to a park what is very nice.

Well, I have arrived in beautyful Stockholm: Its winter here, everything is white by snow.

Today I went ice skating in the city (Kungstraedgarden). The sun has been shining, of course only until about 3 pm.

Tomorrow my Swedish lessons will start.