A Proper Spring

Spring arrived early in Stockholm this year. By March, temperatures creeped up to a whopping 6-7 degrees Celsius during the day and the heavy duty winter gloves were put in storage, then taken back out again, then put in storage again, then taken back out again, and by the end of March they were put back in storage once more and have stayed there for the last month. Overnight temperatures still hovered just above or just below freezing, but after the long winter (which by Swedish standards would have to be nearly the shortest on record) it felt relatively warm. Maybe it was the light. Gone was the occasional sighting of the mythical round orb far on the horizon between 10am and 2pm for an average of what seemed like 73 seconds a day. In what seemed a period of a week, although I am sure it was far longer, the sun was waking me up at 4-5 am and its eerie late night glow keeping me awake when I went to bed at night. Yes, curtains would surely keep the house dark, but from our experience so far, Swedes don’t like to waste the daylight and the meagre see through blinds in our house are seemingly there to merely dim the glow. I questioned a few natives on this fact and was simply reminded of the long dark winter and the need to make the most of the long days in summer... fair enough.

Early March saw some scum bag steal our cycle trailer and two of our bikes from our front porch one Sunday night much to our annoyance. I have only had bikes stolen in two countries… Sweden and Japan. A statistic that seems a little unbelievable but no doubt driven by being a little too complacent in both comparatively ‘safe’ countries. I later found out Sweden actually has a very high rate of bike theft, no doubt driven by the many people that actually ride bikes here… well in summer anyway. Speaking of which, I actually loved riding the bike in the winter. With studded tyres fitted, hard packed ice and snow drifts were made short work of. When I finally got myself some wool lined gloves and my hands didn’t freeze after five minutes ensuring I could still operate brakes, gear and brain cells and I wasn’t going through one of the fortnightly sick cycles, I really enjoyed exploring the wider area in the frigid conditions when the chance presented itself. That’s not to say I did not breath a heavy sigh of relief when the temperatures started to rise… it was greeted with the fondest admiration. Most of Stockholm seemed to awaken from hibernation too. We saw and met neighbours we had never even laid on eyes on before, the many children’s playgrounds were busy once more, and it was not an uncommon site to see people with their eyes shut, head tiled slightly backwards, simply looking at the sun in an attempt to absorb as much goodness as it was willing to hand out. We were no exception.

Summer was well and truly around the corner… or so we hoped. The year was soon booked up with visitors, holidays, plane tickets, holiday houses and rental cars. It wasn’t long until the whole of 2014 was mapped out before us. Once it was all booked, it nearly felt more relaxing than the holiday will hopefully be itself!

The first visitor came all the way from sunny Dunedin and turned up at the end of March. In the days before he arrived we had one of the biggest dumps of snow we had had all year. Yet Adam timed his stay to perfection. Temperatures soared into the teens, the spring flowers quickly sprouted least they didn’t get another chance and we even attended the first (albeit slightly premature) barbeque of the season. The moment Adam left it started to rain non-stop for a week and both Ana and I came down with yet another fever. Things were definitely looking promising, but a good old spring cycle of warm / cold appeared well and truly set it.

A final dump of snow?

Less than 1 week later...

Quick... time for a barbeque

 A late Easter followed by the 1st of May also offering a public holiday a week later to welcome the Spring in, ensured three long weekends in a row. We hired the usual tiny suspect of a car from the local petrol station for a few krona and spent Easter exploring the areas surrounding Stockholm. Friday was a frigid cold day and combined with an unfortunate selection of clothes (always a fatal mistake anytime of the year in Sweden) saw us heading home from our coastal walking early via the now notorious Ikea to stock up on summer visitor supplies such as extra bedding.

Easter... All the cool kids wear shades in Stockholm. Their eyes are not used to seeing the sun!

However the following three days fared much better and was spent carrying way to many clothes in the basking sun in what felt like heat (although to a non-Swede was probably more akin to a cold breeze). We made the most of the car visiting areas that required complicated public transport connections and with friends explored Tyresta National Park south east of Stockholm and Eldgarnsö Island to the west. At the end of the weekend, coloured by the sun, but not burnt to a crisp like we would have been in New Zealand, we felt like we had risen from the darkness. Well, we had actually.

 

Now that's a track marker you wouldn't see in New Zealand!

Ana and friend... riding the trails

Floating picnic stop - Eldgarnso Island

 Which brings me on to summer… was it summer already? Was this in fact the start of a glorious 6 month long pattern of long days, warm temperatures, barbeques in the garden, long bike rides in the twilight, winter gloves staying put in the back of the top drawer? Probably not and as the ever pessimistic locals told us, ‘well at least we will get one nice week this year’. Fact is, we actually had three in April. Unheard of and probably already forgotten by most, although it’s hard to know what to believe. One thing I do know is I woke up this morning at 6 am, went down to make myself a coffee and it was snowing!

 

Ana was excited to see the fountains nearby had been turned back on

The locals burning the witches on 1st of May