New years, Sweden, and Climbing

I'm not writing much these days because everything is getting more and more frantic up to the trip. I had a great christmas with close family, and received a number of very useful gifts for my trip, including a headlamp, razor, motorcycle-maintenance manual, Jupiters Travels (book), and more. New years was great too and I spend most of the evening (well... morning really) with my brother and a few of his good friends. it's been too long since we got drunk together, and we both had a fantastic time. Somehow, I ended up with this amazing new hat which I'm now trying to fit into a box along with everything else in my apartment:

This is when you know it's time to call it a night:

On the first of January around four o' clock, when the worst of the (surprisingly minute) hangovers had evaporated, I was picked up by a friend for a long-scheduled trip to Sweden along with two others. Let me tell you, spending january 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in a hut in Sweden with no running water, no heating but the fireplace and a stove, and only a small solar panel incapable of producing enough energy for all the nights, is probably the best way to enter the new year. Ever. In the universe. Four friends went. We all came back better men.

The night we arrived can only be described as majestic. The nearby lake had frozen over, making for an eerily beautiful landscape.

I had to hold my breath while taking pictures, otherwise this would happen:

In Sweden, it's illegal to sell alcohol of more than 3,5% in the stores. This made for some problems since we arrived too late for finding "systembolaget" which sells the stronger stuff (like, erh, regular beer). either way, it seems Christoffer managed to get drunk anyway :)

The sun never got much higher than this.

The good life! There's something about having to work for these things we usually take for granted.

This handsome fella is my good friend Andreas, who is also a very good amateur photographer

HC wasn't too happy with my advances it seems.

The views! The colours! The light! The... Wait, who's that guy, he's blocking the view!

This was the last one I took before I ran out of battery. Stupidly, I'd left the extra one at home. Sadly, that means I don't have any photos of our trek across the frozen lake. I'll ask Andreas for permission to post some of his.

Andreas and I found some nice rock formations that we'll attempt to climb this summer when I get home. This little trip made me realize how much I'm gonna miss everyone! Wow. Six months is a long time!


Since then I've started panicking about the trip. There's time enough for everything, I hope, but I'm so afraid of forgetting something, or running out of time all of a sudden. I've packed my entire apartment, and set much of my travelling gear aside. I'll make sure to post my packing list at some point.


Two days ago I went climbing, and I finally remembered my camera. Forget images. Behold the future: Video!
The first bit isn't on a route, I just had some fun. The other guy in the video is Andreas.



I had a hard time finding a foothold on those two last grips and I didn't have the strength or the will to get to the top that day. I've reached the top before, and seeing the video I can totally see what I did wrong.


I've decided to try and break up my blog posts into more edible chunks. One subject per post, ideally. Hopefully I'll be able to get out a few each week this way, but no promises since I'm not sure how often I'll have internet access readily available.

Only three more nights in Denmark. Tomorrow I'm throwing a goodbye party for the closest friends and family. My next travel-related post will be written on the plane if they have a power outlet. So long Denmark!