TAWOMG - Heading North

Dear Friends,

Long time no news. I apologise. After the trip to Italy I went back home and was in Barcelona the whole month of May. On 11 June I left Barcelona by car, heading north. My destination: Uppsala, in Sweden. I had enrolled in a Swedish language course, which started two weeks ago. Now I have another four weeks to go. When the course is over I intend to spend a few days in Stockholm and then continue my journey to the north. Actually, I'm planning to drive to the northernmost place in Europe, to Cape North in Norway. For decades I wanted to see the midnight sun, now it seems I will have the opportunity to do it.

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The first port of call on the long trip to Sweden was in Chambéry, where I visited Alexandre, Murielle and their children. I first met Alexandre 19 years ago - by coincidence here in Uppsala, where both of us were attending a summer course. At that time I was a total beginner in Swedish. Alexandre was in an advanced course. We both more or less belonged to the French speaking group of students at school: for him, French is his mother tongue, for me my second language. That was the beginning of a great friendship that we kept alive during all these years. Since then both of us lived in different countries and were up to different things. Alexandre got married and had children. Despite of the ups and downs of life, we kept in touch and remained very close friends.

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From Chambéry I drove to Cologne, in Germany, where I lived from December 1995 to June 1998. Those were the happiest years of my life. I made very good friends in Köln. Each time I go there it feels like going back home. Not so many friends stayed in town, most have moved to other cities or countries. Christian is one of the few that is still there. The night that I spent in Köln I was a guest at Christian and Nadine's place. As usual, it was a pleasure to see them again.

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The next stop was in Denmark, at Odense. I actually planned to stop in Copenhagen, one of my favourite cities in the world, but I was too tired to go on driving. It was a good opportunity to visit Odense, the birthplace to H.C. Andersen, the Danish writer. It was Friday night, the weather was nice and I could enjoy a good dinner and then a beer at a local bar. The next day I made a walking tour downtown. The city was certainly worth a visit and I was feeling very happy to be once again in Scandinavia, this time for a long visit.

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On Saturday I drove to Copenhagen, where I stopped for lunch. I hadn't been there for many years. I was pleased to see how the city had developed and improved during these years. It is somehow very easy to detect whether a place enjoyed an economic growth or not: you see signs of it everywhere. In my eyes Copenhagen was even more beautiful than it used to be: many buildings had been renovated, some areas were completely new. Downtown looked very well taken care of. The only thing that I can't get used to is the extremely ugly box that was built on Rådhuspladsen when the Danish capital was also European Capital of Culture, many years ago. In my opinion the City Hall Square was one of the most beautiful squares in the whole Europe, at least among the places that I have visited. That unfortunate new building on the middle of City Hall Square completely broke the perspective of the surrounding buildings. It is surprising that they haven't got rid of it. Not yet.

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After lunch I drove to Malmö in Sweden. I took the new bridge over the Öresund that connects Denmark to Sweden. I was impressed by it. From there I headed north to Stockholm. Once again I was too tired to drive all the way through and stopped at Jönköping, on the south shore of lake Vättern. Next day I at last arrived to Uppsala, after driving more than 3.450 Kms since I left Barcelona.

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This is the fourth summer that I spend here in Uppsala. When I lived in Brazil my friends could not understand that I came to Europe on vacation and stayed weeks here, instead of travelling around and visiting other famous places. There must be something special that binds me to this country and this city. I will try to write about it on the next posting. Meanwhile, wish you a nice week!

Maurício