Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Sweden: The Beautiful Outdoor Freezer


With talk of global warming on the tip of everyone's tongue, it's refreshing to know that in the middle of January it's still cold as hell in Stockholm. It has been below freezing now for over two months.

In Stockholm, the locals think that winter is often better than summer. Having experienced both seasons here, I am beginning to agree with them. In the Winter people sleep and drink a lot, go cross-country skiing in the forests, skating on the frozen lakes and football fields, and of course at night there is lots of watching videos and snuggling under the blankets.

There are downsides. All the water around the city is now frozen, not to mention the streets, sidewalks, and everything else. Every time you take a walk, you are literally putting your life at risk. Wherever there is a gap in the gravel and a slight incline, you are walking a slippy slidey tightrope. They do not salt the ice for several reasons: 1) it is bad for the environment, and 2) it would probably still be frozen anyway.

Life in our times is a constant struggle to avoid depression and boredom. These people who grow up in one town and live and work in that town for 70 years and die there... I do not know how they do that. I love to travel and to move (although not too quickly). I have pretty much lived and traveled all over North America and Europe. After eight months, I am starting to fall in love with Sweden in winter.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

If everyone is stuck inside how come the girls are all still so hot and fit and not big fatties like in Chicago.

Mmmm, I love Gold.

Sloth said...

Swedish girls are not as fat as Americans because herring and akvavit does not have as many calories as Big Mac, large fries, and a Diet Coke.

Sloth said...

McCutcheon it doesn't surprise me you find it difficult to post. I have the security set because I don't want to be bombarded with spambots like on so many other blogs (gasp even yours has them)

myke said...

maybe global warming is only affecting the south so all of the religious right wingers will spontaneously combust. it's been near 70 every day this week.

Tragic the Pixie said...

I love the winter - it was 70 degrees here last week and now there's snow on the ground. Good to know when global warming takes away my excuses to skip classes and stay curled up on the sofa with a book I can always move to Sweden!