through the window

 

Outside the window on this horrible day I got such a nice surprise!

DEER!

They didn't even seem to be wearing rain gear. Deer in Macs. That's one thing I recon designers are missing out on. Lucrative market surely??

Thank you rainy day

The tale of scary bus man

My day started with a lovely walk around sunny Gothenburg.

 

 

 

 

But then my tale begins:

Many people in Sweden are lovely. In fact they all come up to you and talk to you quite happily. We have bonded with people at the irish pub (over rugby talk... check me out. I like watching rugby. Give me a few pints and I actually start yelling and stuff too. LAD), I have even met a lovely chap just walking around the streets taking photographs.

I think it is my english nature makes me wary of strangers. Like, when they first come up to me my automatic response is... "OHH NOOO they are going to kill me." In England, if you sit next to a stranger or god forbid you strike up a conversation with someone on a bus or train then you are automatically a little bit odd... or a tad annoying. (except round by my parents house where the bus is fill of lots of old people who love to talk to you about their daily activities.) But actually, I have found the reverse here.

Except for today... I was suddenly pounced apon by a SCARY BUS MAN.

Yes this is a self-photo. FRECKLES

Scary bus man sat next to me and firstly stunk of alcohol and then was trying to say something to me in Swedish whilst I flailed my arms going "English". He then grabbed my knee and started talking more swedish. He finally realised I had no idea what he was saying and then kept pointing at my knee enough for me to realise it was the tear in my jeans that he was interested in. To cut this story a tad bit shorter... scary bus man told me to buy new jeans and when I tried to say I was poor he then spoke in perfect English (the little trickster) "Your boyfriend should buy you some then. If you are in Sweden you should wear jeans without tears in them."

So there we have it... scary bus man's advice for today. Do not wear ripped clothes in Sweden.

R.I.P my pet fishy

R.I.P Googly

FISHIESSSS

Although Googly was kind of the bully of my fish tank I don't think he could cope with the long journey to Hemel from our tank back in Birmingham.... in a yogurt pot/ thermos. As we were moving to Gothenburg we obviously had to transport the fish from our home in Birmingham but unfortunately whilst Josh was driving our beloved fish to his mum's house (to be friends with her fish called 'Big fish') Googly decided to have a closer inspection of the car seat. I don't think he has ever fully recovered.

Also R.I.P. Big Fish who then apparently died after Googly. Poor little fishies! But don't call RSPCA just yet as the water has been tested and there is going to be no harm for the rest our babies.

Vampire times: bloodworm feeding time at the tank

 

Captain Birdseye, Captain Pugwash, Jumanji and Lenin (the SHRIMP) are born and bred as tough little cookies after their University experience so have survived the whole travel thing for some years now. Well done fishies.

Lenin likes to sit and watch. He is a beast. (He survived out of 3 Shrimps that were first introduced to our tank 2 years ago.)

Lesson learnt: Never put fish in Thermos. (Apparently you can now buy tranquilisers for fish to transport them... drugging the fish probably isn't much better??)

nom nom nom

 

  Food is my little weakness. 

I come from a very fussy family of eaters, like having issues with tomatoes, ketchup, hard boiled eggs, nuts and fish (to name a few off the top of my noggin). But somehow after a bit of pursuasion I have managed to combat most of the worst offenders of my food dislikes. And when it comes to food Josh is a boy who would not waste any food even if the 3 second rule had passed or the 'eat-by' date had long expired. We actually used to have to use up every last scrap of food when moving houses in University, including having gravy on pasta (I would NOT recommend this to anybody) and making a stew of everything our housemates had jars of. (You know those jars that always linger in the cupboards and fridges) And when moving to Sweden I had to bring my parents a bag of pastry, garlic, yogurt and potatoes because Josh did not want to throw a thing away.

Also things we have discovered along the way: A roast on a pizza is delicious, Josh gets cranky without apples, I have recently discovered I love bananas, ice cream on Coco pops is yummy, you can make a cake thats bright red and its delicious and we make the best duck salad in the world.

Roast dinner on a pizza

So in Sweden I was eager to try the new food. Including Swedish meatballs, fish (see fish finger licking blog entry click me to go there) and CHEESE. Who would have thought I could find such large blocks of cheese that make me so excited?

 

The finished product

PLOPP

The 'Plopp' chocolate bars are probably the most horrific chocolate bars I have ever eaten. I really do NOT recommend the black one unless you really like liquorice flavoured chocolate... then go for it!

We also found a chocolate bar called 'Wiener'

I'm so immature.

Cheese as big as my head. Yes please

 My final verdict is that I like Swedish food. And in Ikea you can buy an icecream cone for about 20p!! Screw you 99p cone from my childhood. (Although this is becoming more and more elusive).

 

Trust me, you can take the girl out of the student lifestyle but I crave Mc Donalds chicken nuggets so much that I have had dreams of them.

nom nom nom.

its all wide open

Gothenburg in wide view

hello world

 A little bit not about Gothenburg

 BUT

 there are a few things that never change no matter where you are in the world.

I carry my camera around with me WHEREVER I go. I feel naked without it. 

There are way too many people I love that have not made it on this little collection of pictures. They know who they are. But I like to send them texts about ducks, things I think about and when we all get together to share a hangover or two it feels like no time has passed.

I want to travel more. I have a wish list of about 10 places I have to see... and I'm way too impatient to wait to save enough money to go. I think I will have to be rich when I'm older. I will also definately be moving to New Zealand at some point in my life! When I was yonger I told my mum I was going to follow the sun. I think I still stick to that... the cold makes me want to hibernate.

I have made a list of 12 things I want to do before I die (including seeing Muse live, paragliding, having one piece of my art sold, buying a house of my own and decorating it like a crazy person complete with blackboard walls and crystals to create rainbows in the windows) and riding an elephant but I'm not very committed to crossing them off. I get distracted and end up getting excited about chocolate raisons, slices of beef and CHEESE.

Morocco in 2010

 One of the best holidays of my little life and one of my first experiences of peeing in a hole.

The art stuff that I love to create

 I hate tomatoes when they are raw and slimey. Why do people put them in sandwiches and burgers?? Evil red things, destroying my delicious food.

Maybe this is just a pipe dream (what does that expression even mean?) but I really wish I could do something arty later on in life. I don't really know what yet. I'll hopefully figure it out before I have to buy a granny nappy.

I swear up till secondary school I was in a bubble and the moment it popped I wandered around for a bit like a dazed puppy until I finally found my sea legs.

WHY NOT?

llamas with hats - this is a little bit messed up. but I love it.

play me (You make my dreams come true - Hall and Oates)

I have played this song so many times that I think I want to be them. (definately the one with the moustachiooo)

play me (Skinny Love - Birdy) 

This girl is 14 years old!! And she can sing better than I can type.

 

 Him <3

Like giraffes

 We like to get drunk and get lost in mazes, go to zoos (except I'm terrified of camels since my bad experience with a greedy camel eating all my food through the car window) spend waaaay too much time getting obsessed with TV that we can talk over the top of, bed days of pjs and strawberry icecream and making up some wierd language that only we understand.

These girls

 If you're happy and you know it clap your hands

panorama times

We are such explorers

For the BIG WOW:

view me

Pictures speak louder than words for this :)

Gallop

 A book I found in a Gothenburg bookshop

Gallop - CLICK ME

It reminds me of pop up books with a twissstt

Short and Sweet

The wind is my lover

A Swedish Love Story

Singoalla - "The Wind is my Lover"

Set in the Middle Ages, Singoalla is a romantic tale of true love... the kind you expect to start with Once upon a time and end with happily ever after. The collection sits in the Museum of Art in Gothenburg and there are over 30 illustrations each drawn by Carl Larsson portraying the story by pictures. 

The story is set in the midst of a terrible plague and depicts the tale of a Knight called Erland and Singoalla, a daughter from the Egypti land (in modern terms this would be like a community of gypsies), who fall madly in love. Even though the partnership is forbidden the lovers still elope each night by the river.

In order to be together Erland gives up all his worldly possessions but Singoalla's father disapproves of the relationship and gives Erland an elixir that makes him forget about her. Ten years later, Singoalla has raised Erland's son, Sorgbarn, in secret. Sorgbarn confused about his mother's unhappiness and loneliness decides to find his father and arranges for the couple to meet. However, at this point Erland is married to another woman called Helena and has no recollection of Singoalla. They meet by the river and Singoalla is desperate for Erland to remember her but he cannot. Erland goes down to the river each night and hears the wind whispering in his ear about that distant memory of Singoalla and his love:

"Erland sat down by the brink of the brook; a feeble recollection of something delightful, but now past, sported through the mist of his memory and filled his breast with delicious melancholy"

But the story takes a darker twist when Erland becomes wary of the gypsy Singoalla and thinks her son is in fact trying to hypnotise him in order to steal his riches. Erland in a confused rage injures Sorgbarn and Singoalla is distraught when he dies in her arms. Erland flees and lives amounst the poor in complete dissamay for many years, ashamed and confused. It is in this time that Erland is exposed to the plague.

Singoalla is heartbroken and all alone she spends her days walking by the river. One day she decides to drown herself as she has nothing to live for, however right before she is about to commit suicide Erland rushes to her side. Erland confesses he is close to death from the plague but Singoalla still runs to him and the lovers embrace for the last time before dying.

There is a myth that suggests that Erland lives on as a hermit crab living by the shores of the river hiding in his shell from the truth about how he nearly lost his love forever.

Singoalla despairing over her son's death

Singoalla and Erland by the river

The lovers embrace in their old age, just before death.

The End.

I heart art

Goteborg Konstmuseum (The Gothenburg Museum of Art)

Being a previous art student I have never lost my love of galleries. 

This Art Museum is situated right at the top of the Avenyn, the most prominent road in Gothenburg. You are greeted by the famous Poseidon statue (from Greek Mythology Poseidon was the God of the Sea - in mythology he calmed the seas which may be the reason why he is situated looking out towards the sea), he towers above you with the museum behind. The museum houses collections from the 15th Century all the way up to modern photography and sculptures.

Taken from the roof of the Museum, with Poseidon in front of the Avenyn

The Hasselblad Center is the first exhibit full of contemporary photographs.

An example of the Cooper and Gorfer work. This work is entitled 'Child Line'

I was fascinated by the photographic collection by Cooper & Gorfer My Quiet of Gold. 

These photographs capture staged people representing fables and myths as well as real events in Kyrgyzstan (an independent Turkish state). Kyrgyzstan was ceded to Russia in a treaty with China and was therefore apart of the Soviet Union in 1919. This might get to sound quite boring... bare with me... I was a history student and find this sort of stuff interesting!! One of the pieces, Child Line, (see above) depicts the rebellion in 1916 Kyrgyzstan were thousands of the population perished. The Russian Empire had called for all non-Russian colonies to help the war effort by providing more food through a ruthless process of taking any excess grain causing vast starvation. Unlike conscription, the decree implied that the inhabitants of the colonies were like objects to the Soviet Union. A vicious rebellion was initiated whereby the brave rebels armed with only pitchforks and stolen weapons fought against the powerful Russia Militia. They were crushed and their villages were destroyed and burnt to the ground. The photographic series has a very simple composition and the subjects are dressed in bleak black and white outfits making the whole peice quite striking.

The collection is created in a really unique way of layering photos and therefore has been described as "Blurring the line between painting and photography" because some of the photographs appear almost mystical.

Some to the stories captured are quite disturbing like the Kyrgyzstan tradition of 'abduction' where the women are practically kidnapped and forced to bear children against their will. There was even a story featured about twin boys who were cursed by their entire neighbourhood so they never grew up.Within all the photographs the way in which the people are depicted never gives away any of the tale until you understand their expressions and backgrounds, like the layering of the photos, unravelling the story piece by piece.

Richard Avedon The Family

Richard Avedon The Family was another featured photographer who displayed many black and white portraits of what looked like (on first glance) a normal series of family members. On closer inspection it turns out the portraits are of prominent politicians, including President Bush. However Richard Avedon never wanted to show his personal opinion of the politicians by presenting all the subjects in the same style and their own preference of pose. Instead of the photographs using the people's occupation as the main focus, instead they actualy show the person in a really basic and unihibited way.

The Furstenberg Gallery, installed in a setting typical of the period.

The Gallery is really inspiring and worth a visit if you ever go to Gothenburg. (Also it is free entry to anybody under 25 years old - bonus!)

,

The view from a dusty window at the top of the Konstmuseum

like a kid in a candy shop

Gothenburg Universeum

If you are looking for a fun day out... look no further. The Gothenburg Universeum is right in the heart of the city (literally if you type Gothenburg into google maps, the marker comes up right next to this glass covered building) and when you enter the building and are whisked away up this elevator/ cable cart lift called a funicular. Then I felt like a child again.

A monkey tree hugging

 The rain forest section is full of monkeys and brightly coloured birds literally running around your very feet, not constrained by anything other than the occasional person in the way of the spring-leap-jump of the monkeys from rope to rope. (Queue Josh getting in the way of a monkey who started to screech before leaping between us).

A clown like monkey with professor-like side burns!

 This little fellow (above) looks like a mad scientist, and although these animals are probably not native to Sweden they have created this space that simulates the rain forest so closely that it started raining whilst we were walking around. If the cold gets to you, just pop inside and warm up!

The battle of the birds

In the tunnel of love

  Then there is a whole section of massive glass tanks and walkways full of all sorts of fish, sharks and one very impressive sword fish. Debating which tank we would rather swim in, meant I got freaked out by a wierd looking fish lurking at the bottom of a tank that I decided was more scary than the sharks because "it looked odd".

The camera was our play thing, we took so many photos that it took me all day to edit out all the blurry and out of focus ones, turns out that animals make me squeal like a child again.

A jelly fish dance.

 Finally, after my last post about how crazy the locals are for walking on the ice... I decided to give it a go. And, to my relief, there was not a single sign of the ice cracking. This is probably the last bit of water still completely ice as all the other rivers and lakes are thawing.

I think I better not go to the Universeum again for a while... in case I try to smuggle out a monkey. 

The run on water. Jesus eat your heart out.

Fish finger licking

The Fish Markets of Gothenburg

I dislike fish. Partly from bad experiences with fish fingers from being a ridiculously fussy young child, a love of aquariums and owning pet fish myself (our fancy goldfish are called: Captain Birdseye, Captain Pugwash, Googly the bully of the fish tank even though he is half the size of the others, Jumanji and Lenin the pet shrimp) and also they do smell.

But in Sweden you have to try the fresh fish market if you ever want try real, tasty, fresh fish.

 

The fresh fish market

Open Saturday morning the place is full of fishermen selling fish they probably pulled from the seas that morning. We were even greeted by a man cooking fresh salmon on a grill and handing it out in small plastic cups to passers by- making this incredible smokey salmon.

The shrimps! This I am not going to show to my pet shrimp.

And the verdict, after one portion of Whiting fish I was sold. Well done Josh, I am finally a fish eater... if its from the Gothenburg Fish markets.

Our fish meal :)