Sweden

Long trip this summer, first to Borlänge in Sweden, then to Istanbul in Turkey. The reason for Sweden was my brothers wedding. Per and Sanna have been together for many years already so it's not really a major change in practice, but it's a fun reason to bring family and friends together. And it really was fun. I don't get to see my relatives very much, and this was a rare chance. I met some I haven't seen for many years, and made a couple of new friends as well.

Torsång church, with my parents. It's an old church, and insanely popular for weddings. I noticed there were another two weddings booked the same day.

Another view of the church and the clock tower.

Per and Sanna did seem quite happy about getting married.

Rural Dalarna. The milk stand and metal canisters are almost certainly only left as decoration. The cool custom Saab 94 on the other hand, is likely in happy use by its owner.

When you spend your time in cities it's easy to forget that much of the country is all heavy forest. But now and again, that border between urban life and wilderness becomes obvious.

The area is quite beautiful in summer when the weather is good. That's about three weeks per year or so; the rest of the time it's freezing or raining.

I love tunnbrödsrulle. Sausage and mashed potatoes wrapped in a roll of northern flatbread. The lettuce, tomato and cucumber adds a light, crispy texture to the heavy mash, while the onion, mustard, ketchup and pickles add spice.

After years in Osaka, Borlänge feels, well, empty. There's just not a lot of people around, and not a lot is happening. That can be very pleasant for a while, but I'm happy we're back home.

We spent a day in Stockholm on our way back. The return flight left in the morning, and it's much less painful to get to the airport from Stockholm than taking an early dawn train from Borlänge.

For once Stockholm had great summer weather. People were enjoying the sun and the warmth any which way they could.

Hotels are expensive in Sweden for some reason; almost ridiculously so. On the upside, even the cheapest places seem to have the budget to spruce things up a little, with fun design, good breakfasts and so on.

Much of the city is built on islands, so there's waterways and piers everywhere. And where there's water there's boats. Here S/S Orion, on Skeppsholmen.

A beautiful wooden sailboat on Skeppsholmen, with a public transport passenger ferry in the background. At times like this I could see myself living here. When it's -1°, pitch dark and the air is full of sleet, not so much.

Nighttime view of Stockholm. I do miss those long summer evenings.