The ride to Stuttgart and start here
Last Thursday (August 21) did I leave Örnsköldsvik to begin my trip to Stuttgart (Germany). I have been "dancing my way down in Europe". First stop in Sundsvall with bugg/fox and crashed at a dance friend that I became friend with a week before. Thank you Tünde!
On Friday I arrived Svabensverk in Dalarna (Sweden) for a swing camp Friday/Saturday. It was awesome to get some lindy again, I had hardly danced any lindy since Herräng. Sunday I planned for lindy in Stockholm but I had some problems with my car and was towed to Falun where I spent the night outside the garage - waiting for it to open Monday morning. I had my bikes though so I did a ride around Falun and to the nice areas where I competed in XC skiing several years ago. I slept outside in a sleeping bag in the night but it became a bit cold w/ only 0C so at 5 am did I wake up and took a walk for about 2h, seeing Falun waking up, and walking around the Mine.
I got the car fixed (stupid electronics that was re-programmed handling the start of the engine) and took off for Nyköping and then I drove all the way to Lund and some swing dancing followed by a short time at the pub afterwards. There I met another guy from Copenhagen so next day I trained a bit with a friend (Annika physio terapist) and took off for Copenhagen with Lasse. There we had a trankey doo class (fun when doing the mirrored version!) and then biked around in Copenhagen.
Wednesday morning, I alone drove to Rödby in southern Denmark where the ferry brought me to Puttgarden in Germany. There I kept driving, was in a traffic jam outside Hamburg for about 1hour and then the Autobahn allowed me in 160-180 km/h driving against Stuttgart. I was still passed by black Mercedes and other faster drivers every minute but it's sweet when you actually can go really fast. Outside Stuttgart there was another traffic jam that stopped me about 20 minutes but then I arrived Abstatt (37 km north of Stuttgart) around 7pm. It was still +26 C and after unpacking, food and a shower it followed by driving to Stuttgart and the weekly lindy night!
It wasn't easy to drive downtown Stuttgart and it took me quite a long time to find the dance place but it was nice dancing again. It's so fun to hear the different choices of music too, it differs a lot depending on where you go (west/east USA, europe, sweden...) but the common thing is still swing dancing (lindy). I also got an out-of-town lindy jam while playing a Stockholm swing song. (for those who might not know, it's a common thing that out-of-towners and birthday 'kids' get into the jam circle where only these people stay for the entire song. Their partner is changed whenever someone else 'dare' to steal the jam person.)
Thursday I went downtown Stuttgart to deal with practical things, like a german mobile account and so on... but also to meet up with Malin, a friend from southern Stuttgart that I got to know in Herräng as a volunteer and dancer. It was great hanging out with her and later on we made dinner with some of her friends. Then we drove to Tübingen with some other friends (east of Reutlingen) for some clubbing in a Jazz keller. It was nice to do some "youth things" again, but I don't really like the fact that they allowed smoking inside. In general, Germans smoke a lot but as long as I don't get affected that's Ok for me... but passive smoking isn't too good. I stayed at Malins place this night and I like seeing how other people lives (in other countries) and also such a basal thing as breakfast can be interesting when doing it somewhere else. A balcony in south Germany, surrounded by other stone houses and green nature. We made a bike ride today to Tübingen (from Reutlingen, about 16 km) in the nice sunny weather with +30 degrees. Later, after a german dinner, I drove home to Abstatt again.
Today (Saturday) I've been fixing my bike and inlines followed by a lot of biking. First among all wine plants but also to the city Heilbronn just north of Abstatt. So far I've experienced German as a lot of old green trees and big fields and meadows. In the forest it's unusually much stinging nettles (brännässlor) and the fields are covered by sunflowers, wine plants and corn plants. All houses are made of stone and the village feeling is very obvious here... On Monday I start my job at Bosch, can't wait!
On Friday I arrived Svabensverk in Dalarna (Sweden) for a swing camp Friday/Saturday. It was awesome to get some lindy again, I had hardly danced any lindy since Herräng. Sunday I planned for lindy in Stockholm but I had some problems with my car and was towed to Falun where I spent the night outside the garage - waiting for it to open Monday morning. I had my bikes though so I did a ride around Falun and to the nice areas where I competed in XC skiing several years ago. I slept outside in a sleeping bag in the night but it became a bit cold w/ only 0C so at 5 am did I wake up and took a walk for about 2h, seeing Falun waking up, and walking around the Mine.
I got the car fixed (stupid electronics that was re-programmed handling the start of the engine) and took off for Nyköping and then I drove all the way to Lund and some swing dancing followed by a short time at the pub afterwards. There I met another guy from Copenhagen so next day I trained a bit with a friend (Annika physio terapist) and took off for Copenhagen with Lasse. There we had a trankey doo class (fun when doing the mirrored version!) and then biked around in Copenhagen.
Wednesday morning, I alone drove to Rödby in southern Denmark where the ferry brought me to Puttgarden in Germany. There I kept driving, was in a traffic jam outside Hamburg for about 1hour and then the Autobahn allowed me in 160-180 km/h driving against Stuttgart. I was still passed by black Mercedes and other faster drivers every minute but it's sweet when you actually can go really fast. Outside Stuttgart there was another traffic jam that stopped me about 20 minutes but then I arrived Abstatt (37 km north of Stuttgart) around 7pm. It was still +26 C and after unpacking, food and a shower it followed by driving to Stuttgart and the weekly lindy night!
It wasn't easy to drive downtown Stuttgart and it took me quite a long time to find the dance place but it was nice dancing again. It's so fun to hear the different choices of music too, it differs a lot depending on where you go (west/east USA, europe, sweden...) but the common thing is still swing dancing (lindy). I also got an out-of-town lindy jam while playing a Stockholm swing song. (for those who might not know, it's a common thing that out-of-towners and birthday 'kids' get into the jam circle where only these people stay for the entire song. Their partner is changed whenever someone else 'dare' to steal the jam person.)
Thursday I went downtown Stuttgart to deal with practical things, like a german mobile account and so on... but also to meet up with Malin, a friend from southern Stuttgart that I got to know in Herräng as a volunteer and dancer. It was great hanging out with her and later on we made dinner with some of her friends. Then we drove to Tübingen with some other friends (east of Reutlingen) for some clubbing in a Jazz keller. It was nice to do some "youth things" again, but I don't really like the fact that they allowed smoking inside. In general, Germans smoke a lot but as long as I don't get affected that's Ok for me... but passive smoking isn't too good. I stayed at Malins place this night and I like seeing how other people lives (in other countries) and also such a basal thing as breakfast can be interesting when doing it somewhere else. A balcony in south Germany, surrounded by other stone houses and green nature. We made a bike ride today to Tübingen (from Reutlingen, about 16 km) in the nice sunny weather with +30 degrees. Later, after a german dinner, I drove home to Abstatt again.
Today (Saturday) I've been fixing my bike and inlines followed by a lot of biking. First among all wine plants but also to the city Heilbronn just north of Abstatt. So far I've experienced German as a lot of old green trees and big fields and meadows. In the forest it's unusually much stinging nettles (brännässlor) and the fields are covered by sunflowers, wine plants and corn plants. All houses are made of stone and the village feeling is very obvious here... On Monday I start my job at Bosch, can't wait!
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