Öland. The surf

First.

Have a look at the wind.

…Hm…

”Stuff the car -right away!!”  Alright… there will be some windsurf today.

.

Get your things down to the shore. Either way.

Rig.

Put on your penguin suit…

… and away!

Haga Park is actually quite nice for windsurfing.

Have a pause. Study the technique of others. Mhm, aha…

And out again.

You can also stand ashore and glance down at your pale feet.

Öland. The journey

We left a rainy Gothenburg.

(as seen, the car loaded with surfing equipment)

Crossed the Öland Bridge.

… and some birds there upon.

Stopped by  a supermarket late in the evening for to buy breakfast.

Continued through  a forest.

And finally arrived at the lovely hostel where we ought to stay for a week.

After breakfast in the garden -will there be some surf?

Rain and flowers

Still there?

I’ve been on my summer vacation.

What I’ve been doing?

-I have…

been drinking home made strawberry milkshake (strawberry s picked by me and Martin -of course)

-I’ve been surfing (though it took five about minutes until the board didn’t go in the  direction I wanted and I got angry and jumped of and walked back to the shore)

I’m going down.

I bought a painting by Kristina Anshelm together with Martin at Dalslands Art Museum.

-I have been taking pictures of the amazing sunset at the summerhouse in Mellerud.

… as well as the nature above the shoreline.

-I have watched the summer rain from a train window on the way up to my parents.

Those rainy Swedish summers…

Well.

-Together with my sister and my mother we drove to the nearest village to have a look at a small cottage for sale. For my parents retirement.

Unfortunately to pricey and to worn down.

-I have also been trying to picture a sharp bumblebee on my three weeks of vacation…

…which turned out to be harder than it looked.

And I have to advertise a bit about my sisters hard work restoring my grandparents small cottage in the middle of the forest close to a forest lake, not far from our farm. Have a look here, here and here. I’m impressed, are you impressed?

What else?

-Yes, I’ve been to the island Björkö and the viking village Birka -excavations in the lake Mälaren close to Stockholm together with Martin and my friend Linda and her daughter Smilla.

Walking onboard the ferry

Onboard

… and so the battery in my camera ended and so did my vacation two days later.

2,3 meter per second

I have an unholy spirit walking around in our apartment.

We’re supposed to drive up to the cottage today. For to windsurf.

And there’s no wind. It’s a beautiful sunny September day. No clouds. But no wind.

”Aaargh! Why why why is it this way!?” It’s not one of those spirits that move things around but makes this sound.

”-As soon you’re off from work it stops blowing!!! Why!?” The spirit jumps up and down.

”It says it blows in Denmark! Maybee we should go to Denmark! I’ve checked all the pages on the Internet!”

It’s going to be a long sunny beautiful day today.

Perhaps

My boyfriend is jumping up and down right now, saying ”Ragna could we go windsurfing tomorrow? Please?”

”Please please pleeeease?”

He has a page on the Internet where you could see the wind direction, speed, sunrise and sunset, cloud cover, temperature, rain -the whole lot. SMHI (National Swedish Forecast Institute ) go bury yourself.  And he’s checking that page three times per hour every day. Not to speak of those dog eyes looking out the window.

”pleaseplease?”

Ever heard of a windsurf addict? I’ve got one in my own home.

”Ragna, you’re not answering me! Are we going tomorrow or not!?”

Should I?

Mellerud surfing

When the  windsurf jerk is too boring to capture, the reed gets more interesting

Windsurf-weekend

And still -It’s a spacious Volvo…

The pro in action

Me in… wetsuit

The most difficult part -to bring the sail up

Wohoo!

…

Surfing, riktig surfing

Enligt vår guide Dan som har en våg tatuerad på armen och princip fodd med en bräda på foten, är vindsurfing inget att syssla med.

Grymt svårt, grymt kallt och grymt fysiskt arbete for mage och overarmar.  Och precis lika kul som vindsurfing. Fast det sa jag inte till Dan.