Winter magic and the road away from home

[seal]

Even with a chest infection, which subsided into another bacterial infection when I came back to the states over Christmas, even with a lot of boring texts to study and some other hectic affairs, it was wonderful to be home for almost a month. I didn't feel like writing a single blessed thing about it for some reason, but it was so nice to dress a gorgeous tree and open presents with my family, including my god daughter and her sister, the cutest kids ever. It was great to go and see tons of movies in the theater, to cuddle with the geek, to sit at the Melting Pot fondue restaurant with a really great group of women, to go to Rachael's graduation party, to help E move house (although I coughed so much I sounded like a TB patient), to geek out with E and Jen and the Geek watching Dr. Who and LOTR, to play Mahjong and Gloom with Lish and Joseph and Maggie and chill at the Boulder Cafe with their superior Bhakti Chai.

Well, all that is over now, and it all went by so fast. Can I please have it back?

Anyhow, I'm in Sweden again, since a week ago, and there have been some nice moments here too, some of them closely connected to the extraordinary amount of beautiful winter magic going on in the landscape right now.

Last week presented some truly fairy tale-like Narnia moments, let me tell you, or rather show you:






The Road to my School



Swedes are hardcore when it comes to biking, they will most certainly do it, or try to do it, no matter what climate they are living in...



The cathedral on a gorgeous clear day



The Fyris river which goes through Uppsala



The ducks were perhaps not all that happy with the cold days



One of the many runestones in the university park, powdered with snow.



The yellow house, which was built more than a 100 years ago, is called "The Scandal House", because people thought it was a scandal that it was built to be higher than the university main hall, which resides just opposite it on the picture. Later, the university solved that particular phallic complex by promptly buying the Scandal House and use it as one of their administrative buildings. Hey, if you can't top it, own it!



But as nice as the clear days were, the real magic awaited when there was a misty softness to the gray sky, every detail on every tree became exquisite..



I had to find out how the landscape outside of town would look like, so me and a friend took an 8 kilometer walk to the old mounds and around that area, and this is what awaited us on the way:









There wasn't any lion, witch or lamppost in sight, but it sure looked like Narnia



The Old Mounds kept their secrets as usual, with Old Uppsala Church peeking out behind them



The church is actually rather pretty, up close.



We ate opposite the church, at the Odinsborg Inn, which is built in the style of 19th century viking nostalgia kitsch, and the sign is boasting that they serve REAL mead and coffee. In reality, only the coffee part is true.



And then it was time to go home, have some tea and warm our cold toes.

Comments

[kejn.livejournal.com]

lovely!!!
and i do think the last picture has a bit of narnia to it, although with a contemporary reality twist. :) love the red against all the black and white.

[freelark.livejournal.com]

These pictures are amazing.

[zombienought.livejournal.com]

Not even a faun? :(

It is so beautiful where you
live(d).

I am guessing your chest is
better. I am glad. I am also
glad you were not quarantined
by the TSA.

How is the mead not real?

In total AWE

[lelain.livejournal.com]

The photos are just beautiful!

[chocolatebark.livejournal.com]

Awesome!

[clsisold.livejournal.com]

These pictures are absolutely beautiful

[maehymn.livejournal.com]

Soooo beautiful and looks so COLD. But still, really beautiful. I think the beauty wins. Especially in the tree/Narnia pictures. Really lovely.

I had no idea about the superior Bahkti Chai. I must go to there immediately.

That sucks about your infection! I hope it's passing now. You were such a trouper with all the activity. Hope your semester is off to a good start!

[nerak-g.livejournal.com]

So gorgeous.
Such beauty, I question why my ancestors left, have such resentment for them.
I sure hope I make it there someday, preferably in the extreme of winter.

[hook-n-eye.livejournal.com]

Beautiful!! Thank you for sharing these lovely photos. I'm sorry you were ill while home, but it sounds like you made the best of it!

[cienna.livejournal.com]

Wow, those pictures are absolutely amazing! It almost makes the snow look appealing. XD

[simpletwice.livejournal.com]

These pictures are amazing! And you have some truly beautiful trees. I love winter days like that.

[aquilinum.livejournal.com]

I somehow feel like just writing you a little "<3" heart thing wouldn't be enough, but anything more is superfluous.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Lovely! We get that halo effect on every twig here when there's an ice fog, but it never seems to happen on a weekend when I'd have a chance to take pictures.

[alphistia.livejournal.com]

my favorite is the runestone with the orangish glow of the winter sun in the background. that is very beautiful and very Scandinavian :-)

[gyzki.livejournal.com]

I think you've really captured the beauty of that kind of weather - awesome!

Back when you posted your fall foliage pix, I thought Uppsala reminded me a lot of the part of New England where I grew up. We have the overcast and the ice trees and the Narnia snow too (so these look beautiful *and* nostalgic) - but not so many runestones or meadhalls!

[mojodragonfly.livejournal.com]

beautiful

[tooticky.livejournal.com]

Glorious, glorious photos! I'm always fascinated by snow, because we get comparatively little of it in Australia. Uppsala through your camera is so beautiful I wish I could fall through the computer into it.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Here from tooticky's journal. Breathtaking photos you've taken here! I love the light on the brick buildings behind the runestone in the photo you have of that, and the ice and snow on the weeping willow-like tree in the photo right above your comment about Narnia--wow!

And I like the fence across the fairy mound, down below.

Anyway.... beautiful beautiful pictures.

[browniegirl322.livejournal.com]

I am oooooh and ahhhhhhhh
how beautiful
bundle up!!

[katsu]

Beautiful pictures. :D I hope I will have a chance to visit Sweden some day.

[core-opsis.livejournal.com]

These are absolutely gorgeous photos! So cold, though. I'd really like to go and see all these places for myself.

[kvschwartz.livejournal.com]

So beautiful! It really DOES look like Narnia.

(Although photo #2 reminded me more of the movie "Let the Right One In" / "Låt den rätte komma in".)

Cold as it may be in Sweden in the winter, though, my online sources say it's colder still here in Wisconsin.

Glad you had a good time, in spite of being so sick. I hope you're feeling better from your various chest infections.

[seamusd.livejournal.com]

Yeah, these are all glorious! I like the icicles, especially. I don't have the guts to bike in the snow and ice.