Frosty Forest

Nothing much new to say, except that skiing in the sunshine and then having a sauna is a great combination!

This is along the ski trail in Gammlia Forest right by my house. I did the 10 km loop this weekend.








Random sign and a new random Swedish cultural observation: even bathrooms at the bar can be coed. Although the bathroom stalls have a full length door and walls, you are still left waiting for your turn in a roomful of drunk men. Interesting. Let's just say I didn't hang around by the sinks and mirrors to check my make up, and I didn't see other women doing that either!

OIKOS

I went to the Oikos conference in Uppsala this week. Oikos is the ecological society of Sweden, and Uppsala is an old city just north of Stockholm. I really enjoyed the meeting and the couple of hours I spent as a tourist one afternoon. Uppsala was home to Carl Linnaeus, who is known as the father of taxonomy, particularly in botany.


I saw his grave in the cathedral in Uppsala, the second largest cathedral in Sweden. I also heard a most interesting story about Linnaeus at the Oikos meeting. Though a brilliant man, he apparently fostered the idea that birds hibernate at the bottom of lakes during the winter. This led to 100 years of debate, observations, and experiments, one of which involved holding swallows underwater for a considerable length of time. The scientist astutely observed that the birds died, and therefore, could not hibernate underwater. Even this experiment did not convince the scientific community for quite some time.

The cathedral itself was quite beautiful and was also home to a recently purchased organ. They were tuning it during our visit.






















I saw the beautiful interior of the main building of Uppsala University. I also saw Uppsala Castle, which was built in 1549 but, like most things in Sweden, burned down in 1702. Apparently the current structure is entirely different, reconstructed with a "French classical style".














But, to my surprise, my favorite part of my visit was viewing the old manuscripts and documents in the Carolina Rediviva Library. I wanted to check out this historic building, home of over 5 million books, but did not expect to stay long. However, they had a very interesting collection of historic documents.





I saw the first edition of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica











and...
I saw a handwritten composition by Mozart!








The library also had many original copies of hand written biblical texts. It was amazing to see the writing and painted pictures on the pages. The most famous, though, is the Codex Argenteus or Silver Bible, which dates back to 520 A.D. The story of the four Gospels was written in Gothic with silver and gold ink on purple vellum in Ravenna, Italy. No one knows where it went for 1,000 years. Then it turned up in Werden, Germany, then to Prague, and then the Swede's took it to Stockholm after occupying Prague near the end of the Thirty Year's War. After the queen of Sweden left the throne, her librarian took it to Holland, then sold it to the Swedish Chancellor of Uppsala University. It was sent in an oak case on a ship that sunk, but someone boated back to the sinking ship to retrieve it. This time the book was placed in an iron case that was soldered shut. Obviously, it made the journey. The book was eventually donated to Uppsala University. What incredible travels this silly book has been on!


But I think my favorite item on display was the Carta Marina by Olaus Magnus from 1539. This was the most accurate map of Scandinavia in its time. Although it was still far from correct, I found the illustrations of the people, their activities, the wildlife, and the sea monsters extroardinary! I think these men are supposed to be seal hunting in the Baltic, but you see that these seals have legs! I was also impressed by the man-eating lobster! You can see the whole map at:

http://bell.lib.umn.edu/map/OLAUS/indexo.html

Blue Skies

Last Sunday marked the FIRST day that I saw blue skies in Umeå! Though the sun does rise, clouds have filtered what little sunlight we receive. So I was delighted when I woke up Sunday morning and saw the snow sparkling in sunlight. I enjoyed a beautiful ski through Gammlia forest by my house. I do this quite often, but the forest looks so much more beautiful with the long shadows of trees cast upon the snow and the rays of light filtering through the evergreen branches.






Umeå is known for its birch forests. The city has burned down and been rebuilt so many times, that they finally started to plant stands of birch between buildings to act as a buffer. Apparently birch trees hold a lot of water and are quite difficult to burn.








Swede's also seem to have mastered little tricks to decorate outdoors during winter. You can all make your very own ice sculptures. Just fill a bucket or garbage can with water, place some leaves or other organic materials in the bucket, and let it freeze for a few hours. Then dump out the remaining water and voila - you have yourself a series of little ice sculptures to decorate your doorway!







I also managed to go out to a night club last weekend called the Plaza. After standing in line for 40 minutes, we entered the hotel that turns two of its floors into a night club once a month. The DJ's on both dance floors seemed to adore techno versions of 80's and early 90's music, much of it from the states. Though I did not recognize some songs, they all had a similar flavor. A huge marble staircase connected the two floors and appeared to be the place "to be seen". That was the only reason I could imagine that so many people lined the railings.

Although I did dance, I spent most the night gawking at the outfits everyone was wearing. Men in tight jeans, one whose rode so low that his tighty-whities were the only thing covering the upper half of his butt. Several men wore fitted pants, white shirts, suspenders and boots... others wore teal and hot pink warm-up jackets covered with stripes and triangles. The women wore tights and scandalously short dresses that really looked more like long shirts. Another woman wore an outfit that made her look like a German beer maid. Hot pink and black zebra print stretch pants, a black puffy sequined dress with black gloves, a strapless black unitard with a fat red belt... had I been old enough to go to the clubs in the early 90's, I think the scene would have looked very similar. Needless to say, I felt a bit old and outdated (or maybe a bit too new) in my black lace shirt and black, wide leg pants. Next time I will bring my camera!