The Great Steppe

Of all the travels I dream of one day doing, Central Asia remains high on my list. From Samarkand to hikes in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, adventures beckon. As such, I was thrilled to read – yes, in the same Vagabond – about two young Swedes travelling overland on trains from Sweden to Bangkok (well, almost: they had to take a short flight from Georgia to Uzbekistan). In discussing what they would like to have done differently, they say that perhaps they should have waited for international relations to calm down so that they could have travelled across Russia or Iran.

Reading this somehow made me both sad and hopeful at the same time. After all, this is a generation that has grown up with international relations deteriorating and conflicts intensifying everywhere from the Middle East to Ukraine, and for whom the formative events of my own generation, like 9/11, must appear just as distant as the Vietnam War did for me. Indeed, looking through the list of students starting their studies now in September, the majority were born in 2006 or 2007. And yet, there was something profoundly hopeful in the casual assumption that the world might calm down again, that closed borders might reopen, and that the Great Steppe could once more be crossed rather than flown over.

Two halves

In the end, Eddie decided to stay in Gothenburg with his girlfriend over the weekend, leaving me with a bit of time to catch up on work and running. With Malmö Marathon only seven weeks away, I thought that running two half marathons on consecutive days, while focusing on keeping my heart rate down (137 and 133 bpm on average, respectively), would be a good way to build some aerobic volume. By running half the distance on asphalt, I also hoped to get some practice on harder surfaces, much as I prefer running on trails.

Coming out to Tylösand, the weather was all wind and grey skies, with big waves rolling in and a sense of summer drawing to an end. On the way back, there was a bit of rain too and, passing the surfers at Sandhamn, the melancholy in the air was palpable. But a few hours into the afternoon, the sky has cleared again, so perhaps I should take a break from work and go for a walk into the city centre.

Members Truck

To presumably soften the blow of the recent 100 SEK per month price hike, American Express is currently touring the country with a silvery truck, giving out pastries and chances to win Michelin-starred dining experiences.

Seeing that the truck was in Helsingborg today, I got off my absolutely jam-packed Öresund train to pick up a bag. Sadly, I did not win anything Michelin-starred, but I did get a baked treat by Roy Fares (yes, the cousin of Josef Fares), which made for a perfect “calorie offset” after my half marathon around Tylösand.

Spanish Roadstead

For all my global travels, there are still all these white spots on the map: tracts that one has only ever passed through on the major roads, hinterlands one has somehow missed. Taking the train to Kristianstad yesterday, I got to experience both the deeply wooded lake country around Immeln and what Linnéa very fittingly described as Sweden's Louisiana: the watery landscape of the lower Helge å, where the river dissolves into wetlands, flooded meadows, and reed beds on its way towards Hanöbukten. Once there, the name “Spanska Redden” on the map immediately stuck with me as a promise of future adventures. Otherwise, the obvious six-letter clue for the Vagabond reading crowd would be “creole”.

Now on the train back to Halmstad, I hope to end this week with a few more long runs in Halland and plenty of coastal sunshine before a week that I will spend mostly indoors in different conference rooms.

Eclipse

Taking a high-speed train into the solar eclipse, I can look back on an incredible day with William in Gothenburg. Kicking things off with an hour at the gym, William challenged me to do as many chin-ups as possible. In the end, I managed 20 in one go while William did 17, but I have no doubt that he will surpass me within a few months, if not weeks.

From Järntorget, we headed over to Vapiano for lunch, followed by a swim at Pöl Harbor, which certainly reminded me how soft the heated waters of Brottet have made me. It is funny to think that many public swimming pools in Sweden originally had water temperatures of around 21 degrees when first constructed, something that many people would probably find unacceptable today. After a few refreshing laps and a visit to the sauna (all publicly available for free!), we hiked up to Keillers Park along a walkway constructed during the 1930s as part of a relief work programme.

Having had enough UV for one day, we then sought refuge at the library, where William pulled off a stunt by pretending to put his phone in my bag while in reality sneaking off to find a corner where he could play chess online. None the wiser, I was certain that he had found a good book, so I spent a couple of hours reading the latest issues of Monocle and browsing the poetry stacks before getting slightly nervous as the departure time of my train approached. Texting him, I discovered what he was up to but, obviously, I did not have the heart to be angry with him. Dropping him off at the summer chess tournament, where Anna will pick him up later, I was once again reminded that I have the best kiddos in the world.

Canvas print

Eighteen years ago in December, I was out exploring the North Island in a silvery Toyota Corolla. After landing in Auckland, I headed east to the Coromandel Peninsula, where I found peace by the Pacific. As a seasoned escapist, I could hardly think of a better motif to have on my wall here in Halmstad, now that the Northern Hemisphere is once again slowly turning dark.

For the moment, however, the sun is still very much here, so after spending all day in front of my laptop, I went for a coastal jog followed by another swim at my new favourite pool. Tomorrow, I am taking the train up to Gothenburg to be with William, and later this week, Eddie will be back here in Halmstad.

Matlådemåndag

As forecast, this Monday brought rain and grey skies – in other words, perfect weather for returning to work after the holidays. By lunchtime, I had already scheduled dozens of meetings, prepared one more lecture, and realized just how much of a crunch the coming autumn will be.

Meanwhile, Roger Pielke published a fascinating new dashboard that allows you to calculate the magnitude of the decarbonization challenge for different countries. Extrapolating into the future, it becomes clear just how important assumptions about future energy use are. On the one hand, there is spontaneous decarbonization and continued improvements in energy efficiency; on the other, there are new uses for electricity, like AI, and potentially a growing need for things like air conditioning in a climate-changed world. Running the numbers for Sweden and assuming that these opposing trends cancel each other out, replacing all fossil primary energy would require the construction of eighteen new 1 GW nuclear power plants (or a whopping 15,748 3 MW wind turbines). To achieve this by 2050, emissions would have to fall by almost 17% per year, more than twice the highest observed rate of reduction during the nuclear build-out of the 1980s.

To help with the carbon math, I at least brought my own vegetarian lunch to work today: a recipe from Tuvessonskan for mushroom ragù with white wine, thyme, and lemon zest that I will definitely make again soon.

Six issues

Despite frequently stopping my watch to drink, eat ice cream, or simply catch my breath under the pine trees, today’s half marathon out to Tylösand turned into a true nightmare. At least I got some lovely photos of the coast and plenty of sunshine to cherish tomorrow, when it is expected to rain all day.

A month ago, I subscribed to the travel magazine Vagabond, as they offered six issues and four Orrefors wine glasses for only 299 SEK. Just as I feared, however, travel magazines can quickly become expensive, and Linnéa and I now have an epic Francophone adventure ticketed for Christmas. More to follow in due time.

Calleth you

With four days together, Linnéa and I managed to swim a thousand metres at Brottet, make the complete version of my recreated SFO/Polaris salmon dish with a bottle of Dog Point from New Zealand, and drive down to Malmöfestivalen the following day for a midnight concert with The Ark.

Skolstartsluft and anticipation, with blank pages and new adventures awaiting. Right now, I am doing the laundry and planning an afternoon run out to Tylösand. Tomorrow at 8 a.m., I will be back at work, with one of the busiest Septembers on record coming up, so it feels good that Hallandsgatan now boasts a fox poster, a new bookshelf, and some ridiculously unnecessary Molton Brown hand wash in the bathroom – reinforcing that sense of home in these post-diluvian times.

Alto Molino

Transported back to SFO in 2019, I am experimenting with making pea purée with oven-roasted zucchini and salmon for dinner, accompanied by a new budget find from the Uco Valley in Argentina (available only as a 25 cl can at Systembolaget).

This afternoon, I finally cracked the code with the governance book and am now back to speed-making lecture slides for the autumn. I also managed to run out to Erikshjälpen and pick up a new lamp for the living room. Slowly but surely, Hallandsgatan is turning into a home after all the fires, floods, and separations.