Come sail away

This morning, I briefly escaped to the balcony with a cup of coffee and the escapist treat that I was able to pick up with some surplus cash at San Diego airport. Reading about the 16th-century Portuguese colony of “Paraty” on the Costa Verde, just south of Rio de Janeiro, the vibrant azulejo tiles and the intense greenery tell me that I am far from finished with the Lusophone world. For now, however, the only realms I will be sailing on are virtual ones, as I juggle a constant stream of student emails and Zoom meetings, topped off by the utter absurdism of watching the Swedish comedian Messiah Hallberg euthanize the Bolibompa dragon together with William.

Lucky

Only a few days after Johanna and I got back from the United States, the pilots and cabin crew of Lufthansa decided to celebrate the airline’s centenary in the most traditional way possible: by striking. With thousands of flights cancelled, customers have apparently spent up to six hours in line trying to be rebooked or found themselves stuck in endless loops with AI bots. Thinking back on our trip, with our double upgrade on the way over and our hike among rattlesnakes in the Cleveland National Forest, we certainly had our share of good fortune, and I even got a box of Lindt chocolate to bring home.

Sticking to the theme of luck, William went downhill skiing in Kiruna while I was in the US. Reviewing his Suunto app stats together, I got a bit of PTSD by proxy when seeing that his maximum speed had been 61 kilometres per hour and that he had made a couple of two-metre jumps. Happily, all went well, but I guess this is clearly one of those situations when the less I know, the better off I am.

Kongahälla

Taking the express bus north again for another tournament, this Sunday follows a now familiar pattern: me working and William playing chess, Picadeli lunches, and William’s friend Amos wearing his signature red bow tie.

The only break from the routine has been a visit to the nearby Nordic Wellness Kongahälla gym for the first ten of this month’s fifty kilometres, followed by a few more on the treadmill. After going without a quantitative running target for the first three months of the year, I have realised that having no target makes me just as stressed as having one. As such, I have decided to aim for 50 kilometres per week for the remainder of the year, for a total of 2,600 kilometres. Though significantly lower than in previous years, I hope that goal will help me stabilise my running at a sustainable level while still giving me time to be a present dad.

Birdsong

With Artemis II safely back on Earth despite some initial concerns about its heat shield, I am spending this weekend in Gothenburg making up for past sins by going to the gym with the kids, running thirty kilometres in the forest, and shopping at Lidl. Tomorrow, William and I are taking the bus up to Kungälv for the “Trekungamötet” chess tournament, where I hope to check out the indoor rowing machines at the nearby Nordic Wellness Kongahälla gym and finally stop feeling bad about that “Americone Dream” ice cream by Stephen Colbert ;-)

Running through the forest this morning, there was a lot of birdsong, which reminded me of Johanna’s fascinating Merlin Bird ID app, something that felt incredibly Star Trek. Developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the app provides a spectrogram and is capable of identifying numerous birds at the same time, as can be seen in the screenshot above from our hike to Three Sisters Falls last Monday.

Circadian reset

It was already dark by the time train 499 reached Halmstad last night, so after commenting on a few student papers and taking some melatonin, I fell into a dreamless sleep, only to be brutally awoken by my Suunto watch at 6 a.m. After an epic struggle to get out of bed, I had no choice but to cut my planned run to Jansa Brygga short and instead go for a quick bread run to the local Bärlin sourdough bakery.

Under beautiful blue skies, I then did my best to get as much sunlight as possible between classes, and back home the tinted glass cast beautiful reflections on the wall, a promise of what is to come. Still, with the jetlag monster never far away, I headed out for five more kilometres at sunset to help further reset my circadian rhythm.

Seeing the images coming in from the Artemis II mission, showing the Earth from the far side of the Moon, certainly puts my own jetlag struggles into perspective. Instead of the mere twenty-two thousand kilometres that I have travelled over the last week, the Artemis crew will have travelled more than half a million kilometres by the time they splash down in the waters outside San Diego tomorrow. Like so many times before, space exploration points to what humanity could become if we directed our energies outward, toward building rather than destroying.

Approval

Far from snowy, Munich was almost as sunny as Imperial Beach (above) when Johanna and I landed after eleven long hours in the air. Having been spoiled beyond words on the way over, Premium Economy on the A350-900 still felt like a substantial upgrade, with plenty of legroom, a brand-new cabin, and external cameras showing the red desert in all its grandeur. Sadly, Lufthansa once again proved a little hit and miss on the culinary front, reminding me just how much Turkish Airlines is in a class of its own.

Before leaving the Americas, Johanna’s and my application to the Swedish Ethical Review Authority was approved, which felt fantastic given that it is my first time as a PI. With the formal approval now in place, we will try to get the quantitative survey done before the end of the spring semester so that we can do some analysis over the summer holidays. As for the two months that remain until school is out, I will be splitting my time between Zoom classes in Gothenburg and computer lab sessions in Halmstad, with a fair amount of X2000 commuting in between. In terms of bigger trips, however, the only thing I have planned this year is a conference in Naples in mid-June, so after the recent global whirlwind, the blog will probably feature more lake runs and dog hikes going forward.

Rental car return

After 1,023 kilometres on the roads of California (and more than a couple stops at Chipotle), it was finally time to return our Genesis G70 to Hertz. As Hyundai’s premium brand, the white Genesis was a pleasure to drive on the mad highways of L.A., but slightly less suited to our desert adventures. In any case, we made it back without a scratch, and that is what counts at the end of the day.

Now checked in with Lufthansa to Munich, I wonder whether snow will await on the other side, as it did twenty years ago when my flight from Hong Kong landed in Bavaria. After the upgrade bonanza on the way over, I am still happy that Lufthansa accepted my upgrade bid to Premium Economy, which I think will be more than enough on the spiffy new Airbus A350-900.

3x San Diego

Washboarded

Driving along dirt roads into Cleveland National Forest, Johanna and I had ample reason to research the phenomenon known as “washboarding”: the series of regular transverse ripples that develop on unpaved roads and make them resemble laundry washboards. With squirrels constantly crossing the road and breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains, taking it slow was, in any case, the right approach.

Once at the trailhead, we started our hike down to Three Sisters Falls, which still had plenty of water after the winter rains. We saw lots of lizards, but the rattlesnakes, despite plenty of warning signs, were luckily nowhere to be seen. With a few other hikers around, we skipped a swim in the ponds, which was probably wise given the existence of brain-eating amoebae and other entertaining microorganisms in California’s waterways, though the risk, in all fairness, is extremely low.

As so many times before, California simply blows one’s mind with its natural scenery and wildlife. Leaving the mountains behind, we drove down to La Jolla for some beach time, which almost felt cruel after reading all the weather reports from Sweden. Jumping into the Pacific, we then finished the day, all salty, at our motel in Point Loma.

Ranchita

With Guy Clark singing “If I can just get off of this L.A. freeway / Without gettin’ killed or caught”, we checked out of The Fig and followed the I-10 into the Inland Empire. Stopping for an Impossible Burger and one more iced americano somewhere south of Riverside, the dizzying midday heat made the scene feel picture-perfect as the coastal mountains gave way to shrubland and then the salt flats of Borrego Springs.

Now in our A-frame house, waiting for the stars to come out, this trip has already exceeded our wildest expectations. With two more days left to explore Southern California, and with storm “Dave” ravaging southern Sweden, it has been worth every dollar, even if it means instant noodles for the rest of the month.