Sakura

Having managed to duck all colds since September last year, my luck finally ran out this week – right after my long run on Bohusleden. Teaching for six hours on Friday (thankfully on Zoom) was a real struggle, but I somehow made it through. By Saturday I was already feeling better, which was fortunate, as the whole family took the train to Stockholm at 6 am. With extensive engineering works underway over the Easter holidays, our train ride was an hour longer than usual due to a detour via Trollhättan. Still, that is nothing compared to some other services between Stockholm and Gothenburg, which are delayed by 3-4 hours.

Once in Stockholm, we met up with my sister's family for lunch at Vapiano before leaving the kids with them for a board game bonanza in Bagarmossen. Suddenly kid-free, Anna and I checked in at our hotel in Värtahamnen and headed out for a long walk through the spring sunshine. We wandered past the embassies on Djurgården and ended the stroll with a rooftop drink at TAK.

With cherry blossoms in full swing in Kungsträdgården, Stockholm felt especially multicultural and welcoming – tourists and locals mingling under the trees. On the train, I had been reading more of the excellent Wigforss biography I picked up before my trip to Spain last month. Seeing present-day Stockholm through its pages reminded me just how utopian our world would seem to someone in the 1940s – how much more freedom individuals have today to shape their own lives, and how many voices that were once silenced that can now be heard.