#sweden2

[ifreakingloveroyals]

6 June 2013 | Princess Madeleine of Sweden attends the National Day Celebrations at Skansen in Stockholm, Sweden. (c) Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

[mairawa]

ON YEAR ON THE ROAD

Today, exactly one year ago, I hugged goodbye my family in Ljusne (Sweden) and started pedaling north. For most people this may have been just an ordinary Tuesday in March. The sky was clouded up and winter still held its icy grip over northern Sweden. For me though, it was one of the best Tuesdays of my life. When I started to cycle that day I could literally feel how the anxiety, that had been so present for the last months, started to let go. I was back on the road again. Back to the place that I knew would give me my spirit back.

I could tell you a lot about what one year on the road have done to me, but instead, I wanna hand out this post to my mom, Ulla Forsberg. Thanks for being the best support a daughter could wish for while cycling the world. I´ll be back again soon, I promise!

See the "leaving home" live interview that was made with me, and my mom, HERE. 

All pictures taken by Markus Norin, Söderhamns Kuriren.

[mairawa]

In October 2015 (after 7 months and 8300 kilometers) my journey towards New Zealand got an abrupt ending when I fell and injured my foot on Pamir Highway In Tajikistan. I flew back home and after 4 months rehabilitation I was ready to continue. But instead of flying back to Tajikistan I decided to re-start from Sweden, from scratch. 

A lot of people asked me why. Why start all over again? Well... “If you aren´t going all the way, why go at all?” is all I came up with. And for me, that reason is enough. 

Illustration by me, December 2015. 

[mairawa]

SUMMARY SWEDEN:

Brown: start/end Green: camping/sleeping outside Orange: hosted by people Yellow: hostel/hotel

Date: 2016/03/08 - 2016/03/27

Days: 20 Days in the saddle: 17 Kilometers: 1073 Time in the saddle: 75 hours, 42 minutes Max speed: 49.97 km/h

Average speed: 15.02 km/h Average km/day: 63.2 Average time/day: 4 hours, 27 minutes

Flat tires: 0

First-timers in Sweden:

First time camping in snow First time eating palt First time flushing my cardcase down the toilet First time opening a coconut with a kitchen knife First time cycling E4 First time spending a saturday evening at a petrol station First time sleeping at a playground First time eating a whole bag of chips under 10 minutes First time talking in the phone the whole day while cycling

[mairawa]

THE HUT. I needed something else than a perfect paved road. I needed more snow, more turns, more trees. So I looked at the map and decided to turn left into this gravel road. Not only was it a shortcut towards Älvsbyn, but also that something else. 

It started of good. Really good. No cars at all, mountain views and a curvy road with packed snow. But just after an hour or so this perfect road turned into some kind of Bambi-on-ice-road. It was ice, all over, and even my winter tires lost the grip and made my back wheel turn left and right when I least expected it. I mean, I could cycle, but not faster than 7-8 km/hour and according to my map I had another 50 km to go before reaching the paved road again.  

After a whole days `gliding´ I still had 20 km to go. And that was when I saw this hut under some trees. It was some kind of reindeer-keepers-hut and what a luck when I realized it was unlocked! It had benches around the walls and a fireplace in the middle buried under a pile of snow from the chimney. It was dark and cold, still cosy. Finally, after 2 weeks of search, I had found my “abandoned house” to stay the night. 

By nightfall the temperature dropped to below minus 10 degrees and with the light from the full moon I watched some reindeers passing just outside the window. I lighted a few candles and left the stove burning longer than normal to bring some warmth to the walls and before 9pm I was asleep.   

Of course I forgot so put my water bottles in my sleeping bag so when I woke up 9 hours later it was all ice. But also a cold morning can be a good morning. It´s all in your head. It took some time but I´m starting to get used to being cold a lot now. And I better start to like it too cause the morning after I had minus 20 degrees outside my tent. The spring is still far away. 

[mairawa]

IRMA, ANNA, GUNILLA, SIVLOUISE, LENA, JAFAR, NATALI, HILLEVI.

I don´t know how many times I was blown away by the hospitality of people in Central Asia during last years trip. I would say every day. And if I would have done a list like this for them, it would be endless. These experiences made me think about Sweden. How we are quite private in nature here. We don´t wanna bother others outside our own everyday-life bubble alá Jantelagen and we usually don´t stop cyclists and invite them into our home. Or, at least, this is what I thought. It turns out I was wrong. Cause if you ask for help here, you will get it. 

The names above are the once of people that have helped me tremendously and without them I would have been way more cold, hungry and lonely during my first 2 weeks of this journey. Irma, Anna, Gunilla, SivLouise and Lena with families all opened up their homes for me and made me feel so welcome. We shared dinner and laughter and as if everything I got wasn´t enough they all placed a new lunchbox in my pannier before waving me goodbye. Jafar, the owner of Pizzeria Laponia in Lycksele, gave me my pizza for free just because he thought I was a touch girl. And Natali, the owner of the B&B Gula Villan in Glimmerträsk, offered me a sofa to spend the night on and made me breakfast the morning after without letting me pay a single thing. Thank you all!!

And yesterday, after 860 kilometers and 14 days pedaling, I arrived to Luleå. Here I´m staying with my friend Hillevi, but more about that later.  

[mairawa]

Morning #13. The hut. Sweden, March 20th 2016. 

Music: Sofia Jannok, Bali čáhci 

[mairawa]

An hour. That is what I got. An hour under a burning sky before I closed the zipper to my tent. And the morning after, everything was back to normal.