Leaving a place worth staying

In Copenhagen I stay for four days. I stroll through the town, watch people, talk to bikers, bike dealers, bike builders and bike activists. This town is absolutely depending on bikes. I also visit Rosenborg Castle and Christiania, a kind of freetown within Copenhagen and an interesting social experiment in full life size.

Then I leave Copenhagen with very mixed feelings. On one hand I am heading for Sweden and I am exited about a new country. On the other hand my time in Copenhagen was great. The city is disarming, seems to be very liveable and totally bicycle moved. The people are friendly, open, active. My two couchsurfing hosts also played an important role in my good experiences in Copenhagen. So, it is hard to leave. Something in me wants to stay.

But I go and take the train from Copenhagen to Malmö and bike on to Ystad, the starting point of my 2.500 km trip to the north of Sweden, following the east coast. The route is called Cykelpåret, you find a description here.

In the beginning there is nothing new in Sweden. The south looks like Denmark or northern Germany. But then it changes, more trees, forests. More rocks, hills. Now it is Sweden as you imagine it. I like it, although it is not very attractive or inviting for longer stays. So I move on and on. The first point to go is Solviken, a hostel run by a friend from school and her husband. Here - nearby Tranås - I rest for two days before I continue.

Reflection: my seventh week on tour ends now. I remember once someone told me that long journeys come in several phases. Until six weeks it is like holiday. Then comes phase 2, which it is a bump, where you feel, you have seen everything and you could return home. And after that in phase 3 travelling becomes a kind of normal procedure. I had a kind of phase 2 in this week. But luckily a good friend gave me a hint and perspective: I could go via Åland from Stockholm to Turku in Finland. That would allow me to cycle in a circle without endless forests and mosquitoes and flies in northern Sweden. I think about that as an option. More important is, that a friend was there, that the perspective was helping and my mood became good again. So, I hope I will enter phase 3 next week :-)

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