Days 8, 9, 10 - We Arrive in Umeå (August 12-14)

On Wednesday, August 12, we took a seven hour train ride north from Stockholm to Umeå (Oom-ee-o), Sweden, where we will be staying until August 24. At this point you are probably wondering why Umea and why for 11 days? First, the University of Umeå is here and it is one of the eleven partner institutes of SweTox (Swedish Toxicology consortium). Second, Karen met a number of the researchers from the University at a conference last September in northern Sweden and they invited her to come to Umeå. Finally, Karen is on sabbatical until December 31, so she wanted to spend some time here, and in Stockholm and Norway, doing some work in new locales and collaborating with old and new colleagues. After Umeå it's back to Stockholm for a couple of days then onto Norway until early September, when Marshall and I head home for the start of high school.

Umeå University campus

The University has kindly put us up in a nice apartment about a 10 minute walk from Karen's temporary office on campus. So far Marshall and I haven't done too much. I have been doing some work on a contract, emailing, catching up on the blog, and running. Marshall has been catching up on his needed teenager sleep and working on some Youtube videos. We have also been out exploring the neighbourhood and playing frisbee. The small apartment complex we are in also has a sauna that Karen and I have partaken in a couple of times. (Compared to Swedes, Finns, and Icelanders, we are sauna wimps).

We plan on getting out and exploring some of Umeå on Saturday, so I will have more to say

Umeå city centre square

about the city in my next blog entry.

THOUGHTS ON THE TRAIN - One thing that struck me on our train ride is that Sweden, particularly the northern half, is very much like northern Ontario (except with a better highway and a few more larger urban areas). We whisked past lots of lakes and birch and coniferous forest interspersed with small farm clearings. One difference though, at least in Umeå, no mosquitoes or black flies. I am not sure where they are, but if we were at the cottage in Canada, there would be lots of them.

My second thought was that train travel is a much more relaxing way to go vs. the plane. No security, no showing up an hour-plus before your flight, no long lines, no having to drive to the out-of-the way airport, etc. Plus there was way more leg room and you could easily get up and walk around. At the same time, seven hours might be my limit and after that it becomes time-wise more efficient to fly. Still, I think you can gather that I would like to travel more by train in Canada if the opportunity existed.

Umeå apartment

Umeå apartment

Umeå waterfront - Umeålven River