Friday, May 28, 2010

Luleå, Norbotten, Sverige



We are again in our beloved beautiful END OF THE WORLD ( end of Baltic Sea)!
After a 24 hour travel odysey ( 3 changes of trains and 3 of buses- substitution busses for the railway works) a sunny Thursday evening , 9 pm, welcomed us to Luleå. To our surprise, the perfect coordination between the trains and buses we had to take, was only altered by the last train, from Umeå till Luleå, which arrived with 1 hour delay. Fortunately, Fernando, our host, lives very near the station and he was duly informed about this exceptional situation.
Only puchero chileno had to wait to be eaten!
Our tiredness did not surpass the feeling of joy of being back to Norrland!
Fernando and Pia live just by the Baltic seashore and they prepared a separate apartment for us, with a spacious sitting room and a sauna! This night Fernando made a welcome dinner ( puchero de ave) in Chilenean style accompanied by Chilenean wine. Spanish, English and Swedish were spoken during the dinner prolonging till midnight ( the sun was still on, so we were even more confused about the time!) as we were getting more insights about the Northern Swedish reality.


Next day started very early... a bit too early for our taste. 10 am we had an appoitment with a TV crew to interview and film our tango. What pictures do not show, is a royal dance hall with columns and mirror, which was chosen as a setting for the programme.
Then, dressed up as we were ( I only took off my tango shoes), Fernando took us for a little tour of the town and surroundings. First- a viewpoint- Ormberget, meaning Mountain of the Serpent ,which is one of the few hills around overlooking the Baltic Bay and the estuary of the River Lulea. Then- a Svartöstaden, an artist district by the sea,where the famous writers like Mattias Alkberg, Liza Marklund and Mikael Niemi live or lived ( I was moved to hear that Mikael Niemi, a writer of a book ' Vittula', I have seen in BsAs made a film, is a personal friend of our host Fernando) then - Kulturen Hus and a city center.
As all the Northern Swedish ( AND NOT ONLY) inhabitants- celebrate a sunny spring day by going out and eating ice-creams on the streets or market squares . We remember this ceremony from Nybro, were spring came with us, some 10 days ago, and Lorena with Sami invited us for an ice-cream walk in the centre.
Storgatan. Each street in Sweden has its ' Gran Via' . So does Lulea. A sunny day like today is an excellent opportunity to be outdoors, to undress ( a little bit too much for the weather and our tastes- sleevless shirts, short skirt and sandals on naked feet are only the sign of anxiety for the warmth to come) or to play chess. We took a walk on Storgatan to look at girls exposed bodies, actually.
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Tonight our first worskhops began. As we have already discovered- the northern Swedish have much more fire inside and they respond to tango inmediately. Sensus, our organizer, told us about the incredible interest in this event- the students arrived not only from Lulea, but from the surrounding towns within 300km distance and even from Stockhom! MY LATIN NORRLAND! We met many tango friends and familiar faces; it feels like coming back home to meet family!

Our first entire day in Lulea finished with a LATINO-SWEDISH-FINISH reunion at Pia& Fernando's place. We had representatives from Chile, Argentina, Finland and Sweden. Chilean wine and great chats were had untill 1 am- and it was still bright outside....
Midnightsun is our faithful companion, thus it is hard to go to bed!On Monday afternoon we were ' kidnapped ' to Pitea; our faithfull students from there did not have enough of us and of ' tango torture' and arranged for the privated classes. Obviously with coffe and fika before and supper after... This sunny afternoon-evening and night ( I will never believe about the darkness aand bad weather in the north again!) was our good bye for this year. The skies turned all the colours as Stefen was driving us back to Lulea at 11 pm! The famous norrlands guld is not only a publicity for the bear, but it is a TRUE AND GENUINE REALITY!

Monday, May 24, 2010

GOOD BYE OSBY, ADIOS LEIF!
A last dinner at our Leif´s new house. Once again, he proved his excellent cooking skills and immagination. It was great to be spoilt like that for a couple of days...
A last cigar shared together...
We were the only priviledged ones to drink wine, since Leif would drive us to the station.
We have had a lovely 3 day stay in Osby and gave Leif some ideas about Buenos Aires. Hope that his enthusiasm for a cruise trip from Europe to Buenos Aires will survive the coming winter and flourish next year. Equipped with tunnbrodsrollen bought for our trip by Leif and my favourite blabär soppan, we left Leif's WHITE HOUSE.
We said good bye on a warm spring evening, with a full moon up above Osby station. A long exciting route to the north in front of us!


OSBYSJÖN 3 AYS OF HOLIDAYS after tango work. WHAT A HARD LIFE! ( QUE VIDA DURA!)
Leif, having arranged a proper sunny day for an excursion, took adventage of our visit to explore his new surroundings. He only moved in mid of December last year and was too busy renovating the house to do any sightseeing. And the nature around is worth it!
We had a lovely drive around the Osby lake. Got off for a walk by the camping site. Even in early spring, the Swedish are already active in their camping cars ( husvagn)

Victor assumed his favourite siesta position.








I was fascinated by the stengärdesgard-stone walls, so tipical for Småland and northern Skåne. Great to drive through the country roads with many of the permanent and summer cottages.

By the river ending in the Osbysjön ( Osby lake). The sun kept on with occasional switch offs...



Victor and Leif enjoying the Swedish nature.




OSBY, SKÅNE, at Leif's new house



Leif' s life changed dramatically since his last visit in Buenos Aires.
Some things changed as planned-others- as life itself wanted and carried him away.

He sold his house in Malmö as well as an apartment he inherited from his mother who passed away while he was in BsAs, he divorced, he left his job, he found a new love and half a year ago he bought a new house in the northern Skåne, Scania, in the lake district. After 3 years of not having seen him, it was a high time to check how life's been treating him. And get to know his new residence.
Leif did everything to make us come. The same on our side. We made our itinerary and put Osby ON the WAY . Almost any place in Sweden is on the way from Malmö till Luleå.... But any excuse is good to meet up.

The house overpassed all our expectations. A hundred year old 2 storey house with an orchard, a garden and an inner patio is a a total beauty made and restaured with a great care of detail in what we recognized as ' Leif' s style': white walls and wooden floors painted white, white rustic furniture and a white tile stove with delicate blue ornaments give the place the ambience of peace and harmony.... a country residence to meditate and create ( paint, write etc) We were the first visitor' s at Leif' s house.


...and to receive visitors! Especially on juicy spring days with a gentle sun perfect for an exposure in the garden. I immediately went out with an Lindgren's book Pippi Långstrumpf. The reading did not even start, as we had to much to talk about with Leif, who joined me on another deck chair.

Even though it was a sunny spring day, end of May, Leif put the fire in the tile stove to make an idyllic relaxing evening. Max Rabe as a background music complemented the whole scene. Victor assumed his favourite position that all of us know so well ( on the grass, on the floor, on the snow etc). Later on a new CD of Leonard Cohen matched the glowing fireplace. Leif burnt this seletion of Cds for me to inmortalized the shared moments in Osby ( Max Rabe, ich & ich, Leonard Cohen and some Swedish music new for me)

Leif kept spoiling us from the very moment we arrived. After having negociated the dinner time for 8 pm ( a compromise between the Swedish ridiculous 5-6 pm and a normal Argentinean 10 pm), Leif showed ONCE AGAIN his culinary skills. This time it was getostgratinerad kyckling, which more or less can be translated as an baked dish of pieces of chicken with vegetables and mushrooms with a goat cheese in a special spicy sauce with ginger. Californian red wine to accompany with.


Our mention of a tunnbröd was inmediately fullfiled by Leif buying a whole packet.It could easily disapear just as aperitive.

When we arrived we were shown two bedrooms to chose from. We chose the main guest bedroom on the first floor. What siestas were to be had here!As the first gusts- we were the first to sleep in a new bed and with a completely new set of sheets.


We loved the spacious sitting /dining room immediately. Leif has always had a very good taste for interior design.


During the first evening-night we had to catch up with this long 3 year period we have only connected by mails. Thanks God Leif kept his Spanish going.


ONE DAY IN HÖLLVIKENAfter 3 year break we are visiting Höllviken again. Raps fields on the way, a constant temptation to stop a car and smell the colsa flowers.
It s actually not the poshy Höllviken where Öresund meets Baltic sea which attracts us, but the two special people who make part of our Swedish Top 10. We take a day and a night to stay in the ' castle ' of Junot and Diana and see how their love and tango story goes on...

To make a long story short ( you can read extensively in blog ) some 6 year ago, Junot decided to take private tango classes with us in secret, to conquer the heart, and hand, of his beloved Diana, a passionate tango dancer. The story finishes with a happy end and a marriage. For us, the consequence is a constant invitation to visit and stay with them, being treated like kings and bombarded with generous gifts.
We were drived to Höllviken ' castle ' on a sunny sunday afternoon, the 23 of May, with the raps fields in its climax of yellow. Junot claimed that this was an exceptional year for raps, due to the climat conditions and... perhaps, our visit to Skane after 3 years...
After an warm welcome with a botle of champagne and eager exchange of the most important news in our lives, both men sat by the fireplace ( in spite of the lovely sunny spring in Skåne) to ' improve the world' . Discussing politics they found out that they have the same ideas, for instance, about solving the situation in Greece.

The dinner is ready! We were explained the menu and invited to the table.
Gazpacho
Vieiras ( pilgrimsmusslor) with white wine
smoked salmon ( warm rokt lax) with sparagus - A MUST! They remember we ar salmon addicts!
young potatos ( nya potatis), they must have payed a fortune for before the midsummer
A bottle of red wine BAROLO
desert- ice cream with a fruit salad including blueberries and other Swedish berries( our favourite)
cafee and cogniac ( indispesable)
The novelty was a golden table cloth that we take as an excellent idea for our house in BsAs. It produced very special reflexes in water glasses. And does not leave wine stains...
In cristalery area, the Austrian Riesel wine glasses are worth mentioning. Finally, we opened a BAROLO bottle ceremoniously. Junot has always a special bottle when we come to visit. His favourite sayig is, that he has to be love himself to be generous to others
. He practises self love with a lot of enthusiasm..

Junot's excentricity and very special way to act make every dinner at his place a kind of Almodovar film. Or maybe a Fellini. Diana makes a very smart conversation counterpart to him. Not only a pretty face. We should state that both of them look as young as when we met them. Young in spirit for sure.


The vieiras were excellent ( memories of Camino de Santiago invaded me), salmon was a dream ( we have not had salmon since Kiruna visit), not to mention the sparagus and WINE! We skalade for our newly contracted marriage, honemoon, travel across Sweden, Ice Hotel and meeting up with Junot and Diana after 3 year. We made a solemn promise not to let so many years pass by till we meet again.



We had a long evening to tell our our stories and listen to their life changes. Happy to hear that Junot sold most of his businesses ( will he manage to be free and workless for long?) and that he is eager to brush up his Argentinean tango now! To our surprise, he mentioned it a couple of times during the dinner. Maybe they will finally continue the tango story which made their love flourish? Diana, who participated in our weekend workshops ( tango, milonga and vals) , kept her tango level intact, as Victor stated with surprise. What a talent! And what a waste, not to dance for so long and not to develop it!

The fun was had, the wine bottles emptied and the gap of time and distance filled up.


We moved, as usually, to the comfortable armchairs by the swimming pool, for coffe, chocolates and cogniac. What a life! We are being totally spoiled! It is so nice to relax and have social life after an intensive tango weekend. It's great to have ' castles' like in Höllviken all over the world,that others mantain and keep ready for our visits. We call Junot our Swedish residence' s MAYOR DOMO. He really knows how to serve us to our satistation.
I managed to keep my newly learnt Swedish as a surprise for both. Both me and Junot are surprise experts. Now, as he says, he has to be careful about what he says in my presence.

Junot says they made a house extra beautiful for our visit.


I like recognizing the places where we have so many good memories-like our tango dance floor with a grand piano. Like the Cabelleria Rusticana played by Junot in the morning ( 10 am) as a wake up and breakfast call for us...

The last photo we took together before leaving the house. Junot was to drive us to Malmö train station. In his dark Jaguar, of course, a witness of so many trips between Malmö and Höllviken 6 years ago.

Small change of plans. Junot decided to show us his new toy. An interior design shop just opened. As we were just about to miss our train to Osby, Junot called Leif to inform him that we would take the next train. This is a way he arranges his and other people ' s lives. Action and inmediate decisions. Why not?
Especially, when he says afterwards: CHOOSE YOUR WEDDING PRESENT!


... and we did. What a hard life! After a long discussion between me and Victor we did choose. Junot is going to send us the weddig gif to Buenos Aires. It will wait for us as a welcome back home present.
COME TO BUENOS AIRES TO SEE SEE WHAT WE CHOSE!
Anyway, we are going to be back in Hollviken, for at least a couple of days, as Diana & Junot made us promise. IF Nybro is on the way from Göteborg to Malmö, then Höllviken is ALWAYS on the way....Diana laughed.