Summer nights in Sweden

In many ways we have been so lucky getting hold of this apartment for rent.Getting an apartment to rent is considered lucky in the first place. It is really difficult to find something like that in Stockholm.

Even if it is smalish for the two of us it has many advantages. It is located very close to the city. It takes me less than five minute on my bike to reach the Söder (the south side of the city). Something else that I still find exotic in many ways is to see all kinds of boats even as large as this one passing by in the canal which is located by the end of our street. From our porch you can see the canal if you stand up. So we do live very close to the water edge. That is something that I find really nice. It almost makes me feel like I am living right in the archipelago of Stockholm.

Different sounds are connected with different places. In Birmingham, Alabama you could always hear the whistle of a train somewhere in the near or far distance. Here at least summertime you can hear the sea gulls making noise as they fly by (but in a very pleasant way). Hearing them is also something that I find both exotic and remarkable.

Summer nights in Sweden are magical in many ways. The sun practically dosen´t have time to set before it comes up again. These are some pictures that I took the other evening around 9 pm. At the moment I am just trying to enjoy this as much as possible because I know that in less than 15 days the days will again (slowly at first but quicker already by August) be getting darker and shorter. I am already honestly dreading the winter.

However, as magical and beautiful as it might be I would still prefer that the days had more of a normal length in summer if they could be less dark in winter. I would be totally fine with the sun going down at 8 pm if the sun could stay up until 5 pm in winter. The dark period is just so long and it drives me insane. But right now I don´t even want to think about it.

So the sun rises at 3.38 am and sets at 9.57 pm. This was in the paper Saturday and up until midsummer which is June 25 the day will continue to get lighter and THEN it starts to get darker.

This picture I took Sunday night at around 11 pm. So this is what it looks like right now. When I was home sick in the Alabama this is what I longed for, Swedish summer. This is the part I love but the rest I can be without. I did not feel the old love for Sweden until recently when summer arrived here.