This weekend the day of midsummer was celebrated in Sweden. Last year around this time my girlfriend travelled to Bolivia to meet her parents for about two weeks, and instead of just sitting around in an empty apartment I decided that I’d rent a car and go for a roadtrip on my own. Said and done! I decided that I would go to a lake and take pictures of the sun rising over the water. I picked lake Siljan and I also planned on visiting a few deserted places around Gävle which would serve as good urban exploration prospects.

I got in the car and left town at about 10 pm and drove straight for a set of coordinates I had picked from a satellite photo of the area. I arrived at the position at about half past three on the morning only to realize that in the middle of the summer the sun doesn’t really rise. Mostly because it doesn’t set properly in the first place! Disregarding this slight setback I still got a few pictures which I’m quite happy with. Following this stop I drove around on small gravel roads round the lake and after a while I ended up on the top of a mountain looking down a ski slope and a series of ski lodges. At least the mosquitos were happy to see me. From there I went to central Mora and stopped for a couple of hours of sleep (in the car). After being woken up by a freight train which was everything but a well oiled machine it was time for breakfast for both me and the car – i.e. gas station for the both of us.

When looking at the map and the GPS it occured to me that going to Gävle would result in this day ending too soon. So I decided that I’d drive to the opposite side (west side) of this pine-clad country. Five or so hours later I arrived in Bengtsfors where I had lunch and later on I stopped by a good friend to the family who lives a few km outside of Bengtsfors (we used to spend a couple of summers there when I was a kid). By now the little bluetooth GPS transmitter I had used for navigation in combination with my PDA had completely run out of battery, so I decided that I’d head home to Stockholm. But when driving past signs showing exits to Enköping I couldn’t resist visiting this other old home town of mine. I went to have a look at the building where I had lived when I was working for the army in Enköping and I also drove around a bit on the training grounds remembering old times.

And now a year later I would like to do something similar again – just leave town and head to a distant target and do what ever you please on your way to it while taking pictures and listening to good music. Freedom.

The results of last years midsummer roadtrip can be seen by clicking the picture below:

Now let’s see if I have something to show you a year from now…

I happened to have a rental car over the night this saturday, so I thought that maybe I’d go to Stockholms no. 1 airport Arlanda and try to get a bunch of cool pictures of airplanes landing/taking off. After having visited the proper spot for sighting airplanes (the spot which is endorsed by the airport itself) and realising that all the airplanes aren’t using that runway I got in the car and zipped to the runway being used (i.e. where I saw a plane land). My plan was to stand under the planes when they approached, so I went to the south end of the runway. After having stood there for about 30 minutes I see one plane – approaching from the other end! Turns out that there was no wind to speak of so I guess the pilots could pick any approach they wanted.

This is about as fun as it gets…

Turns out that Arlanda on a saturday night is pretty darn boring. I’m guessing that going there on a sunday night would’ve given me more photo opportunities. Some other time maybe. Instead I decided to head out to Nynäshamn and maybe take a few pictures of the sea. I might be able to show you the result of that little trip later tonight.

Update:
Here’s the picture I promised you before: http://blog.diktator.org/index.php/2009/05/25/mist-over-the-road/. As you’ll see it has nothing to do with water or boats (which is what I had imagined when I set out to Nynäshamn). I just saw this scenery and I had to get out and take some pictures of it. So there you go, enjoy! =)

Last night I sat down and processed some of the 366 pictures taken during the weekend. It contains some street photography, some urban exploration and some industial stuff. And all the photos are geotagged. =)

Here goes!

I just had the opportunity to edit the remaining pictures from Tinitus 2009. The following just got done:

The Klinik: