My trip in Sweden

Two weeks ago I left for a biking trip. I took the ferry for Stockholm and two weeks later I was in Rostock looking a way home. Attached is the route as mapped by my GPS and the markings I did to my notebook. The text will go from present to imperfect, hopefully it's easy enough to follow.

15.7.2009 - Wednesday
Backed the last of my stuff, took the train to the harbour, bought a ticket and left for Sweden. Planning to bike to Helsingborg, take a ferry to Denmark's main island, cross it and from there take a ferry to Rostock.

16.7.2009 - Thursday
distance covered 122,5 km/ av. speed 15,4 km / in 7:55 hours

Got out of the ferry around ten, biked to the motorway to Helsingborg. Found out that the road is - despite publicity - not good for biking. Have to backtrack and start using older roads.

Traveled quite the distance. I decide to not go for a camping site because it would have meant sidetracking at least 7 kilometres, instead went forward for another 20 and slept on an untended farmland, behind some trees.

17.7.2009 - Friday
99,6/16,3/6:04
After biking four kilometres there is the county beach. I spent there few hours washing my hair, eating food etc.

Because of the wind direction, traveling seemed slow and I had to keep breaks quite often during the first 40 kilometres. After reaching Katrineholm, I went for the south, with wind somewhat on my back. I see a map with a camping site marked inside the city borders of Norrköping. Travelled thru beautiful Åby and reached Norrköping around 21; trouble finding the camping site and had to ask directions from a cop, who decided to drive the patrol vehicle to the camping ground, so I could follow him.

Reception closed, but I'm assured I can just build the tent, use the showers et al and pay in the morning.

18.7.2009 - Saturday
91,1/14,1/6:25
Payment in the morning was successful. The price was 120 crowns (around 10 euros) for the night and 130 crowns for purchasing Scandinavian Camping Card, which is apparently required for most camp sites. I also get a a magazine with all the Swedish camping sites marked on a map. Looking at the map, I feel overwhelmed by the distance I have yet to cover.

Spent the better part of the day walking about Norrköping. Left for South around 14, but again against opposite wind. Decide to follow unpaved roads toward West, in hope of getting the wind of my back. Somewhat success, but the roads are not straight and inadvertently circle back toward itself. High point was following a road that slowly dwindled into nothing and I had to carry the bike over a hill to reach another road - only to find hundred metres later it blocked by barbed wire, to make it part of a cow pasture. While carrying the bike and the bags one at a time over the fenced area (and crawling under the wire myself), it started raining, which thankfully lasted only for an hour.

Found out that not all the smaller places marked on the map actually have a store or other places where refreshments could be found. Started to travel toward Kisa, but found a pleasant camping site on route, by a lake, and decided to build the tent there.

19.7.2009 - Sunday
47,5/16/???
Woke up to the sound of water hitting the canvas. Decided to stay in the tent till the rain would end. It continued till 16, with feeling that this would be temporal break. Calculated that I didn't have enough cold food till tomorrow (couldn't very well use the cooking equipment in the rain) and decided to push forward. I did have some canned beans, but for some reason didn't have a can opener.

Got to Kisa after biking most of the day in rain. Found a camping site, where the land owner said I could pay when I was leaving, at which time I would know the total of my bill.

20.7.2009 - Monday
71,1/15,8/4:38
The rain continued till 16. I settled my account and went forward. Only after few kilometres the rain continued, but thankfully didn't last long. It returned frequently for short bursts thru the evening.

Found a kebab-restaurant, the first I had seen after leaving Stockholm. The owner was from Macedonia, and observed that while business was good in the village where the restaurant was located, it had no social life and the only entertainment was the frequent fist fights the farmers started on pub nights.

Continued toward Eksjö through some beautiful scenery, which didn't easily copy itself to a film. Did try, though. Reached Eksjö quite late at night, but for lack of sleeping place pushed forward. After about ten kilometres, found a good spot in the forest.

Heard some loud, strange voices from the forest that didn't seem to belong to a human. While loud and seemingly coming from a large body, didn't see anything and slowly the voices faded away.

21.7.2009 - Tuesday
73,9/14,4/5:06
The opposite wind became even worse. I had to walk for kilometres at a time because the wind changed direction every other minute, making the bike difficult to drive. Sometimes the wind pushed me to the gutter, sometimes in front of the cars. Thankfully nothing happened, but I chose to walk for kilometres instead of risking it.

The weather continues to be bad otherwise as well. Rain keeps falling sporadically.

The battery of the camera seems to be running low. I have been taking too many pictures; over 200, though it felt like less.

It is hard to push forward. I don't really get to talk to people with whom I have history, and the lack of human contact depresses me. The road ahead seems far, and while I'm certain I can do it, it seems long and thankless journey. I was hoping for more effortless journey; the wind robs 5 to 10 kilometres per hour from my speed. At one point of the day I was going downhill, pushing for more speed and still had trouble passing 15 km/h.

22.7.2009 - Wednesday
86,0/19,4/4:23
Before going to sleep last night I called my mother. The call must be somewhat expensive, but it lifted my spirits. I also decided to go for Malmö and Trelleborg instead of Helsingborg and Denmark (the route would have taken me farther north). This allowed me more space on which to plan my journey.

The day was exellent in other ways as well. For most of the day the wind was behind me and went speeds of 25km/h even uphill. While the pace slowed down as the dark neared, I still covered most of the distance that day in less than four hours.

I stopped to visit county museum, which was mainly centred around nostalgia toward bygone Sweden. I also saw huts on which military used to live on the area.

Slept on camping site. I'm nearing Malmö, only about 150 kilometres as bird flies. As I still have two weeks before I have to get back to work, I'll take some sidetracks to see some of the bigger towns.

23.7.2009 - Thursday
76,4/16,8/4:31
I woke up in the rain, which lasted till 13, when I started biking. The trip to Kristianstad on smaller roads was was rather uneventful, though I did get to photograph a (Swedish) mile-stone, which I had seen through the whole week. This was the one in the best condition thus far, and I'm happy to finally gotten one. The stones for full miles (and one fourths, two fourths and three fourths) have followed me the whole trip. Apparently the miles (which equal ten kilometres) are still used for longer distances, as I few times heard people referencing to living "ten miles north" or traveling "180 miles to Lapland". With the milestones being so common, I would well see why this habit would continue when all the modern signs are in kilometres...

I reached Kristianstad soon enough, but found the outskirts disappointing. This was the first time in Sweden that I saw things being run-down. Thus far, no matter the construction costs, the houses (if not abandoned) were always in good condition and the people living in the houses seemed to have pride in them.

I had forgotten one my bikelocks at the camp site, and was advised to seek a new one from Biltema. Had troubles finding the place, and when I did, the store had already closed, at 19 o'clock. Thankfully, there was a camping site not half a kilometre away. The place was in the middle of the industrial area, which apparently had grown around the old vandrarhem. The price for a tent place and shower was the cheapest on the whole trip - 75 crowns, which included everything.

The staff was quite helpful and likeable, but when asked about the condition of Kristianstad, they reinforced my view of the place as run-down town with no future.

I started feeling regrets for doing the detour for Kristianstad, instead of heading straight to Malmö.

24.7.2009 - Friday
70,7/14,9/4:44
Bought the lock from Biltema and headed for the town centre, which ended up being a lovely old town. Spent time in town museum and then wrote some postcards.

Left toward Malmö around 16, when it promptly started raining again - while I stayed put, it had been all sun. Again I drove against wind, and for some unknown reason there was no way to reach Malmö directly by bike, thanks to the road being part of the European road network, on which biking is forbidden. I had to use old tractor roads, and the (very poor) road went like letter "S" on both sides of the motorway. I didn't do much distance that day, but I did tire myself to the largest extend during my trip.

Reached a camping site, where I met friendly people. Decided to rest for a whole day, the first since I got to Stockholm.

25.7.2009 - Saturday
Stayed put. The camping site was rather expensive (180 crowns for a tent place), but as the weather stayed abysmal I had no rush to get back on the road. Spent time with the campers and surfed the internet on my ipod.

26.7.2009 - Sunday
108,1/15,6/6:55
Today I biked to Malmö through Lund. The trip was, again, against wind. This is apparently a common occurrence as the trip saw me crossing several wind power plants that were busy grinding energy.

Lund had a beautiful old town, and soon after I left it I came to the outskirts of Malmö, which was, again, a bit of a disappointment; it was very similar to Kristianstad. Only the very centre with its houses from middle ages were worth seeing. After touring a while, I left for Trelleborg, from where I hoped to catch a ferry to Germany.

After getting only ten kilometres away from Trelleborg, the biking road ended and E-road started. While it had a sign forbidding bikers, there was a good paved 2 metre distance on the other side of the outer white line, on which I could travel far safer than on some other parts of Sweden. Reached Trelleborg and found that the ferry to Rostock would leave in four hours - at 23:00. Got tickets to it. Slept very badly on board.

27.7.2009 - Monday
69,5/13,2/5:13
I set my wheels on German ground at five in the morning. Was surprised to notice that there was a nuclear power plant right next door to the harbour.

I biked a while and slept in the forest waiting for the TallinkSilja's offices to open. When they did, I found out that the next boat to Finland would only leave at Wednesday and it would be full.

I tried to find alternatives on the city library's computer, but alas, the computers were from the 90s and still ran Windows 2000 with Internet Explorer 5.5. Most of the webpages I were depending on didn't open. In the end I called my mother who was able to secure me a place in the ship.

She also urged me to go get the ticket from the office as fast as possible, and to sleep "at least one night" in a proper bed.

Thus far I have probably not mentioned that the roads in Rostock were abysmal for biking. While the car roads were in good condition, the biking/walking roads were rised and seldom were the needs of bikes observed. Also, these roads were not paved but plated with cement squares, which were not even. This made travelling quite uncomfortable. The roads were also filled with unused tram-lines, which made it important to look down in order for the wheel to not get stuck. When we also add that on certain crossing there was only one pedestrian light, which had been situated thus as biker's eye would not reach it, it became understandable that I didn't see a car gaining speed from a crossing (apparenty the driver figured that green light was enough of a moral high ground to drive a biker to the ground). Thankfully he was turning and not going ahead, or I would probably not be here writing this.

Long story short, he hit me (apparently thinking that a bike could easily avoid a car if properly motivated, not counting on the quite tired driver or the additional weight of travelling gear). The car's bumber got some scratches. The driver insisted on calling the police, which after some problems (nobody understood English) ended with me fined (for 120 euros) and my insurance details being written down.

I got the ticket, and went on to try to find a sleeping place. Alas, all the hotels were full, and even the local camping site had only one spot left, of which they asked 43 euros. I didn't accept, and instead slept in the woods.

28.7.2009 - Tuesday
20/???/???
Woke up and went to long and beautiful beach which was the whole seafront of the area. Spent there several hours. Lost my glasses in the sea, and found it rather tricky to bike back to TallinkSilja offices, at which the ship would be boarded on midnight for departure in 5 in the morning on the following day.

29.5.2009 - Wednesday
Spent sleeping at the ship.

30.5.2009 - Thursday
Mother fetched me from the harbour and drove home. Feeling pretty ok, but as the hours passed the trip starts to get me down, with my knees and hands aching in particular.
..

If I would have to do the trip again, I would perhaps more closely follow the seacoast, instead of so readily biking west. I have a feeling that the roads would have been better suited for bicycle travel there, but this theory will have to go untested. All in all the trip was quite satisfactory, though maybe a tad too long by myself. In the future, I would probably either find a friend to accompany myself, or limit the trip to 500 kilometres. Longer than that seem to cause depression for lack of human contact.

The people in Sweden were surprisingly friendly. In towns, the people readily and cheerfully helped me when I didn't understand how some machine worked (such as the card-readers in stores), and while on the road they gave me a good girth, so not once did I feel I was in danger, even when I was driving with the cars. Indeed, when I was driving late at night, the cars slowed down, honked and showed me a thumb in support, for having the stamina to continue after sun had set.

This all changed at Rostock. The people were, by and large, quite unpleasant. The cars seemed to try to intentionally make my life miserable and did not take me into consideration when plotting the courses. This went to such lengths that one hit me rather than tried to avoid me. But of that I have already told you enough!

All in all, the trip was quite satisfactory, and I will endeavour to do something similar next year.