Weekend in Gdynia

I just got back home after weekend in Gdynia. Alex and I went to visit my parents. Alex went already on Thu afternoon - with a flight from Dortmund. So he had 1 day alone with my parents. They went in the evening to a Mozart concert in Gdansk, walked in Oliwa Park - which is super nice! And then went to Sopot. So they had a nice evening. I arrived on Fri late afternoon. We went home, had dinner, some good wine and chatted the whole evening. Since Alex walked the whole day in full sun and over 30C in Gdansk, he was quite tired at night - so we just stayed at home.
On Saturday I had an idea of going to Hel (nice expression, isn't it? ;-). For those of you who don't know where/what Hel is - a small fisherman town at the end of penninsula - between the Baltic Sea and Gdansk Bay. A really nice place and what is even nicer, is that there are ships and catamarans between Gdynia and Hel in summer time. So we took a bus to downtown Gdynia and we got stuck in a traffic jam due to some road constructions!!!! Then we ran to this boat and guess what??? We missed it with like 2 minutes!!!! Grrrrrr!!!! And the other trips were sold out!!! Turists all over!!! So we stayed in Gdynia, walked around, had some fika at the beach and enjoyed a great weather. Later on we went to help my dad with some stuff at our summer cottage. Geez!!! I haven't been there for like 10 years or so!! It felt so nostaligc.... suddenly I recalled all the great parties over there. Great memories ;-) The evening we spent between watching the World Championship in Athletics and zapping to Sopot Festival. Nice performance of Oceana girl!! Cool music!!
Today Alex flew quite early from Gdansk back to Dortmund. My flight was later in the afternoon and the trip went somehow very smoothly and fast. From door to door 4 hours (incl. the flight, bus from Lubeck airport, subway in HH and walking home). Not bad, huh?
Warm and nice. Still summer in the air. I love it!

Friday grill

Oh amazing weather this weekend in HH!!!! Yesterday we had BBQ in a little park in Eimsbuttel. The whole day the temp. was above 30C and the evening was great!!! Sooooo warm!!
We had some good sausages, veggies, HALOUMI cheese (I found it in Germany!!!!); rose and white wine, etc. Water melon as a dessert. Yummi!!!
Today it was a bit hard day; headache and slow pace.... ;-)

Holidays Swe/Norway

Last Wed I got back from my vacations. I had fantastic 12 days in Sweden and Norway. I flew to Kiruna, met Tania's friend Anna, got a rented car and waited for Tania and her friend Lisa who were supposed to be back from the climbing a glacier course.
Anyway, due to the fact that I had a very short time to change planes in CPH, my bagpack didn't make it to Kiruna!!!! So we had to stay over night there (instead of heading towards Lofoten). The good thing - the girls were more than happy to take shower and refresh a bit. The day after - trip to the airport, picking up my bagpack (sleeping mat didn't make it!!!), meeting some other friends who just came from Göteborg (!), grocery shopping and finally taking off towards Lofoten. Short stop at some friend's place in Abisko, getting maps, tips what to visit etc.



The first night we spent at a beach near Korsnes. In the morning - super fast "bath" in the sea. It was so cold that we had to go out after 2 min in order not to "loose" our feet.... But nice!!!

First hiking trip up the mountains after breakfast. Beautiful.

Fika and then going to take a ferry from Skutvik to Svolvaer. Lofoten here we come!!!

We slept at some quiet places, far away from people. Oatmeal with blueberry soup for breakfast was delicious. Landscapes unforgettable!!!


Here a small village Å:




It was light the whole 24hrs. The sun went down but around 2 it was already up again. A bit hard to sleep in a tent...
From Egkum:


We skipped the whales. Too far to drive.
Instead we enjoyed tons of blueberries and "hjortron" (I think cloudberry in Engl.). Amazing!!!!

We had a really great week, full of adventures. Especially paddling sea kayaks; having a great weather on the way to some islands, then it turned to be a storm. Tough trip back but we made it!!!



Afterwards taking a night train from Kiruna to Göteborg. Then 3 days there. So nice!!!

Now work and counting days until my next holidays at the end of Sept.... ;-)