First I went with Frida to her parents place on the countryside. We were there for over two weeks and also visited a friend at Gotland, a small island in front of the Swedish coast. Relaxing, reflecting, finally seeing this beautiful Swedish lake with a sunset.. And looking forward; where do we want to be together, and how, and what do we want to do? On Gotland I finally saw some real sea again! The Swedish coasts are nothing compared to the Netherlands, just rocky. Interesting to look at but not that much enjoyable as the Dutch ones. But at Gotland I got to experience it more. Gotland was strange, Sweden in small it is called. Flat in the south, cold in the north. And a lot of rocks :)

Then my brother Tijl came by and we went backpacking into the forests. As we both never did such a thing before we started carefully, but already within 24 hours we came back and repacked our backpacks :) Then it went better, but I now know I’m more a cyclist.. Canoing on the Swedish lakes with Tijl was fantastic. We went for a full day and slept on one of the islands. We also went to Stockholm, which was a bit strange.. and a lot of fun.

When Tijl went back to the Netherlands, the last week for me and Frida physically together started.. That was a lot harder one. With al the plans in our heads, it still wasn’t easy to cope with. I tried with a party on the last day, which helped a lot in making it a happy after-halfyear-party. Nonetheless, saying goodbye was almost horrible.

Then I traveled to Berlin. A nice trip on a train and ferry where I met a Japanese guy with which I later spent a day in Berlin with. Berlin was really nice. A good atmosphere, lots of bio shops and not such a busy center as for example Amsterdam.

After two days of Berlin I went on to France. There was a nice park in Lyon where I ate my lunch. And then the wonderful week in Rancy, France. I was there with a group from Mens en Spirit (Human and spirit) at La Ripe Blance. Also a lot of ‘down to earth’ stuff, which is really necessary for a spiritual heavy week :) I could reflect a lot on the last half year and life in general. I started a new company which I wanted to do already for some time, Frida helped me knowing that, and the France week helped me starting it. When I left there I knew I would just start. More on that later via the website and maybe the blog as well.

And then at last, the travel back to the Netherlands. Seeing the Eiffel tower in the distance as the train came past Paris and via a beautiful station of Antwerp. Having traveled a lot, I could finally write destination Alkmaar in my interrail log..

Official now, or at least, Frida can receive mail here :)

It is becoming a real ‘house’ now. Now practically every box is unpacked, things have their place. And the reward for that is definitely there, a nice place to be :) Even the guinea pigs start to feal at home.

But also the dishes (after eating tomato pies) start to pile up also. How to deal with that? The shadow side of decisions?

Be careful of what you wish for, you might get it all.

Luckily, I’m still very happy. It helps me a lot with the things I find hard in life. Growing everyday. That’s why we did this.

Click play or go to the gallery to view the photos in large.

The last weekend and the evenings around that, we – me and Frida, were moving together.

We’ve been installing new lights, packing, moving the packed boxes and placing everything in the new apartment.

But it takes more time than just that one weekend moving. Also cleaning the previous apartment, dealing with – and nervously waiting for – the rental company, and somehow, unpacking takes more time than packing.

And then come the more practical things.. A clock comes back in the apartment. How to deal with this and that? Were to place these things? How should this look? As said, moving takes more than 1 or 2 days. We’re welcoming the new adventures and conflicts :)

And things start to feel differently. The bed with the two nightstands suddenly looks like we’re a couple. Ah but wait, we are :)

And, we can now enjoy the new balcony.

First 3 are in

One more

Failed twice, but now we have two more

I just checked in another 3 boxes

Woohoo! I was just in time.. But now we have 7 more :)

> Great! stop searching now, we will have a lot

I brought in 4 more, I was at the place already.

Collecting banana boxes from supermarkets in the area. We’ re moving! More later :)

This Saturday I went walking (or ‘hiking’) on Björnö, an island near Västerås. I joined a hiking club with people from the university. I think about 20% was Swedish, so this is like a new kind of hiking, intercultural hiking :)

We had nice views on the forests, walked on the Mälardalen lake, saw a number of deers and – as the guy from the outdoor shop in Eskilstuna said – a lot of good talks about life :)

One girl from Iran, who was here already for a longer time, told that the ‘multicultural improvisation’ course was in the second part of this semester. This is really nice because I might be able to follow it then! It is a course in which a group from the different cultures of the international students gather and prepare a play about cultures.

At Friday I was looking around at Wikipedia to see what this ‘hiking’ was about. I learned about the ‘Ten Essentials’; a list of items you should always bring with you when hiking. Most of it I didn’t have but that wouldn’t be so much of a problem. The path we would be walking was 10km long. Still it kind of got me and when packing I took more than I would really need. Typically me again, worrying a bit too much :) So I got rid of must of the stuff and got rid of more stuff.. (lagom anyone?) And still I got more food than I really needed. But that came in handy when another vegetarian didn’t brought that much food for the barbecue and when the train back to Eskilstuna had a delay of “en timme och åtta minuter”, lasting a total of 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Sidestep; yes, a temporary bed. The apartment I rent is without any furniture. So the plan is to buy all new stuff in the first week and sell it again in the last week. Luckily they have something called IKEA there :) Especially as I arrive there on Friday evening, I need something to sleep on the first night, and probably the first (few) week(s).

Today my new camera came in, I’ll make some pictures of the snow tomorrow. And tomorrow a t-shirt will be delivered, and I need to go back to the Bever to complain about my shoe which is already broken (bought it two weeks ago).. Very nice things to happens two days before departure.

I just finished the cake for my farewell party at Mediamatic, now, the bed calls.