thitherward

I’m sitting in my Swedish cousin’s flat alone, listening to the sound of traffic and REM (Low), and preparing for a 21-day train tour to see as much variation of European nature as I can in the next 3 weeks. Unlike the last 3 months of my journey, I’ve changed my focus from meeting new people and learning new cultures to seeing nature, meeting a few long-time friends, and getting to the Pacific Ocean to end this journey.

I’m hoping I don’t see nature like these elk carefully crossing the road across the street from where I was standing at a bus stop. At least, I’d rather see them in their natural habitat and not where humans have forced themselves onto the land.

Perhaps that is why I really enjoy train travel – it seems less invasive and passes through more wild territory than roads with their carfulls and busfulls of loud, oblivious people. At least, that has been my experience with summer in Europe – everyone is on holiday and everyone is out enjoying the beautiful weather. With this in mind, I purchased a 21-day global eurail pass which lets me on almost all railways (and some boats) in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia. The countries in bold are the ones I’m planning to travel through. I realize that I will not be getting anywhere near a true experience of these countries by just looking at them through the glass of my train couch but I think of this as the scouting party. I hope to come back to some of these places in the future and explore each in depth.

I met Shabnam through a friend of my cousin’s, who used to live in Göteborg (Gothenburg), Sweden. Shabnam’s parents are originally from Iran but she is a Swede. Shabnam on Sweden:

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Upon entry into Göteborg (Gothenburg, in English), my journey entered its summer holiday. It’s just like summer holidays that many of us used to enjoy when we were a bit younger – where we don’t care about what time we wake up or go to sleep, when someone else makes sure we are fed, someone else worries about what we do, where we go, and how we get there. I’m 13 again and it’s great.

Due to the Iran Revolution back in 1979, the Iranian side of my family has been scattered all over the world. Thus, I have cousins in Sweden and Norway. Two of my cousins came to pick me up from the airport in Göteborg and I’ve been spending the last week and a half with them and their families. My mom has joined us as well. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Sweden is beautiful and I’m told that it only gets prettier as you go further north and away from the cities. It’s a land of abundant water and lush greenery (at least it is now that it is summer).

The city, itself, is historically quaint and active during the day. The gypsies travel here from other parts of Europe during the summer and make money performing in the streets.

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See the full set of pictures here on Flickr.