One Trip EVERY Month Challenge: Östersund and Maria

6 mars, 20146 mars, 2014 / Leya / 28 kommentarer

Marianne has begun a new challenge where you take one trip every month, near or far, and take photos or write all about it. Join her here http://eastofmalaga.net/2014/01/20/new-challenge-one-trip-every-month/

Here’s how:

Each month, visit somewhere and then write about your trip or describe it using photographs – whichever suits you best.
Don´t forget to title and tag your entry ’One Trip EVERY Month Challenge’, and link back to this page.
Display the Challenge logo on your post or in your sidebar.
HAVE FUN!

I should have gone before Christmas, but a storm closed down all transportation in the southern part of Sweden. My flight was cancelled only a couple of hours before take-off. I was finally going to meet one of my blogger friends, Maria, living in Östersund up north, and I can’t say how disappointed I was. And Maria too. We had been planning this for about half a year, and we both laughed in the phone at the disaster …there was nothing else we could do…

I had to book another flight – not until February was it possible for us to meet. I was looking forward to a lot of winter, snow and fabulous walks on their big lake, Storsjön. The trip turned out to be … something quite different, but maybe not less wonderful!

My room

The real thing – Yarri!

One good way of transporting yourself on ice

Östersund – on wet ice

Åre and the mountains

Studio glassworks – Storsjöhyttan

Hot chocolate and …..

Östersund by night

For more on Jämtland, see my previous posts: https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2014/03/02/en-pa-miljonen-one-in-a-million/

https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2014/03/04/frozen-gems-ristafallet-och-tannforsen-a-john-bauer-and-j-r-r-tolkien-dream/

And MariaYarri who is the true source of Jämtland pictures and stories!

Ese’s Weekly Shoot & Quote Challenge: Diversity

3 mars, 2014 / Leya / 20 kommentarer

We’re stunned by the diversity of rocks. This stuff looks like it was put into a blender.

Stephen Squyres

Travel theme: Dry

31 januari, 201431 januari, 2014 / Leya / 26 kommentarer

For more of Dry, click here :http://wheresmybackpack.com/2014/01/31/travel-theme-dry/

Ese’s Weekly Shoot & Quote Challenge: Silence

1 december, 20131 december, 2013 / Leya / 15 kommentarer

Silence is a favourite sound of mine. And, Ese gives us the chance of showing what this essentially means to us. To me, it can be hiking an early morning alone in the mountains, and then enjoying the first rays of sun in silent awe of Mother Nature.

True silence is the rest of mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

William Penn

Ese’s Weekly Shoot & Quote Callenge: Direction

24 november, 201324 november, 2013 / Leya / 34 kommentarer

Direction is what Ese points out to us this week…as usual a delightful challenge – why don’t you join in?

Trees go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far!

John Muir

Weekly Photo Challenge: Horizon

26 oktober, 201326 oktober, 2013 / Leya / 38 kommentarer

I’m not much for big cities – for long. I love visiting for a week or two, then I have to go back to the woods and the open air, to breathe.

Horizon. A word of beauty with endless possibilities – how will I be able to choose? I must choose my own country. I must choose the mountains. This feeling leads me to a hike to the Kebnekaise massif, with our highest mountain. Crisp air, silence, walking towards the tiny boat that will take us to – the Horizon.

Travel Theme: Height

6 oktober, 20137 oktober, 2013 / Leya / 21 kommentarer

Ailsa at Where’s My Backpack? urges us to show something of Height. My entry is taken from the train ride to Tibet over the great plateau in the Himalayas. For more about Height – click here.

The Tang Gu La or Tanggu Pass is a wide mountain pass over 5000 metres elevation used by the Quinghai – Tibet Railway to cross the Tanggula Mountains. On August 24, 2005, rail track for the Qinghai–Tibet Railway was completed 28 kilometres to the WNW of the highway, reaching 5072 meters (16,640 feet)—the world’s highest, 255 m higher than Cóndor station, Peru.

We travelled Peru 1987 and Tibet 2009 – both fantastic adventures. I had the great luck of catching this sign, Tang Gu La, from the train window. We were never allowed to go outside for photos, and the train rarely stopped anywhere. The compartments all had extra oxygen. The feeling is not possible to describe or explain.

Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Hiking

22 maj, 201323 maj, 2013 / Leya / 36 kommentarer

A completely wonderful way of living in the great outdoors – from LetsBeWild this week – Hiking!

In my family we are all avid hikers – the dogs too of course… My photos were taken in Norway and Sweden, before Totti was born. He would have loved it being there with us.

Hiking can be a family activity

Any weather and no matter how many mosquitos

Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Mountains

24 april, 201324 april, 2013 / Leya / 30 kommentarer

Första gången i mitt liv som jag såg bergen, då var jag 18 år gammal och åkte med pojkvännen genom Europa. Grossglocknervägen sitter fortfarande etsad i minnet och tydligt på näthinnan. Hänförelsen andas inom mig än idag.

Jag är uppvuxen på landet, i platta Skåne, och även om jag åkt över just Grossglockner fler gånger sen 70-talet, så … denna första gång var en fantastisk upplevelse för mig. Ju äldre jag blir desto mer tunnsått är det faktiskt med hänförelse. Säkert känner många igen sig i detta…av naturliga skäl.

I årets nationella prov för gymnasister kan man läsa om 90-talisterna och deras drömmar om det ”lilla” livet , ”Svenssonlivet”. Dessa ungdomar släpades runt i Asien redan som dagisbarn – och kan den sortens vagabondliv på sina fem. Nej, det är det ombonade och mer stilla livet som, enligt forskarna, lockar den generationen. Även om jag kunde anat detta, så blir det något av en knockout när jag tänker på att mina egna barn är 90-talister och har åkt med oss ut i världen sedan de var under året. Och vi åkte mycket varje år – och allt längre bort.

Mina barn åker dock fortfarande – fast själva, och långt bort. Om de drömmer om det lilla livet? I slutänden, säkert. Eget hus och täppa, kanske familj – i alla fall hund!

Och bergen? Det blir en skön kavalkad från fantastiska Tibet i Himalaya.

Mountains – don’t we all love them? I was 18 the first time I saw the mountains. Raised in Skåne, Sweden, I had never seen anything like it – Grossglockner in Germany. My boyfriend and I went on our first trip together through Europe, by car. These mountains were stunning and we could throw snowballs and watch the sun go down behind those glittering giants. I still remember it – that totally enchanting feeling. Sadly enough those totally enchanting moments are not that frequent anymore as you grow older. I think many of us agree on that. From completely natural reasons.

Today’s national test for High School students talk about how young people, born in the 1990’s, as only kids were dragged through Asia by their parents. So, they are now dreaming of a future comfortable family life – nothing else. They already know about that vagabonderie they had to go through as small children.

A minor shock hit me when I recognized that my own children, born in the 1990’s, also were dragged through the world with us from an early age. Now they travel the world on their own, but I guess they too dream of a quiet family life in the end. House and garden – and at least a dog!

And, the mountains. Well, some enchanting moments we had, the whole family, in the Himalayas and Tibet. Pictures cannot show the feelings we shared, but the beauty of the landscape was beyond magical and something I will never forget.

By train in China

The great plateau

Tibet is situated on this great plateau about 3000-4000 metres above sea level

The surrounding Himalayas are about double the height…

Inside Tibet you can find some green areas too…

Weekly Travel Theme: Mountains

17 februari, 201317 februari, 2013 / Leya / 32 kommentarer

Att vandra i bergen innebär en frihetskänsla av stor mått. Utsikten är ofta magnifik och luften klarare att andas. Utsikt mot bergen ifrån dalarna är också fantastisk. I vissa dalar skulle jag ha svårt att leva dock, jag känner mig instängd och smått kvävd när de stora jättarna kryper tätt inpå. Solen går ner fort och växtligheten blir också lidande.

Precis som många andra har jag många foton på vackra berg, så det är svårt att välja. Jag försöker gå från södra halvklotets Nya Zeeland, Milford Sound, till längst i norr och Nordkapp. Däremellan ligger bilder från Sverige, Tibet och Himalaya.

Mountains – dont’t we all love them? They are majestic and serene – and beautiful. Up there, the air is clear and you can really breathe in the cool air. Just watching them from below makes your soul soar.

From the very South with Milford Sound, New Zealand to the very North, Nordkapp (with rays of midnight sun) in Norway. In between – pictures from Sweden, Tibet and the Himalayas.