Indiana skinny and the lost silvemine

Thursday 28 August 2014

It feels like impossible to express within a few pages what is actually going on here in Uppsala. And even more impossible to post all 474 photos that i have taken in the span of a week. Wow a week? I am already here for 7 days. I feel like i just returned home, let alone moved to a new country.

I will keep things more compact for now since i need to cover 2-3 days of partying and resting. Photo wise...i will think along the way.

Waking up at 7:08 i wanted to gouge my eyes out with a fork. But no, we had to make a field trip. I still didn't know where we would go but they said to be outside the faculty at 8:50. So as usual i managed to crawl outside the bed, wore my isothermic pants and shirt, got a nice warm sweater and my sneakers and i just ran to the bus stop. Oh i forgot to take food, money, my mind. Good job Kostas. Also the day was hot for my clothing so i said i will probably die somewhere from heat or a stroke or epilepsia.

With no clue what to expect i arrive at the Geocentrum and i see some collegues, we chat a bit and some more arrive. We find out we are taking a bus trip to the Sala Silvergruva, an old silver mine around 1 hour away from Uppsala.

I sat down in the front with Fabian, a guy from Chile, who is very polite and a really nice guy. He also sent me some of the first lecture material since i don't have my student account yet. Tack Fabian!

It was SO hot. I could not sleep so i took some photos and talked to Abi and Fabian and listened to some music. Phoebe was next to me sitting with the other Kostas casually talking. The Colombian coffee was somewhere behind under a skirt. Behind me i think there was Ezre who is a very kind and polite guy from Ethiopia.

We reached Sala, i took way more photos than i should and we split into teams of two, around 19-20 each. A short, skinny Indiana Jones dressed swedish man, Joel led us to grab some gear after we had a stroll in the museum, gave us some information about the mine and we started our descend to the depths of the earth, 155 meters down. With an elevator. It was fascinating seeing how old meets modern. The shaky elevator went down for 5 minutes and i felt really reassured when Indy told us that we should open the other door or we would fall to the abyss.

Indy had a torch and a nice hat and he led us through the mind, showing us the wooden reinforcements, the cracks on the wall, where people rested and ate, the tiny corridors where up to 150 people spent 12 hours a day working in hideous work conditions and 2-4 degrees Celsius.

Indiana Skinny and the lost torch.

 The guided tour was like 1 hour plus and i actually expected to feel colder. I was amazed when Indy started singing in the concert room, a place that your echo was 12 seconds long. I might upload a video of that some time. More like audio but whatever. Also i loved the rest room, where there was actually heat and i could feel my hands which were so cold from holding the flashlight. Oh funny how there was a room with a bed and a table that you could spend one night for 400 euros. Alone. In the depths of the earth. Spooky. But awesome.

We started our ascend to civilization. I was starving. We gathered around some round tables and had a great discussion with everyone, we had people from Spain, Brazil, Chile, Australia, Sweden, Greece, Netherlands, Germany. Amazing multicultural meeting. #lovesweden.

Like a picnic. Foooood!

I ate a nice wannabe-greek sandwich with wannabe-Feta again, drank a coke and felt refreshed. I changed tables with some of our swedish friends, Sanne and Evelina and afterwards we went on the bus again to complete our tour. I sat with the program coordinator Suzanne and we talked and talked until we reached our destination, which was a place in the forests we could walk in. We failed miserably since there was a no-pass sign so we turned back and took another route for like 30 minutes until the bus. In the meantime i was talking with a swedish guy, Holger, who is very cool and funny and we shared stories about football, greece, sweden, women, video games, his parents that work in China and his ankle problems.

Really atmospheric pic from the mine.

Fika time!

So we have a second round of picnic, this time with leftover sandwiches and tasty swedish cinnamon buns and cakes.

Oh i slept for 30 minutes in the bus, i was invigorated. I am an ignorant baboon so i left my ipad open and had no battery. We reached campus and some people were making a safari. Dressed and painted like cats.

Dat ass.

I managed to reach home around 5:23. I opened my laptop had a quick shower and talked to my Красивый Ангел to set up a meeting. I was dead tired. I felt i could barely move. But my desire to see her overcame my obstacles. Even if it was for one minute, i would travel to the other side of Uppsala. We set up a meeting outside Gothenburg's nation at 8:30. I am there at 8:27 like the gentleman and apparent punctual idiot that i am. I ran to the bus station, i ran to the nation so i was there in time, hoping to be greeted by that miraculous warm smile. So i stood there for 20 minutes, throwing stones and counting sheep, feeling alone and depressed thinking if i should name my next post "20 minutes in the rain". Having no phone all that kept me going were my thoughts. She finally showed up from the corner and washed all my doubts and pain away with an innocent smile and puppy eyes. Brace your self Kostas. Snap back to reality.

We decided to go to Norrlands as usual since Gothenburg was empty. She talked about her jogging today and the marathon she wants to participate. I told her outside the church there is a theater play and horses. We both love horses so she grabbed me by the hand and we raced until there. I didn't care i'd collapse later in my bed. I ceased the moment, trying to freeze it and own it (woah there eminem). We took photos with the horses, patted them and kept going to the pub.

There i was my usual crazy self and we had a blast. Everyone was so quiet and i was so loud. I started stealing people's hats. Because i can. Some girls we didn't know joined us (Alessia and Angela) and i entertained them for like 45 minutes. Then we were bored. I could get into more details about how i felt when she touched me but let's leave it at that :)

First hat i stole that night.

 Yarr, Tortuga mate, savvy?

I am a proper gentleman so i walked her home. I gave her a kiss on the cheek and walked home happy. I had a great day Uppsala.

Goodnight to you with another amazing picture taken by a black rasta man that was so impolite and angry that i asked him to take a photo of us. Thank you kind sir. Depression suits you well.

Me and my new friends.

Destination Uppsala - The journey begins

Pack your things and move here.

Like seriously.

The weather is crap. I admit. But i expected it to be worse actually. It's the 23rd of August and i'm sitting here in my cozy new house preparing for a beer in the Norrlands Nation. And i am reflecting on what i saw so far today. Let's make a recap of what to expect.

I sat there on the single-gate terminal of Kalamata, waiting for flight 438 to commence boarding. Around me there were mostly swedish people, exactly what i expected of them too. Polite, low-profile but very loving with their children. There was also a guy that looked like the last samurai making changes in a 3d house in some sort of program. Blondes, blue eyes, generally skinny and tall.

I chatted a bit with some greek people i met there and i did not even think that the moment i stepped my foot outside i was an immigrant, that there was the point of no return.

The aircraft was an Airbus 319 with around 138 passengers and was like 99% full. Pretty impressive for a town of 60000 people like Kalamata.

I sat next to a swedish couple that were cuddling during the whole flight while i was watching outside the window, watching half of the Avengers movie, eating some half-baked wannabe bread with strawberry, listening to some music.

When i heard about the upcoming landing i dropped everything i was doing and was staggered from what i witnessed from the window.

Breathtaking landscapes, vast forests with tall trees, a lung of fresh air and escape from normality, so wild yet so tamed and peaceful. There were no wolves in this picture, apart from a few ravaged pieces of land attacked by mankind.

Then we landed at Arlanda Airport. It reminded me of an older version of Eleutherios Venizelos airport of Greece. I saw a big Ethiopian airliner and thought i would be scared to fly with it. Our aircraft actually made a very annoying noise from the left engine, but the flight was one of the smoothest i have been in. Thanks Cap.

I went at terminal 5 to pick up my luggage, they arrived around 10 minutes in and i was the only one left since i had to exchange my money into SEK from Euros. The old lady in the cashier seemed annoyed and confounded that i had only an ID card and not a passport.

I took the wrong turn, fired up my trusty tablet, sent a few messages and went outside to the welcome committee. Two girls, one swedish and one German, joined later by an Australian one. I took the necessary info, got to the cafe next and picked up my first Swedish filter coffee for 35 SEK. Quite cheap for an airport compared to our prices if you want my opinion.

My first fika!

So i met two exchange students, Phillip from Singapore and Maddie from Midlands in England. We had some friendly banter and then proceeded to the van that would take us to one of the nations to get started. They call the vans shuttles actually.

We got in and there we were, like 10 greeks, waiting in line for an internet account (which i did not need), a temporary ID student card, some information, a welcome package and a telephone sim card.

I signed up for the shuttle to take me home, then went a small walk into town to pick up a bus refillable card. You cant buy tickets here, nor pay with cash. So buy a ticket!

The town was staggering, the architecture of the buildings, giving a medieval look to the town. The streets were clean, bike lanes in both ways, a couple of beggars a stark contrast to the misery of Athens.

The whole town is like this. Breathtaking.

I bought my ticket, went back to the nation, and got in with some people into the shuttle to drive us home. All but me disembarked in Flogsta. I only remember one Bulgarian woman and one from Australia, Perth, where my favorite band, Pendulum resides. A dude called Alexander was driving us around, he is originated from a small swedish town of 5000 people, but he also has greek roots, from his uncles side methinks.

He told me some stories about the Flogsta scream and how it was used to relieve stress from the exams every Wednesday at 10 pm, but now they do it every night, while he also made fun of the stress factor since everything is way too "xalara" here.

So he dropped me at my new house, where an old lady with memory issues opened the door and had no recollection of my impending arrival. She was polite and nice, i showed her an email that confirmed my room and started unpacking. A nice room, a clean house.

Now i m all set, about to go for a beer. Because i can.

Laters! Welcome to Uppsala!