Tastebud : Veneto Pizzeria

20 June 2020

After 3 months of not eating out or taking away, I took the courage to walk into a pizzeria (Veneto Pizzeria) and bought a pizza. There were customers sitting there but with a distance. I stood with my back against them and stared at the plastic shield right in front of where the cashier is located. Delicacy pizza for SEK104 - Honey, walnut, rocket leaves and air-dried ham (which was very salty to me). Overall, it is yummy. It is nice to not need to cook although dinner was already prepared.

Camping in Björnö nature reseve

30 May 2020

Today, we drove to Björnö (pronounced as 'b-yorn-er) and camped for a night. Björnö is directly translated as björn = bear and ö = island. We did not see any bears. This place is a well-maintained nature reserve with LOTS of campers. I had a panic attack when we reached the parking lot and I saw the number of cars. We walked away from the other hikers and found a spot in the nature reserve that has no other people. I felt relieved. 

It was very sunny and occasionally, windy. So, I got myself a light tan before I got chilled. Hence, the reason I am wearing a wind breaker. We had vacuum packed food for dinner. Easy and quick to cook. Just add hot water and wait for 8 minutes. Food is ready.

Random cycling in Kista - 21km

21 May 2020

I got myself a bicycle last month and invested in the proper equipment - helmet, cycling gloves, a cycle stand (I did not know that cycle stands did not come with mountain bikes. I suppose people who uses mountain bikes have their bikes lying on the ground in the nature. Very different from city bikes), changed the easily-removable screws to tools-required screws. I have been cycling to work ever since. We are not encouraged to travel by train to avoid the spread of the virus, unless you are an essential worker i.e. without them, the society is unable to function. 

As today is a public holiday which is Kristi Himmelsfärdsdag, the 40th day after Easter i.e. the day Jesus went up to Heaven, we took the opportunity to cycle around. It was a lovely sunny day. We cycled around Kista, Husby and Tensta which has a beautiful neighbourhood. Cycled past a farm and saw some livestock. So heartwarming to see that. In Swedish, the bicycle is also known as iron horse (järnhäst pronounced as 'yarn-hest') and we saw wooden horses where I took a photo with them! We saw paragliders on top of a hill which was a pain to cycle up. I ended up pushing my bicycle up and down the hilltop because it was too steep for me. 

Camping at Siggeforasjön

30 April 2020

As tomorrow is 1 May 2020 which is a public holiday, we decided to camp in a nature reserve on 30 April. We know that if we do it the next day, there will be more folks. We drove to Siggeforasjön where we walked about 100 meters to the camping spot. We were lucky to see a huge bonfire across the lake where the Swedes were celebrating the beginning of spring which is known as Valborgsmässoafton. Due to Corona virus, this bonfire celebration is cancelled in most areas to avoid the crowd. However, across the lake was a proper camping spot so I guess the owners of the camping spot built a bonfire for their campers. We hiked a bit around the area. It has a proper trail. We did not build any fire because the wood was wet. 

Camping in Hosjön

25 April 2020

An overnight in Hosjön for the weekend. Pronounced as 'hoo-hwen' which means The Ho Lake. The place is named Ho as there are birds that made the call of Hoo Hoo. It was a bit frightening initially but we got used to it. This place is part of Upplandsleden trail which we did not explore. I was surprised to see there is an outdoor toilet (in Swedish, this is called utedas). Of course, this is not the type of home toilet. This is the toilet where you can see all the other human waste inside. It does not smell, though.

We drove there on a Saturday and left on Sunday. We just wanted to have a taste of nature and smell fire again. We were very lucky that there were no other campers except for a group of 4 students who cycled there and camped next to us but with a good distance. They did not sit with us by the campfire, thankfully. As there was a small jetty nearby, they sat there and had their dinner. We sat by the campfire, had our dinner, and poked at the embers.