On Saturday night this weekend the cultural night took place in Uppsala (kulturnatten). This is an annual event with a lot of music, art, dance and poetry on the streets as well as other happenings. I usually do not take part in Kulturnatten and the reason is that, sadly, there is a lot of alcohol in the streets too. To be squeezed amongst 100 shouting drunken youngsters is not my ultimate idea of having fun. When it comes to alcohol the Swedish culture and the English are very similar. In spite of this I nonetheless went out yesterday evening to meet a friend and in fact we had a rather nice time. I danced some salsa and watched Lindy. We listened to opera in the library and to Latin Kings at St Eriks Square and we managed to keep away from the hotdog sellers and the worst crowds.
To day the ”rain period” started in Stockholm. To my own surprise I looked out through the train window at the dark rainy see water in Stockholm on my way home from work and thought wow, this is beautiful. I know that this is the start on a loooong period with rain and eventually snow and darkness. Even so I almost welcomed the rain today. It reminded me of long gone days in a smoggy London with cosy pubs and dark woody libraries with books up to the ceiling and a fire burning.