[Photos] It's not all beautiful, of course

[marshtide]

I went on a slightly over-enthusiastic bike ride yesterday. You know how it is; well, now I'm here, I might as well go on to there, it's not much further...

Naturally, I also have photos. A couple from the lake (which may be from Monday, actually), and the rest from town and the harbour.
































Yeah, it's a mixed up little town, this one.

Comments

[cimorene]

I made high-pitched "Aw, lookit the little houses!" noises. As an American, I still haven't quite gotten over cottages in general, let alone the extraordinary cuteness of traditional wooden southern Finnish ones (or evidently Swedish, though those are a wee bit different).

[jubu]

Hah, it's funny. To an outsider this photos and Finnish towns must look so similiar. But as a Finn the first thing I thought when I saw the small houses, was how Swedish they look. Sure, you could find those houses in Finland too (Swedish influence is pretty strong, especially on the west coast) and the difference is pretty subtle, but to me the look is obviously Swedish.

[marshtide]

I have this urge to compare now. I hope you're happy. I had almost recovered from my surveyor tendencies...

[antisoppist]

They do look definitely Swedish rather than Finnish to me too but I can't say why either.

My Finnish father-in-law is very proud of his "old" flat dating from the 1950s. This didn't impress my mother, who lives in a 400 year-old English farmhouse.

[marshtide]

Yeah, I grew up in a house where the "new" bit was 200 years old and the old bit was completely indeterminate but apparently built for people rather than me, let alone my six foot three scottish uncle, who once concussed himself on a doorway...

But then, bits of the UK have been disgustingly rich for quite a long time - and I don't even mean in a "the people in the manor" way, but the general population as well - if you look at it relative to Sweden and Finland. Who'd want to live in a several-hundred-year-old house from up here! It's all relative, really. :)

[marshtide]

There are actualy surprisingly few left here, for a town which basically lives on summer visitors... the town as a whole feels kind of sad, to be honest. But at least there are some nice bits!

I guess coming from the UK one doesn't react quite as strongly! I grew up in a really old house, though a totally different style.

[unnique]

Coming from the UK, your reaction should be along the lines of 'omg is that wood they're build of?!'. :P

[marshtide]

We build in wood too! And by "build in wood" I mean "have a positive fetish for wooden beams as an architectural feature." ;;;;

I think Val and J found it weirder going the other way out to Norfolk where everything is built in the only avaliable resource that isn't a turnip: flint. I mean I think J started picking up pieces of flint because they're so unusual here, but then he realised everything that wasn't mud was flint.

[pulchritude]

What does the graffiti in this photo mean?

[marshtide]

"God doesn't exist." Atheist graffiti artists strike again! Admittedly I don't think a very big proportion of the population of Sweden is convinced about god at all, so I'm not sure who they're trying to annoy.