Scenes from Karlskrona

Trosso is the name of island that contains "Downtown Kralskrona". It's all cobblestone streets and quaint little shoppes, as well as a remarkable concentration of salons and barber shops. Pictured here is the main city square, with the statue of a someone who I've been meaning to learn about. I will ask and follow up some point. He is certainly nautical, as the city has a long Naval history and gained its UNESCO world heritage designation because of it's preserved forts, armories, and other maritime notables. There are still lots of military and sailors in uniform around town; I will try to photograph them.

Here is the island of Dragso, which hosts a camp ground, nature trails, and many quaint cottages that seem to be summer retreats/second homes. There is also ANOTHER floating sauna off the shore as well, though I continue to be frustrated at every turn in my attempts to access these engineering marvels.

Cobblestones: great for atmosphere, poor for biking.

The central square with a farmer's market every weekend plus Wednesdays. It closes in the winter, but this fellow looked me level in the eye and said "I will always be here." I considered the possibility that his limited command of english may have caused such a dramatic declaration, but his tone and cadence told me he knew exactly what he was saying. He is now my exclusive provider of eggs.

*Many of the older folks don't have the English capacity of the under 30 crowd. Young people all speak perfect english and thus make it nearly impossible to even try learning Swedish. Any Swedish I speak aside from "tack" (thanks) is greeted instantly with more chipper and enunciated English than I ever hear at home. I could study daily and still never get past round one in a conversation...

This is the view from one of my classrooms. It can be hard to stay focused. There are coots, loons, ducks, and geese everywhere, and they all outnumber the gulls much to my surprise.