Brännbollfesten
Friday night was Brännbollfesten, the biggest party of the year in Umeå.
It's some kind of sporting festival, but it's not really taken 100% seriously. Some photos from previous years, here and here. Brännboll is kinda like softball, except the batsman throws the ball up in the air himself and whacks it. An important aspect of the game is that the batsman, the fielders, and all the spectators are roaring drunk.
After the games, everyone goes to Fysikgränd for an all night party. Anyone who's mailed me anything will recognise Fysikgränd as my street. It's pronounced "Physique-grend", or as one of my aussie compadres says it "Fizzy-grend", which I much prefer..
My Bolivian mate and I drifted through the mayhem until 5am, meeting various familiar or unfamiliar but interesting souls along the way. Needless to say, was feeling pretty shabby on Saturday morning.
I'm still getting used to the daylight hours here. Funny having an all-night party, when it's only actually dark for 1 hour around midnight.
No photos of the party for me, but here's a couple from just outside my door the day after:
Apparently last year they burnt an Audi TT to ashes. I guess that made several people happy for a short time, and one person significantly more unhappy for a significantly longer time. Nothing of quite that level this year, but lots of smashed tv's and burnt couches.
On a healthier note, here's another pic from the bushwalk, taken by Stina. I'm living on the edge, man!
In other news, I just love this country. The other morning I was in a shopping centre on the way to work and left my big down-filled jacket, which retails in oz for like $500, on a bench. Didn't realize until 9 hours later as I left work and noticed it was a bit nippy. Went by the shopping centre, and there it was, exactly where I'd left it.
This arvo I go to Stockholm for 4 days, for "reglermöte", a mini-conference for all the control scientists in Sweden. Kinda a chummy meet&greet retreat. I'm looking forward to meeting a hell of a lot of new people, and making some good old fashioned small talk, which I just love!
(cue someone else to say: Yeah, you're good at that. Whereas I prefer more iss-ewe based conversation)
It's some kind of sporting festival, but it's not really taken 100% seriously. Some photos from previous years, here and here. Brännboll is kinda like softball, except the batsman throws the ball up in the air himself and whacks it. An important aspect of the game is that the batsman, the fielders, and all the spectators are roaring drunk.
After the games, everyone goes to Fysikgränd for an all night party. Anyone who's mailed me anything will recognise Fysikgränd as my street. It's pronounced "Physique-grend", or as one of my aussie compadres says it "Fizzy-grend", which I much prefer..
My Bolivian mate and I drifted through the mayhem until 5am, meeting various familiar or unfamiliar but interesting souls along the way. Needless to say, was feeling pretty shabby on Saturday morning.
I'm still getting used to the daylight hours here. Funny having an all-night party, when it's only actually dark for 1 hour around midnight.
No photos of the party for me, but here's a couple from just outside my door the day after:
Apparently last year they burnt an Audi TT to ashes. I guess that made several people happy for a short time, and one person significantly more unhappy for a significantly longer time. Nothing of quite that level this year, but lots of smashed tv's and burnt couches.
On a healthier note, here's another pic from the bushwalk, taken by Stina. I'm living on the edge, man!
In other news, I just love this country. The other morning I was in a shopping centre on the way to work and left my big down-filled jacket, which retails in oz for like $500, on a bench. Didn't realize until 9 hours later as I left work and noticed it was a bit nippy. Went by the shopping centre, and there it was, exactly where I'd left it.
This arvo I go to Stockholm for 4 days, for "reglermöte", a mini-conference for all the control scientists in Sweden. Kinda a chummy meet&greet retreat. I'm looking forward to meeting a hell of a lot of new people, and making some good old fashioned small talk, which I just love!
(cue someone else to say: Yeah, you're good at that. Whereas I prefer more iss-ewe based conversation)
posted by I-Rock at 3:48 PM
7 Comments:
i kow you're not technically swedish but is Janna Tapio Tuomela one of your pseudonyms? or perhaps ian manchester is really the pseudonymn....
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,19278645%255E663,00.html
stupid thing cut some of the link off....
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/co
mmon/story_page/0,5478,19278645%
255E663,00.html
Carnage!
yeah. that does look a little messy! I don't really get the burning cars thing. It seems to be a bit of a theme in european countries.
Nice looking cliff thing too!
whoa that story is pretty cool. I will think TWICE next time before searching for terms like, "Burnt housemate's saucepan", "finding replacement cold pasta in a hurry", and "getting toothpaste back in the tube"...
well, I'm back from the meet&greet retreat, full story to follow.
Alex - defamation is a crime. Expect to hear from my team of law-talking-guys in the morning.
Kt - you speak the honest truth, as usual.
Chia - I think I'd quite enjoy burning a car if it was already a write-off. But call me a well-brought-up-young-adult if you must, I don't think I could bring myself to burn a car that someone held dear to their heart, or even just used begrudgingly in their daily life.
Next year, get a jumbo pack of redheads and cut loose.
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