Photos

...as I step down from the train... Quoting the old hit about the green grass of home.


This view of my home town Östersund is so familiar to me. I was raised and went to school in the hillside of the island Frösön that I am here standing at the foot of. And later as the family moved to the other side of the island with a mountain view instead I passed this view everytime I went to town or back.

Östersund with about 60000 citizens is a remote town far from other towns of importance. The closes places of equal size are Trondheim in Norway 300 km weast and Sundsvall on the Swedissh east coast 200 km away. That makes the living in Östersund special. Everything that has to do with shopping or culture is oversized due to the fact that people from all the small villages many hundred km around and from expensive Norway come here to buy their stuff. This makes the paradox, shopping in remote northern town Östersund is much more fun than in any town of twice the size in central Sweden.

The lake is Storsjön, Swedens fifth lake in size not counting man made magazines, and that also makes life special. It is a cold clear lake with beautiful views of forest ridges and mountains but seldom warm enough for swimming. The boat life is however rich as you can go to many nice places on a set of islands.

The dominating roof in the upper part is the town hall built around 1900 in a romantic brick fashion.

The special light comes from the low sun and the lake and the boat is already in the shadow of the mountain on Frösön.