Wiebe Wakker
June 19, 2016
Day 93 Thursday June 16
I set the alarm at 7.30, which is still pretty late for the Swedes. Their working hours are different as to other countries. Because in the winter it gets dark around 3pm they start and finish a bit earlier.
Filip, a friend of Mikael invited me to come to a food workshop at the University in Stockholm. Filip told me it was better to park at Misha’s place (where I slept a few days before) because it was free there and then walk 15 minutes to the Uni. Unfortunately I got stuck in traffic and it when I arrived I found out it was a 50 minutes walk and would be at the workshop way to late. I decided to skip it.
Today I would leave Stockholm and go to Färna, about 200km from the city. It was raining a lot and I lost range. When it rains to streets become wet and the car has les friction. With a normal car you would hardly tell the difference but with an electric car you can easily loose 20% of range. On a 200km max range that is a lot. In Västerås I stopped at an Ikea to charge the car.
Around 5pm I arrived in Farna but when the navigation told me I arrived at the right place I was parked in front of an apartment. I knew tonight I would be staying at a Bed & Breakfast and I knew how it looked like because I checked pictures on their website, this was not the place. I called Marnix, one of the owners and he explained me that their I needed to be in a different town which was part of the municipality where they had the same street name. Bad luck for me as I had just 6% battery left. I started driving back and it was a long road with only trees. After a few km’s I came by a crossing with 2 houses, I had just 2% left and was not sure if I could make it. I knocked on a door (they don’t seem to have doorbells in Sweden) and explained I was in desperate need for some electricity. The woman didn’t really understand me and couldn’t offer me a plug. As at the other house no-one opened the door I had to drive further, it was an exciting ride and with 0% on the display I luckily made it to B&B Farna’s Hjarta.
Joyce & Marnix are 2 Dutch people. Compared to Holland Sweden is considerably cheaper, the social services are better organized and because of the comparable culture it is easy to integrate. That’s why many Dutchies migrated here and this probably explains the reason why I stayed with so many fellow country mans here in Sweden. My hosts came at a point in their lives that they where reconsidering what they were doing and felt that it was time for a move. Having a connection with Sweden for a few years they decided that this was the right place. They started this B&B and have been doing very well. They got involved in a program for sustainable tourism and have been developing the accommodation until it reached their level of expectation. They learned sustainability is not only about reducing waste and producing green energy but also in the hospitality towards their guests. With their efforts they received many awards and even the 3rd best ranked B&B in Sweden according to Zoover. A more detailed review about the B&B will follow later on.
Marnix gives lectures about sustainable tourism in Sweden. They have a fulltime job of running the B&B but Joyce still has the time for a side-job. In the summer she runs an ice cream truck. She was the very first to do this in Sweden and the locals needed some time before they understood what it was.
I could spend two nights at this great location. The next day I went for a run around the lakes and through the forests and this was seriously one of the most beautiful runs I ever did. The rest of the day I locked myself in and worked. I find it hard to get the right timing for this project, every day is different and whenever I have the time to work I do so but I still have reports to produce from a few weeks ago. Because today I had no meetings this was the perfect time.
