Eastern celebrations in Västerås

And so came Eastern. Wash your hands, keep the distance, don’t travel. I don’t know how many times I have heard or read that the last couple of weeks but now it is echoing in my head. The last 20 years (?) and more I have been traveling abroad (last year Bali, the year before Hong Kong and Australia…) or to the Swedish West coast and staying in Stockholm this Eastern was not an option for me (sorry guys) I broke and took the train to my hometown Västerås one hour from Stockholm. I was desperate to get out of Stockholm and it was a relief to exit the train after an hour and get to a city that felt normal. Spring weather you could only dream about was welcoming me. 15 degrees and sunny so who am I to complain?

Working from “home”

My Eastern holiday all started with some work since Thursday was a half work day. I do often practice distance work during holidays but I have almost never been to my parents place to work before. They have a home office and plenty of places to sit at but I don’t like to work there when my parents are around which they was on Thursday so it was most likely a one-time happening. Sitting outside was also great but then the neighbors was coming over to have a chat. They know where I work so of course they wanted to talk about travels and their trips they were forced to cancel. It is a bit strange to work nowadays, I am strictly enforced to only work 40 hours a week so you really need to prioritize what you do and leave the not so urgent things for another day so after 5,33 hours I logged out from my computer and started the holidays.

Running in the forest

With a run in the forest I ended my working day and welcomed the holiday. My parents place are located next door to great running trails so I used them every single day being there. I love running in this urban forest where the tracks are fantastic and you can take a lot of different routes. There are a few different tracks that are integrated, Rönnbyspåret, Grytaspåret, Listakärr and Rocklundaspåret so you can run a marathon without going the same course. Didn’t I say I went running a lot now during the Corona crisis? this week ended at 60 kilometers which have come to be my new standard for a week nowadays.

Homedecoration

IKEA in Västerås is known for the knife attach that killed two persons a couple of years ago. I am always thinking about this tragic happening when I get there. But I rather go to IKEA in Västerås than Stockholm because it is not that crowded so I went there one day to look for some stuff. I am renovating a bit at home but couldn’t find everything I was looking for. I thought IKEA had everything but apparently not. Luckily I found some things I was looking for and among that was fabric so I made a new lampshade.

Outdoor

The fantastic weather continued and one day I went out to lake Mälaren and the nature reserve Ängsö where I went for a hike with my parents. We had some coffee and homemade bread with us so it was a really nice excursion. I will share more info about the hike. Nowadays outdoor is the new black. I did though realized I miss some important outdoor gears so I will buy one outdoor mug from Happy mug.

Soccer

I was thinking back and forth the last couple of months if I should quit playing soccer but last week I made a final decision to also play this season. I realized how much I would miss that activity. When I had nothing to do during my stay at my parents house I went out to the garden to kick the ball. I thought I was better at it and only managed 30-something kicks. I also went to one of the old pitches where I used to play to practice some corners and shooting.

Rulebreaker

So sorry guys that I left Stockholm. But to defend my decision I was almost isolating in Västerås, hanging out in the forest and outside most of the time. And the train ride of an hour, that is one hour and yes it was pretty crowded on the train since SJ is now running shorter trains but I doesn’t have any of the listed symptoms and if I would have been sick I could go back to Stockholm with car. A different but relaxing Eastern is what I got. How was your Eastern this year?

/ Pernilla that spent a sleepy Eastern in her hometown