Surprise tango in Karlskrona


Tonight, I am so happy. After a reasonably early start (I did manage to ride out of the hostel at 9.35 instead of the planned 9 am, which is still acceptable by my standards), I covered the 80-odd km to Karlskrona in good time and with a wonderful tail wind. Despite my comments about the unreliability of local cycle routes, I followed one such trail (Sverigeleden) for the first couple of hours out of Kalmar. It did do a good deal of twists and turns, but as a bonus I got to see a lot of empty, beautiful country roads with absolutely no other traffic.

The weather was not the most promising with plenty of mist and looming rain clouds all around, but miraculously I managed to avoid rain completely. And then, towards the afternoon, the unexpected happened: the sun came out, and for the first time on this trip I was actually warm, even hot. What a lovely feeling!

An unexpected physical hardship appeared, though. Until now, my knees (or rather, the muscles just above the knee) have been the spot that seems to get tired most easily from cycling, and I had been quite worried about them prior to the trip. Today, I was struck by something that several people enquired about before the trip: my butt got really sore! I know you are laughing, but I can tell you it was not funny. At one point, I actually had to stop and lie on my stomach for about half an hour before I could bear the thought of getting back in the saddle!


Compared with the previous days, the cycling itself was effortless, and the much gentler landscapes with almost no uphills to speak of contributed greatly to my good moods. By the time I got to the outskirts of Karlskrona, it was still not 5 pm, so I decided to make a detour to go see this city that lies a little bit out of my planned route. My idea was to go see  the centre, then backtrack a little and continue all the way to the campsite in Ronneby, another 20-odd km to the West.


A friendly kiss on the way.

However, upon approaching Karlskrona centre in a lovely sunshine, I had a funny hunch: this seemed like a good city for tango. Upon getting to the pedestrian centre of the city, I asked around and found internet access in a public library. There, I promptly logged into the wonderful tango site http://www.tangoportalen.com/, a treasure of information of tango in Sweden and the surrounding countries. To my delight, I found out that my hunch had been right: indeed, there was to be a practica tonight, only about 100 m from where I was scannign  the computer screen at that very moment!

Cecilia.

My decision was instantaneous: I could carry on towards Malmö tomorrow, tonight was a perfect night to tango. So, I found a lovely and not overly expensive hostel also within walking distance of the tango place, checked in and just had time for a shower and a quick meal, before it was time to walk to the practica.

The place itself was impressive: and old water tower, now converted into an art gallery/restaurant. The dancing took place in a side wing, with clear views to the central square and cathedral of the city. A marvellous location!! I found out from Cecilia, the girl organising the practica, that tango really isn't a big thing in Karlskrona and that I had been very lucky to get here just today.

Dancing with Tomas.

I was extremely warmly welcomed by the small group of tango enthusiasts that had gathered for the practica, and got to dance a lot during the following 3 hours. The people I spoke to were all really impressed by my Travels with Tango tour, and I felt once again so happy for the chance to travel and meet people in this way.

Am writing this in a pool hall that closed 10 min ago so must hurry. Tomorrow will try to get a fair bit closer to Malmö in order to make it to the Friday night practicas there.

Comments

  1. Anonymous20/05/2010, 14:27

    Kiitos Mari kutsusta blogiisi! Pikaisesti katsoin ja oli mukava lukea kuulumisiasi kuvien kera. Tangoako tanssitte :) Zemppia reissun päälle ja palaan paremmalla ajalla takaisin lukemaan seikkailuistasi.

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  2. Anonymous20/05/2010, 15:00

    Hola Mari!
    What a nice blogg U have!
    And such nice words about us, the practica and our beautiful city Carlskrona, which you so fortunately happened upon yesterday:)
    I think we were all very pleased with how the evening and this practica (1st in years) turned out - quite a lot of dancing, nice weather and not only 1 but three new tango aquaintances for the "regular" crowd ;) Thank you for changing your mind and showing up!
    We were all very glad to meet you and wish U a great onward journey, a faboulous conference/workshop, many splendid tango moments around Sweden/Europe and of course, a safe return to Helsinki when its time. Come and visit us againg! Love Cecilia & Co

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mari24/05/2010, 17:22

    Hi Cecilia,
    it was a lovely evening, I agree. In Malmo, I was happy to come across two of the 'new' tangueros who came to the practica in Karlskrona, Per and the lady whose name I have forgotten. All of a sudden it seems that wherever I go in Sweden, I see familiar faces!
    Have just arrived in Copenhagen, and to my dismay discovered that indeed there is NO TANGO tonight. well, I will survive.

    ReplyDelete

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