I went to Härnösand for three days in the beginning of this week to go to a course about Swedish development cooperation and doing field work in a low income country, as part of the grant I got for going to Burkina Faso. The course was held at Sida Partnership Forum, a beautiful old building in the middle of a narrow park facing the water. We had seminars and exercises from eight in the morning to nine in the evening, but we had breaks in between that allowed for short walks in the park.
On Wednesday, the last day, we finished with lunch. I had booked a train ticket at five, which allowed me to take a walk around the small city center of Härnösand together with some of my fellow course mates. It wasn’t anything too exciting. A cathedral, some old buildings in stone and wood, some ugly ones from the 50’s and 60’s, and then the water. Härnösand is situated on both sides of a narrow inlet of the Gulf of Bothnia. Water is always beautiful.
The gate to the cemetery. It says Think of death. The equivalent of Memento mori, I guess. Just seemed kind of weird, having it written in huge, golden letters among the apple trees. Somehow, it feels so much more appropriate written underneath a carving of a scull in an old, dark stone church on the British Isles, like in the St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall on Orkney.
The light was so clear and blue. A nice place to sit and read. If I ever come back to Härnösand.
I probably will. I have to hike along the Höga kusten trail one day. There are so many beautiful parts of Sweden that I haven’t seen.
Katja Malmborg 