Frogs in the Road!

Thursday, April 6th -

Yesterday evening after Swedish I decided to take a different route home on a whim.  It was a rather good day for it; the weather was undoubtedly the best of any day since I arrived in Sweden.  I had been downtown in the afternoon and it was actually warm enough that I didn't need a jacket.  Which was really nice after enduring a four-month winter (including December in Richmond/Ohio).  I'd grown used to three-month Richmond winters, often with at least one short-lived break in the middle.  And Uppsala actually looks really nice in the early spring, even before things bloom.  Just as long as the slushy mess phase has ended, that is - Uppsala looks much better both in the cold snowy winter and in the early spring than when everything's a slushy mess.

My typical route back to Flogsta is along St. Johannesgatan, a pretty direct route.  The first thing I pass on the way to St. Johannesgatan from Engelska Parken (the English park, where the language building is) is a rather large graveyard.  I decided to go through it this time, and it was, as one would hope, peaceful.  This section of the graveyard, at least, was built during the 1900s; the areas I had walked by when I took the bus to class are probably earlier.

On the opposite side of the graveyard was a residential area.  I continued into this area, as it went the general direction I wanted to go (west).  The houses had a rather odd, barn-like appearance in this area.

 As you can see there were a good number of such houses.  I don't know if they are all individual houses or if they might be duplex-style, but they were certainly inhabited.  I noticed one house had a 'beware of dog' sign, in Swedish, which I was able to read.  There was no dog, but it's good to know that I can read such signs.

Later on, the houses were more traditional:

 Across the road from this area were sports-fields, and there were a good number of people jogging, bicycling, or walking along the roads, probably due to the good weather.

Eventually this neighborhood ended, and at the intersection between this neighborhood and the next one was an interesting contrast.  On one corner was an old abandoned gas station, with some graffiti and generally looking more what I'd expect in a run-down area of an American city than in Uppsala.  But on the opposite corner, at a lower elevation than the sidewalk, were large sports fields with generous artificial lighting.  It was not a dissimilar arrangement to the intramural fields at Richmond.

Continuing into the new neighborhood, Eriksberg, there were far fewer houses, but lots of green fields and snowy knolls.  It was a calm area, also with lots of people outdoors.  And then I saw something I'd never seen before.  This sign:

 Groder på väg!  Frogs in the road!  I hadn't learned the word 'groder', but it was clear what it meant.  I figured there must actually be frogs in the road sometimes, but I was doubtful I'd find one that night, as it was the first day with weather in the fifties after all, probably still pretty cold for frogs.  And I knew from experience that a 'deer crossing' sign didn't mean there were usually deer crossing the road.  But what do you know, fifteen minutes later I found a frog!

 As you can tell the lighting wasn't very good by this time; it was after 8:30 PM and I only had my cell phone with no flash for photos (I had to lighten both of the past two photos just for this level of detail).  I nearly missed the frog myself as it did rather blend in with the road.  But there it was, a living, breathing frog!  I think.  I don't know for sure if it was alive, because if it was it was playing dead.  And doing a pretty good job of it.  But it wasn't flattened, and it seemed to be in a position that would require some muscle to maintain.  I was surprised it didn't hop away when I got close to it to take pictures, but it let me photograph it.  Its actual size was pretty small, less than the palm of my hand.  But sure enough, there was a frog in the road!

Back at Flogsta, Markus, one of the Swedes, said that at least where he is from near Stockholm there are tons and tons of frogs on the road in the summer, such that it's impossible to avoid running into them if you're driving.  He said there's also a good amount of toads.  So you can expect that I'll have quite a few more frog photos as the weather warms up.

The sunset and moonrise was pictureworthy as well, and I managed to get a decent snapshot of the rising moon:

 This was taken at 8:26 PM, and isn't lightened for detail.  It's hard to believe that when I arrived here, it was considerably darker than this at 4 PM.  Granted, one hour of that is daylight saving, but I still find it a bit hard to believe and I lived through 4 PM sunsets.

Today was also warm, but not as nice of weather overall.  But more on that in the next post.