Sweden smells so good. It reminds me of the mountains in California where there are Ppines, and you can smell the weeds and the brush strong as if you were holding them. The light never really goes out in the summer so my first night I woke up jetlagged at almost three in the morning and went for a skate. It was bright outside and I was thinking it was 8 a.m. No one was around; it was just me riding a friend’s skateboard and some felines wandering around. Seeing the cats hunting made me realize the trick that light plays on you here. I had to stop and sit by some small lake maybe 300 meters from Nickes’ house to catch my breath. In the area of the lake where I came from, the road was a huge rock that was smooth and sloped down fast to the shoreline making a cliff underwater. Saltsjo Boo is in isolated Stockholm on the shore of the ocean, so there is tons of wildlife. Saltsjo Boo is a great place to start a long journey.
Goteborg from Stockholm is a majestic motorcycle ride between farmlands, past raceways, and through small towns. Everything is really clean, and the people really are amazing. The level of choppers in this country is extremely high. They take the mechanical part of it really seriously. The finish and details of the average Swedish chopper makes other people’s look lazy. On the inside and out of their bikes, the average workmanship is at such a high standard that god has no choice but to piss on their summers mercilessly. Does it ever stop raining there? Yes, it does. Whenever you’re not riding, it gets perfect. Besides that, it’s like California in the ’80s. You don’t see many cops and there are a lot of girls around, and it’s so fun just being there.
I would need too much space to write about all that happened during these few weeks. I will write that while just setting there, the Swedish builds exude a certain element of style, one that they seem to know how to harvest. It’s still only a motorcycle. Romance on this subject was better 10 years ago. Modern motorcycle romance, shadowed by its bad timing can only seem insincere. They are very fun to ride. They make you feel good. They define you? If that’s true for you then you are boring.