Week 33 of my painting project „One Year – One Island“
When people (abroad) think of Sweden, most people primarily think of light-blonde people, deep, dark forests with numerous lakes, wild mooses, cross-country skiing, short dark days in winter, bright nights in summer, Midsummer, the band ABBA, and, of course, IKEA. Probably no one thinks of miles of white sandy beaches, at least not anyone who hasn’t been to the southern Swedish island of Öland. While sun-seeking vacationers who head to France, Italy, Spain, or Greece have to expect summer temperatures over 35°C, the Swedes enjoy their „island of sun and wind“ with a pleasant 25°C and a light breeze. The fine sand along Böda Bay never gets so hot that you can’t walk barefoot. Just behind the dunes tall pines line the edge of the forest. There are no holiday resorts with huge hotels, no excluded private beaches, no jet skis, no motor yachts, no beach cocktail bars, no poor people selling coconuts, melons, and cold canned drinks. Just simply nature!
A part of this Böda Bay is called Homrevet and, along with Lyckesand, has one of the beach access roads, whose free parking is located in the shady forest behind the dunes. In summer there is also a little kiosk where you can buy bottled water, a hotdog and icecream. When I arrived around 11:00 a.m., there were just three parked cars. A family was trotting along the wooden boardwalk to the beach, loaded with bags, a parasol, a swimming ring, a cooler bag, a sandbucket, and more. The boardwalk ended with a platform on the dunes, offering a magnificent panoramic view of the bay. Here I set up my camping chair and my green stool and settled in the blazing sun. I was wise enough to wear a wide-brimmed straw hat and had already slathered on sunscreen at home.
I’m more of a pale type. I never tan in the sun, only redden, and then my skin peels. As a teenager, I didn’t want to believe it until I proved myself wrong—after buying an expensive 10-session tanning pass. This certainly contributed to the fact that I’ve never been able to appreciate beach holidays. Lying on the warm sand, reading a book, cooling off in the cool water… these are the images that are suggested. This is how I experience it: I’m lying drenched in sweat on a towel that—no matter how carefully I move—quickly becomes covered in sand, like a breaded chicken. I can’t read particularly well lying on my stomach or on my back—either I get a stiff neck or my arms go numb—and the light is far too bright to see into a white piece of paper. I usually eat all the food I brought with me within the first half hour (this also happens to me in the car on the way to vacation – it’s always been like this with me: I seem to get hungry especially quickly if I’ve wrapped something in wax paper.) The drink I brought with me quickly gets warm and disgusting to drink. Maybe an ice cream at the beach? Every wasp within a 5-kilometer radius will find me and my ice cream! I swear. And what about the cool water that everyone swears by? Yes… yes… I can swim. I like it, but I find it boring. Also, absolutely no jellyfish and no algae – poisonous or not. I’m more of a pool swimmer. There’s no depth below me where giant monster fish could swim that I can’t see but imagine. Well… you see – I should just let the beach thing go. And that’s what I do. I like to read a book in the hammock in my garden; I either don’t swim at all. Or at an outdoor pool and prefer to stay in the cool shade. And at the beach—which I absolutely love, by the way!—I like to walk along the water’s edge in the off-season, or at any other time of year—often alone— barfoot or with shoes and a parka.
But on this Monday, I had no choice, because the view from that wooden terrace was perfect. I sat there for about four hours and got a sunburn on my shin because I forgot the sunscreen ritual. While I was sketching and painting, looking at the paper, I could listen to the hustle and bustle of the families on the beach. Children’s laughter, happy shouts, children’s cries, annoyed parents… So this is a beach vacation, I thought. This is what the average city dweller dreams of all year round. Thanks, but not for me!
Next week I will have reached the northern tip of the island and with this the lighthouse “Långa Erik”. Hope to see you there…
