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A couple of months before I was born, my parents and my older brother moved to Åkersberga.
Before that they had lived in Lessebo, a small town in one of the southern regions of Sweden called Småland, where most of the
children's stories by Astrid Lindgren
(Pippi Longstockings, Brothers Lionheart, Karlsson-on-the-roof and many more) take place.
That's also where almost all of my relatives were born, and still live.
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Åkersberga is a small town in Österåker2 municipality not far from Stockholm3, the capital of Sweden.
Österåker has 37 879 inhabitants (2006), and most of them (24 858 according to the 2000 census) live in Åkersberga.
It takes about 40 minutes by to go between Stockholm and Åkersberga by car, a little longer by train or bus.
It is a growing community that still has a lot of open spaces.
I miss being as close to nature as I was when growing up there.
There are small parts of forest mixed with roads and houses, all of it surrounded by more forest and - never far away - the sea.
I grew up and lived there with my parents, in the one and same house,
until I was 20 and moved to an apartment of my own in Bromma, closer to Stockholm, and then Bergshamra, just a short walk from Stockholm University.
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Even though Åkersberga is at the same latitude as the southern tip of Greenland and Alaska, it is not as cold.
Thanks to the Gulf Stream, a warm water stream that goes across the Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf of Mexico to the North Sea, giving
the area much warmer summers and not as cold winters as it otherwise would have.
This part of Sweden has been inhabited a long time.
I think there are remnants of both stone, bronze and iron age dwellings.
There are also rune stones here and there.
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I can't think of a lot of interesting things that have happened there, though.
In 1972, Johnny Cash recorded a live album at Österåker Prison, which
was the first time he performed in a prison outside the US. I also think that one of the pictures
in the sleeve of Tom Waits' album "Rain Dogs" was taken at the same prison.
In 1991 we had one of the most ironic fires.
The public swimming hall whose main components were ceramic tiles and water burned down,
just across the road from the fire station.
Luckily - as far as I can recall - no one was hurt.
Also, I remember a time when I was a kid, when we got both a McDonald's
and a Burger King.
That was kind of a big deal. The Burger King closed a couple of years ago, though.
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These two pictures were taken by my father in January 2006.
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You can take this ferry out into the Stockholm skärgård 4, which pretty much surrounds
Åkersberga.
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This channel goes through Åkersberga, connecting the archipelago and Trälhavet 5
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This picture was taken by me in June 2006.
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The yellow brick building is my old high school, Röllingby Gymnasium. The blue and white building is a sports center
with an indoor ice hockey rink. This building partially burned down a few years ago, but was restored.
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