I arrived late Wed night, and presented on Thursday morning, then was able to take in the rest of the first conference day. I learned quite a bit, and by the end of the day my head was mush. We went for a meal and then it was back to my hotel for 6 hours sleep before heading back for the second day, with a bit of a Swedish tradition to start the day off. They celebrate "Lucia" which Karlstad University describe as "Lucia: On December 13 Santa Lucia, 'the Queen of Light', comes to visit early in the morning. It is a beautiful ceremony with choirs of boys and girls, dressed in white and holding candles, and Lucia herself with candles in her hair." It is in place to celebrate the darkest day of the year, and the oncoming brighter and shorter nights. We gathered in one of the Uni's auditoriums and listened as a male choir came in singing, followed by a female choir holding candles filing down from the upper level, and singing a few pieces as well, and then they sang together, until a finale was sung with an operatic singer. It really was beautiful, the singing was excellent, the only problem was that it was 7:30 in the monring! After the Lucia celebration it was back to the conference.
As I wasn't presenting the second day was a little more relaxed for me, and at the end of the day we were able to meet up for dinner, and then go to see the "bonfires". Not knowing exactly what they were, we all filed along the road and it was pretty cool from the start. There was a path cleared of snow with candles lit all along it. They candles led the way to a few different performances. The first performance was logs hollowed out, and lit on fire to burn, and coloured lights on the snow, with funky dancers doing some sort of modern dance. The second one was down by the canal and had blue lights on a few performers who had a sheet waving over them. Then the candles wandered on to a big heart shaped gate which took you to where the main event was. However I had to get back to the hotel, and as I was heading back there was a procession of torches, which turned into a kind of cool photo as you'll see below, so I'm guessing that was the start of the main event. However I had a date with Penny on MSN Messenger...so duty called.
All in all it was nice to be back in a proper winter, it was about -3, but dry and there was snow everywhere! Awesome. So below are a few photo's from the conference as well as the Lucia celebrations. Ironically, the celebration was apparently an Italian celebration that somehow ended up in Sweden. I'd like to see more of Sweden, it was expensive, dark and cold but definetely worth a second look!
Male choir dressed for the Lucia celebration.
The female celebrants coming down in procession.
The grand finale in operatic style
Richard Heeks, giving a key note speach and also one of the contributors to my open university course this year.
The snow and the tree, how Christmassy! Awesome.
The lights were on in the afternoon when it got dark
Man, now there are die hard cyclists!
Snow in the trees, man I miss real snow.
More snow, and some crazy dude riding to the Uni in a T shirt! -3 dude, -3.
The egg was the conference room, and the presenters were broadcast over a big screen on the external back wall of the egg.
The panelists at the end of the conference, it was moderated by Victor Bahl: Principal Researcher Group Manager for Microsoft's Networking Research Group
Works done, time to follow the candles to the bonfires...
The candles would probably be a bit of an issue in the UK
Pretty little candles
Walk through the lovegate and on to the main event.
This was the procession on their way to the main event, the flames look cool in the photo!
Shot of the canal at night with the illuminations
Carlstad at night
City, snow, and lights .... cool, literally.
One of the performances, with the sheets.
Carlstads streets at night.
More of the candles in the snow...
The park where the performers were dancing, lit with logs on fire, candles, and some funky lights.
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