Blackeberg pictures in context

[covenant6452]

Am I the only one who thinks Blackeberg looks rather nice? Visually, I mean? It's green, leafy, etc.

I thought it was a beautiful little slice of quiet in a city that was already beautiful and clean.
When I move over that way, if I had to live in the city, Blackeberg would be the main contender. I plan to live a bit further north of Stockholm though it all depends on the availability of finding work.

[drakkar]

Continuing with Oskar's narrow escape from Eli 3rd time on the jungle gym, and Jocke getting it instead:

‘Come up here.’
‘OK.’
Oskar climbed up onto the structure until he was next to her, discreetly drawing air into his nose. She didn’t stink any more.
‘Do I smell better today?’

‘I’m … going now.’
Oskar nodded. The girl looked him straight in the eyes for a few seconds, then turned to go. She reached the top of the slide and hesitated. Then she sat down and slid to the bottom, started off towards her front door. Oskar squeezed the cube.
‘See you tomorrow?’
The girl stopped and said ‘Yes’ in a low voice without turning, then kept going.

Oskar watched her. She didn’t go home, though, she walked through the archway that led to the street. Disappeared.

Jocke walked along the park path between Holbergsgatan and Blackeberg School.

The streetlights nearest the Björnsongatan underpass was broken and the path under the street a dark hole.

A voice. He stopped in the middle of the underpass, listening. A moaning voice was coming from one side.
‘Help me …’

(Other direction - viewing towards the school. Gösta's building up to the right behind the underpass.)

[drakkar]

When Håkan gets rid of Jocke's body, he carries the body further on the park path, away from Blackeberg Centrum down to Mälaren lake.
I think we found a plausible location where he dumped it in th water. This is the first horizontal trunk you'll come across by the shore. Covenant wasn't quite convinced about the trunk in the last picture being strong enough to support the combined weight of Håkan and Jocke, but I argued back "does John know?":)
Anyway, it's somewhere close to this place. Rightwards (can you say that in English?) from this location there are no trees at the shore, only naked rock for quite a distance towards Kvarnviken. So if Håkan had to find another spot, it would have been farther to the left from the spot on the photo.

The path from the underpass down to Mälaren is probably like this: Through the forest from the underpass, then past either side of the buildings in picture three, crossing a open area passing Ljunglöfska slottet (the "Snuff" castle Covenant has posted pictures from previously), and down to the lake.

There was only one way. On his right the path continued on through the forest, towards the hospital and down to the water.
… How far was it to the water? A few hundred metres maybe. And if someone came by?

… once he was safely down by the shore he crept – his skin steaming with sweat – out along the trunk of a weeping willow that grew almost horizontally over the water.

[lombano]

Based on my only two visits (friday and saturday): Yes, I definitely liked the place. Friday I went there alone, wandering about the park paths and the paths in the perimeter og Blackeberg, and I found it very pleasant. The only grumpy person I spotted was a wino at Blackeberg Centrum (not Lacke).

Maybe you had to have lived there for awhile back in the 70's and 80's to get the vibes about it that JAL conveys in the novel.

Probably - that's why I emphasised that it seemed visually nice; the denizens may be another matter. In my case it contributes that I grew up in a vast city crammed into a semi-desertic mountain valley, thus a place with lots of green, bodies of water and open spaces seems rather nice and relaxed - though I'm guessing in a fairly sparsely populated, water-rich country like Sweden it may be the norm.

[gary13136]

Based on my only two visits (friday and saturday): Yes, I definitely liked the place. Friday I went there alone, wandering about the park paths and the paths in the perimeter og Blackeberg, and I found it very pleasant. The only grumpy person I spotted was a wino at Blackeberg Centrum (not Lacke).

Maybe you had to have lived there for awhile back in the 70's and 80's to get the vibes about it that JAL conveys in the novel.

Probably - that's why I emphasised that it seemed visually nice; the denizens may be another matter. In my case it contributes that I grew up in a vast city crammed into a semi-desertic mountain valley, thus a place with lots of green, bodies of water and open spaces seems rather nice and relaxed - though I'm guessing in a fairly sparsely populated, water-rich country like Sweden it may be the norm.

I know what you mean. I live in an area that is considered to be one of the most desirable places to live in the USA. And yet, there are dangers here. People have been murdered, robbed, raped, etc. But if you just visit, it seems very placid. And that proves the old adage that appearances are deceptive. I've also been on a number of occasions in New York City, which is considered one of the most dangerous places in the world. But I've walked over large parts of it, and not felt the least danger. But I was aware of my surroundings at all times. No matter where you go, or how it may appear, you can always have a bad experience. It's all a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

[drakkar]

The whereabouts of Eli and Oskar visiting the candy store is something like this:

They met outside the entrance to her building. In one day she had … changed.

Then Eli took off and Oskar tried to catch her. Even though she looked sick she was much faster than him, flew gazelle-like over the stones on the path, had crossed the street in a couple of strides.

Eli was waiting for him down by the road, twenty metres from the kiosk.

Oskar walked down towards the kiosk. Eli took a few quick steps to pull up alongside him, whispered, ‘They must be skinny!’

They walked back. Before Oskar had even had any himself he held he bag out to Eli. She shook her head.
‘No thanks.’
‘Don’t you eat sweets?’
‘I can’t’.

In the covered entrance leading to the courtyard Eli stopped and looked at her window. It was dark. She stopped with her arms wrapped around her body and stared at the ground.
‘Oskar …?’
He did it. Her whole body were asking for it and from somewhere he go the courage to do it. He hugged her.

Eli quickly drew in towards the wall. Oskar balled his hands into fists and ran up the hill, stopping underneath his window. Like a little kid.

He ran back down the hill.
‘Eli?’
She wasn’t there. She couldn’t have gone inside because he would have noticed her.

Four fellow Infected also looking for Eli

[drakkar]

While Oskar is hugging Eli, Gösta eventually found the courage to walk over to the China (not very far - less that 200 m) and tell the others what he saw happened to Jocke:

Larry looked up and saw a person he never thought would set foot in here: Gösta.

(The China tidied up for the Royal Wedding )

Gösta told his story. The child who had taken out the streetlight nearest the underpass by throwing a rock at it, then hidden inside and waited. Jocke who had gone in and never come out again.

[a_contemplative_life]

The further drakkar goes with this, the more magical it seems to me to see these pictures with the accompanying text. Even though the locations seem very ordinary, they carry great significance to me. My hat is off to you, drakkar. It is almost as if the whole story can be told again in a new and refreshing way. The only thing better would be to see Lina and Kare in the photos!

[drakkar]

The evening after Oskar's hugging Eli, Eli pays a visit to the old woman in Ängby (Håkan failed ...)
The exact location isn't known, but we know after the fire Eli runs on a side street into Bällstavägen.

So, StefL Lindqvist Tours took the challenge and drove from Blackeberg on Bällstavägen, turning left up Långskeppsatan - an arbitrary side street. I took a picture of a house just to give you an general impression of how they look like in the area. From here Eli has about two kilometres to cover back to Oskar's bedroom.

Hi, I was going to meet my dad, but he didn’t show up…
may I come in and use the phone?

[drakkar]

Attention a_c_l: Holy waters.
Next thursday, Oskar at last strikes back. I'll start with the swings, where Eli encourages him to finally do it:

‘Oskar.’
‘Yes?’
‘Slow down a little.’

So to the locations on the ice. The teachers were standing far from the shore. If they were standing a bit to the left of the small boat out on the lake (far right in photo 1, in the middle of photo 2), they would be about a km from the body of Jocke (left of photo 1), and within hearing distance. The wake where Oskar hits Jonny should be close to Kvarnviken, photo 3.

Jonny ducked and Oskar felt a mute thwack in his hands when the heavy end of the stick struck Jonny square on the ear. He fell to the side like a bowling pin, landing outstretched on the ice, howling.

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