Spring is in the air

Yes. Finally. Trees around me are sprouting buds and pretty soon I expect to be surrounded by greenery. A lot of it! I can't wait.
I'm waking up to daylight every morning. Apparently "official" sunrise is at 5am but it starts getting lighter from just after 4ish (I have no desire to confirm that.)
I can confirm that the sun is setting later and later.

This was taken just after 21:00 tonight.
And it's getting nice and warmish. Above 10C during most days. Some places in Sweden even reached a whopping 20C which is apparently confusing the mercury's normal April schedule .
Not that I'm complaining. Far from it.

With so much to look forward too, I'm actually really excited.
If all goes well, during the next week I'll reach my first main goal (which is unfortunately a week later than I planned, but few things go according to plan anyway :)
May will kick off with a visit to Poland and Czech Republic. Going to say hello to Krakow and Prague and, of course, stop by Auschwitz.
Somewhere in the middle I want to take another stroll/hike through the woods close by to see how much they have changed from these:

to where they all have some leaves. I did get some great photos of the sea, although I don't really feel as if I'm living on the coast. I suppose the Baltic sea isn't as rough and rowdy as the South African coast and the archipelagos around here also calm the waters some more, giving the area more a placid lake like effect with small ripples instead of decent waves.
Still, it looks brilliant and just has such a relaxing effect on you, sitting on the rocks, staring out over the waters, basking in the sun. Wish it was a paying job to do that!

This Easter weekend a lot of the locals were hard at work getting their boats in ship shape for the summer. As you can see, the piers are still rather empty, although some eager beaver boats were already on/in the water, including the one on the second picture, which, if I ever get a boat for myself, will be the one that I'd want.

And then, at the end of May my family will arrive and my summer holiday will start.
Three weeks, four countries, more than 5000km's and probably millions of photos and memories.

Oh, and did I mention it will be my first summer in more than 2 years?

Summer 2011, you are welcome indeed!