"Karlskrona" a Karlskrona Travel Page by ratherton

This is the town in Sweden where I worked for more than six years. Traditionally, Karlskrona has been a Naval base (dating back to the 17th century) and more recently it has attracted several Telecoms companies.

The old spelling of the name is Carlskrona and the town is listed as a World Hertiage Site.

The contrast between summer and winter is incredible. Some of the Swedes I work with who originate from further north, think Karlskrona is quite a dark place in the winter. This is due to the fact we don't get as much snow as they do 'up north'.

In the summer, the town and surrounding area is at it's best. There are numerous beaches and the sea temperature rises about 20 degrees.

King Karl XI founded the town in 1680 to help strengthen the control of the Baltic. 33 islands form the town, the main one is Trossö.

Until a few years ago, apart from the residents, the town was exclusively a naval base where many Swedes came to do their national service.

Karlskrona was once the point of a major incident during the Cold War when a Russian submarine ran aground. The Swedes didn't want to let it go and the Russians wanted it back. Eventually, it was all sorted out.

More recently, Karlskrona has experienced strong IT growth with many companies locating here and the Telecom City network has been established.

Like any town, any where in the world, there are small stories I can tell you which are unique to Karlskrona. Some are strange and some are funny. These are a few I've chosen to share with you:

1. Burger King Went Bust. One of the most successful fast food chains in the world with a prime location on Ronnebygatan but it still went bust.

2. A couple of years ago I was driving home from work and found part of the town closed off by the police. Later, I found out that the top floor of the fire station had burnt down.

3. Earlier this summer, I went into a jewellers as my watch strap needed repairing (it needed a new pin). The guy went into the back to fix it and after 10 minutes (and lots of swearing) he came out, handed me the pin and said he didn't have time to fix it. When I got home I had a look at it and the pin was too short - great jeweller.

4. The optician wasn't much better. A friend broke the arm off a pair of glasses. The jeweller couldn't match the colour (not even close) but said it didn't matter as no-one could see both sides at the same time. He also wanted 2.000sek ($250)