Sweden!

This past weekend I went to Sweden with about 45 other students on a canoeing and hiking trip organized by DIS. We left on a ferry early Saturday morning from Helsingør in Denmark and spent the first morning canoeing down Ronne A through the countryside and a few small towns in Sweden. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera on this part of the trip so you'll just have to trust me that it was beautiful. From there we drove to the STF Vandrarhem Jonstorp Hostel in Kullabygden about forty minutes away. I am thinking that this probably shouldn't have been my introduction to the world of hostels. It was more like a bed and breakfast owned by a woman and her son (? - I think...I hope...). The rooms were extremely comfortable and homey and they cooked us delicious meals and generally just took wonderful care of us.

Saturday afternoon we drove to Kullaberg Nature Reserve to hike to a driftwood structure called Nimis. The structure was built by the artist Lars Vilks with 75 tons of driftwood but the work is officially owned by Christo and Jeanne-Claude of landmark-wrapping fame. It is essentially a massive labyrinth of mazes and towers that lead down a cliff-side to the water's edge. Nimis' existence is not sanctioned by the state (Vilks has quite a history with the Swedish authorities) and to make a long story short, the piece of art is now part of a one square kilometer area known as Ladonia. Fun fact - Ladonia is now the world's fastest growing micro-nation with 13,000 citizens and counting. It is free to become a citizen but if you have higher aspirations you can pick yourself a title, pay twelve dollars, and join the Ladonian nobility. Unfortunately they already have a queen - she is from Chicago.

The coolest part of our trip to Nimis was that Lars Vilks was actually there working on the structure when we visited! We got to talk to him a little bit and it was really interesting to hear about the concept behind Nimis and the process of building it. He even had a bodyguard outfitted in a bullet-proof vest as apparently there have been multiple assassination attempts directed towards him.

Saturday night we had a barbecue and bonfire at the hostel and headed to sleep pretty early. On Sunday we drove to another part of the Kullaberg Nature Reserve where we spent the day orienteering and rappelling. We lucked out with beautiful weather all weekend and spending the day outdoors away from the city was so refreshing. I wish I could do a better job describing how gorgeous this area was but I am just going to let the pictures do the work for me.

 

This trip exceeded all of my expectations and was definitely some of the most fun I have had since being here. I got to see a new country, meet great new people, and explore a beautiful area. And as if this wasn't enough, they surprised us on the way back to the ferry with a stop at the most adorable, fairytale-esque cafe called Flickorna Lundgren. The bakery is over 70 years old and famous in Sweden for their vanilla heart pastries. Yum!