Scott's Adventures

Yes, so I was only back in Linköping for 12 hours before getting back on the road. This time we were 18 students and a couple of teachers, heading an hour away to the countryside as part of the Nordic Culture course we are taking. It went from Wednesday morning until Friday afternoon, and we stayed in a really nice hunting lodge on the shore of Lake Sommen. It was a great location, quite a comfortable place to live for a couple of days!!

On the first day, we went for a hike for about 4 hours. It was really nice to explore the local forests and learn more about it at the same time. The lake's water is clean enough to drink straight away, so I tasted that, something I have never done before! We also were able to pick berries and mushrooms as we walked along. For lunch, we stopped by the lake and had smoked fish which had been caught in that particular lake, was nice! In the evening, we had a couple of lectures, one about hunting, the other about Swedish folk stories. After dinner of Swedish style sausage, we enjoyed a lakeside sauna, complete with the obligatory plunge into the lake afterwards. I have never been in and out of water so fast, it was about 11pm so not really warm anymore. But it felt good afterwards at least!!

The second day was devoted to learning more about Swedish folk stories and fairy tales. We did some drama activities in the morning, and in the afternoon in our groups, we developed our own play. Our group made a performance set in the forest, which we actually performed in the forest, about trolls and the mythical Lady of the Forest, who protects all the creatures from human danger. It was a lot of fun, complete with music and stage lighting, since we performed it in otherwise total darkness. The other two groups put on great performances as well, it was a really cool night, and I also learnt a lot!!

Day 3 - already the last day of a so far excellent excursion - was spent for a few hours out on Lake Sommen in canoes. I haven't really been canoeing before, neither had my co-pilot Suzuko from Tokyo, so it took a while to get going, but we got there in the end. It was really nice and peaceful, beautiful scenery the whole way along, was an excellent few hours! Of course it wasn't all smooth sailing, Suzuko and I veered off to the left at one stage as the rest of the group went right. Despite our best efforts to turn around, we somehow managed to go further and further away. Eventually we were able to complete the U-turn and get back on track, not without getting caught on rocks which we delicately had to pull ourselves away from, not easy I have discovered!! But all in all, it went really well, and can't wait to get back on the water!

That was almost about it, expect for one small part of Swedish culture which we gladly got a lot of exposure to - fika!! Every couple of hours is fika time, basically a coffee break, but with biscuits or something else sweet as well. Always comes at the most needed times. So that is one part of the culture I will happily continue wherever in the world I am

Back home Friday evening, and almost immediately went to sleep. It had been a busy time over the past nine days, lots of travelling and moving around, but have enjoyed every moment of it!! However, looking forward to spending a bit of time back here in Linköping, and not living out of a suitcase for a week at least! Will probably be here for most of October, hopefully do some travelling around the area, but in any case, I am sure there will be lots to do to keep busy as per usual.

Until next time - hope all is well!
Scott

PS. Updated photo page: http://www.travellerspoint.com/photos/gallery/users/scottg/