A Breath of Fresh Air

During my trip to Sweden, we spent the last morning and early afternoon at a cabin in the woods. We started off by having coffee and cake in the dinning room. Comfy chairs and candle-lit tables enhanced the already amazing breakfast.

Next we hiked into the woods on one of the many trains that surrounded the house. While Swedish woods are not any different then other woods, it was soothing to walk under trees and smell the crisp, fresh fall air. Living in cities for a full year can be taxing. The hike was led by our fearless leader (and chaperone), Mattiss.

The we kayaked, which turn wet and cold when a windy day met a few short rain showers. However, the trip out on the lake was definitely still worth it.

After all of our physical exertion, we were fed a wonderful meal of Swedish meatballs. This promptly put us all in a food coma just in time to take a nap on the 3 hour bus ride home.

Cozy in... Sweden

While the Danes have yet to pull out their cozy winter measures of candle lit dinners and evenings wrapped up in blankets – it’s still summer here in the low-60s – I was delighted to find a hint of what is to come on my visit to Sweden.

I spend three days in Sweden with my sociology core course, where we compared the immigration policies of the two Scandinavian countries. Between academic visits, we explored Malmo, directly across the Swedish boarder, and Göteborg, three hours north on the west coast. In addition to these cities we hiked, kayaked, and team bonded at a cabin in the back woods.

It is a trip better seen in pictures then told in words:

Cute town of Malmo

Mouth-watering cheese shop

2 ships from the 15th century – only 7 exist in the entire world

Random house sunk in canal… never got the story why this was here.

Inside the castle we stumbled upon a natural history museum, and proceeded to spend two hours there. Definitely a good use of our time.

Museum of World Culture – very cool modern building design

The Göteberg shipyards – massive towering structures used to fix ships. They lower the metal side by filling them with water, then sail the ship into place before pumping out the water from the metal sides to raise them back up – raising the ship with them. Once the ship is out of the water they start work on it. That is the extend of my engineering knowledge.

A great Swedish dinner with some new friends from my program

More to come from the cozy cabin in the woods!