Adventures in Sweden

I spent this last weekend with DIS in Sweden exploring the countryside with numerous awesome outdoor activities. I knew that I would enjoy some of these activities, such as canoeing, but to be honest I was a little skeptical about rappelling. As it turned out everything on this tripwas amazingly fun, and thanks to DIS I ended up trying a few things that I know that I never would have tried otherwise!
We met in the center of Copenhagen early on Saturday morning and took the bus to Helsingor, where we caught a ferry over to Sweden. This ferry ride was really really quick. Really. The DIS interns with us told us that we wouldn't even have time to finish a cup of coffee on the boat, and they were right. However, they did have some duty free shopping, which included chocolate at a significantly cheaper price than is available in Denmark, so I indulged in a little candy. And then, a few minutes later, we were in Sweden! My first impression of Sweden is that it is probably the cutest country in the world. The countryside and all the houses were really pretty, like what you'd see in a painting.

I love these houses!

After a short drive through the Swedish countryside, we arrived at a river. There we paired off into canoes. The river ran mostly through the woods, and through a couple small towns. The houses and yards that we passed were all beautiful.
And for the first time since being in Scandanavia, it was apparent to me that it was autumn. The leaves in Sweden were definitely beginning to turn all shades of red and orange, something I hadn't yet seen in Copenhagen. We canoed down the river for almost three hours, and my arms definitely were feeling the strain by the end, but it was really fun nonetheless.

Canoeing

After canoeing we checked into our hostel, which was one of the nicest hostels imaginable. It was basically a giant house, with an older couple in charge of it. No one was allowed to wear shoes inside and the whole house was really pleasant. They gave us a delicious lunch of soup and bread, which warmed us all up from canoeing.
After lunch, we went for a hike down to somewhere called Nimis. Nimis is really difficult to describe. It's basically a giant network of driftwood towers right on the beach. The artist just nailed together, rather haphazardly, all the driftwood he could find into towers that were probably 30 feet high or higher. Then most of the towers are connected by driftwood tunnels. Basically, it was like a playground for adults, with the added uncertainty of whether the structures actually were stable. We climbed through all the tunnels and up all the towers, as seen below. Then we went and looked at what appeared to be a humungous sand castle on the beach, made out of rocks, sand, and whatever other junk the artist found on the beach, including keys, bones, and metal rods.
Also, interestingly this area of Sweden, Ladonia, has declared itself to be an independent micronation. Citizenship is free, but a spot in their nobility will cost you twelve US dollars. The hike down to Nimis was pretty difficult and steep, so not that many people go there, although it was certainly one of the most interesting and strangest things I have ever seen. I'd seen pictures of it, but they really didn't even begin to explain to me what Nimis was. It was far bigger and far more elaborate than a photograph can possibly show. Add that to the fact that it is right on the ocean, and you have quite possibly one of the coolest places in the world. And I probably never would have even heard of it, let alone actually hiked down there, if it wasn't for this DIS trip, so I'm really glad for that!

Photos trying to show the immense scale of Nimis!


Arx, the giant sand castle thing.

Jawbone in the structure of Arx

I thought this rock looked like a dinosaur so I took a picture of it.

We ended the night back at our hostel with a barbecue. Unfortunately, I've managed to catch a pretty nasty cold that had completely exhausted me, so shortly after the barbecue (8:30 PM), I passed out in my bed until the morning.
The next morning started on a rather humorous note. We woke up at around 8 and tried to find the breakfast that we knew was being served somewhere in the (very small) hostel. Logically, my roommates and I tried the room where lunch and dinner had been served just the day before. Indeed, there was a small array of food sitting out, which included apples, juiceboxes, and chocolate bars. Thinking this was an odd breakfast, but seeing no other options, we began to eat. Within a minute or so however, we had a good laugh when we realized that everyone else in our group was eating a real breakfast upstairs and that the chocolate bars were to go with our lunches.
After breakfast, we headed off for the Kullaberg Nature Reserve, which was absolutely beautiful. It's right on the beach, with some of the most amazing views ever! First we hiked around the reserve and saw beautiful views of the sea, an awesome lighthouse, and fields of cows. I was a little nervous walking through the fields of cows, because they all had gigantic horns, and some of them were definitely bulls. And they were kind of staring at us in what seemed like an angry manner. But the trails went right through the fields of cows/bulls, so they can't have been that dangerous. I'm not really a big hiker (I only made it like a third of the way up the mountain last time I tried hiking) but this was really fun. It was so beautiful, that even though getting down to the beaches could be tough, it was well worth it.

Nice beach, although getting down there was a real challenge

Another nice view of the sea

Lighthouse and me. The lighthouse has only been here since 1899, but there has been a flame shining here since the 14th century! Also, this is the strongest light in Scandanavia at 1000 watts!

Cow, and what I'm fairly sure is a bull.

We ended the outdoors part of our day with rappelling down cliffs, which for some reason I wasn't really looking forward too. (Rappelling is like rock climbing, except only going down, you don't have to climb back up!) I'm not really afraid of heights, but something about the idea of basically walking down a vertical cliff, held in only by a couple ropes just didn't sit right with me. When we got to where we were going to rappel, we saw that there were two cliffs, one of about 12 meters and one of about 25 meters. We all started by going down the smaller one. It was hard to get the hang of at first, but eventually it did become easier. The smaller cliff wasn't too hard because it wasn't completely vertical and it wasn't that high. After I did this one twice, I decided to try the much bigger one. This one was completely vertical and I started out by getting my foot caught in a crevice and not really being able to move. I spent a couple minutes trying to get my foot unstuck, and then I was completely tangled in my ropes. And this cliff was a lot higher, so it was definitely really intimidating looking down. But I made it to the bottom, which was completely awesome! Rappelling was something I don't think I ever would have done on my own, so I'm so glad that DIS made us do it on this trip! The bigger cliff that we rappelled down!

Me rappelling down the smaller cliff.

The smaller cliff we rappelled down.

View from the top of the bigger cliff

Finally, we started making our way back towards Denmark, when the interns told us that we were going to make a stop at a cafe and eat pastries and coffee or tea! The cafe we stopped at was the cutest place in the world. And the pastries were amazingly delicious! After the cafe, we finished our ride back to Copenhagen, where we arrived exhausted but satisfied at one of the greatest weekends ever!

Cafe

Pastries.... mmmm....