A Weekend in Sweden- En Weekend i Sverige

Coming from a country as big as Australia, going to another country for the weekend sounds crazy, but in Europe its easy and normal. So last weekend after Casper's confirmation, my host family and I spent the weekend in Sweden.

We got up early Friday morning and began the 7 hour drive. We drove to the other side of Denmark, and up to the top of the island of 'Sjelland', where we caught a ferry at Helsingborg, across from Denmark to Sweden. The ferry ride only took around 20 minutes; it seemed like we were only crossing a small river, from one side you could easily see the other side. But it was actually crossing an international border, so there was a duty free shop on the ferry. Then we continued our drive North, into Sweden. 

 

Even though they are so close, Sweden is quite different to Denmark. The forests look different, with so many rocks (Denmark has basically no rocks) and different trees. In Sweden most of the houses are made of wood and painted red or black, where as in Denmark most are stone or brick. The languages have similarities and a lot of the time Danish people can understand and read some Swedish, but Swedish has a few more crazy letters ö, ä, ü & å, that seem to be in a lot of town names as I noticed from the road signs.

The place we stayed at is a 'summer house', set in the forest, owned by family friends. It is tradition that every year at this time, 3 families, including my host family, go and stay for the weekend. There is the house, 2 old barns (one they use for storage) and a bathroom. 

 

We spent the weekend mostly relaxing, going for walks in the forest, playing soccer, sitting by the fire, chatting, reading, drawing and other things like that. As well as Casper and myself, there were 2 boys around 14, 1 boy around 12, 1 girl 15, 1 girl 13 and 1 girl 9. 

 

On Friday evening after dinner, we went for a drive in the forest to see what animals we could see. We saw a moose! It was a young moose, so it didn't have huge antlers, but it still had a massive oversized head and long lanky legs. We stopped the car and watched it for a little while. It was difficult to take a photo of, because it blended in with the forest very well. I couldn't believe that I was actually looking at a moose! As well as the moose, we saw some geese and storks. 

Looked a bit like this

On Saturday afternoon, we made what they call 'Sno Brød' on the campfire, which translates to 'Twist Bread' and is a type of damper or bread that you cook on a stick, on a campfire.

 

For most of the weekend we spoke Danish, so it was a bit of a challenge and a little tiring, but it was a great weekend. It was so nice to meet the two other families; the weekend was very fun and hyggeligt. We drove home after dinner on Saturday night.