We got to Sweden by 10:00 am, and immediately hopped into some canoes for our first adventure. I have been canoeing one other time, and was not very successful (Mikaela can vouch for me…she was lucky enough to witness it). However, I was convinced that my problems my first time around were the fault of my fellow shipmate and were not an accurate reflection of my abilities. Turns out I was very wrong. I was in a boat with Kelly and Lexi. We figured we’d be pretty decent considering all of us are athletic and Kelly spends her summers sailing, so that’s close enough. Wrong again. We were one of the first groups out onto the water, but within ten minutes were in last place among all of the DIS canoes. I managed to steer us directly into the bank on several occasions, the worst of which almost ended up with us flipping the canoe because we were laughing too hard to get the boat and ourselves under control. I’m pretty sure a blind person could have rowed the boat more successfully than the three of us –we looked like we were skiing down the river because the only way we could get anywhere was to zig-zag our way down. We probably ended up rowing double the distance from all of the turning we did! Forty-five minutes in, our arms started to get pretty tired. That’s when we realized we still had another two hours to go! Fortunately, the owners of the canoes were handing out really good Swedish ice-cream at the half-way point, so we picked up a little bit of a second wind, but it was tough! We maybe improved from a D (if we had actually fallen in, then I would have said it was a complete failure) to a C, but still finished a good five minutes after everyone else. Needless to say, I don’t think that canoeing is our forte.
After lunch, we went on a hike which took us to Nimis. Nimis is a village made by a man completely from driftwood! He calls it a “micronation” and wanted it to be independent of Sweden, but not surprisingly, the Swedish government wasn’t too thrilled with this idea. It still exists, but the government does not recognize it. Regardless, it’s still really cool! The hike there was beautiful and even a little challenging at parts. It was really steep and rocky, and pretty slippery from all of the rain. Once you got to the entrance to Nimis, it was completely driftwood. There were tunnels and bridges and high towers to climb, all made of just driftwood and nails. For any future parents out there, this place would have been the perfect tree house growing up…build one for your kid, and they will be the happiest child in the world. I was amazed that the creator did this all by himself, and it’s pretty sturdy considering what it’s made of…although one of the structures was a little wobbly at the top, so we climbed it and headed back down pretty quickly. Our leaders also had us participate in a meditation session on the rocks by the sea. I was laughing at first (immature, I know), but it was really relaxing once I was able to suppress my giggles. I mean, how often do you get to meditate on the Swedish coast!?
The hostel
experience for this trip was just as enjoyable as the adventure portion. The
place we stayed at was more like a bed and breakfast. It was located in the
country side, in the middle of nowhere. There was literally nothing around. But
it was beautiful! There was no wi-fi in the hostel either, which was nice
because it really added to the “one with nature” experience for the weekend.
Instead of being on our iPods at night, we found much better ways to entertain
ourselves. When you walked in, you had to take your sneakers off and wear
slippers! Somehow, I ended up with the smallest pair, so half of my foot was
hanging out of each. It was like a big communal home. We could use the kitchen
as we pleased, played card games in the dining room, and could hang out in the
backyard as well. That night, our leader’s barbequed an awesome dinner for us,
which we completely devoured. The only way I can describe our behavior: we were
like animals! Afterwards, there were smores and icecream by the bonfire. It was
a little too cold for me to stay outside, so most of us snuggled up around the
fireplace inside and got to know some of the other kinds on our trip. Even though
we were all exhausted, it was such a fun night and very relaxing!
The next day,
we went to Kullaberg, which was a short drive from the hostel. It is a big
nature reserve, with lots of trails and coastlines to hike. We split up into
two groups. My group went orienteering first. We had a map and a compass to
guide us to particular destinations in the area. At each place, we had a
challenge to complete. Our first stop was to hike down to the water, where we
had to build a tower of rocks as high as we could…which ended up not being very
high at all. Laura took tumble number two (or three?...we lost count by the
end) of the trip and fell off of a huge rock right into the freezing water.
Luckily she brought lots of clothes because she was completely soaked, and it
is not warm in Sweden in April! Some of the other challenges included a
life-size tanagram puzzle, which our group could not figure even though all of
us had solved one before! They are much easier when they are normal sized! This kind of crushed all of our dreams of ever winning Survivor. We also had to tie a couple of knots with the
rope (thanks Mr. Cole and Wilderness-X class in high school for preparing me
for that one!) and guess the distances of certain ropes tied up to the trees.
The best part of the challenges though was trying to find the destinations and
the actual hike there. There were a lot of cliffs to scale up and down and it
was real rock-climbing. Some of them were so steep they had ropes set up to
hold on to so you could get down. It was right up my alley!
After lunch,
we switched groups and my group got to go repelling! It was such a different
experience than it would have been at home. In the United States, they would
have made me sign a billion waivers and make me sit through long, boring
tutorials that I wouldn’t have paid attention to anyways. There was none of that
in Sweden! We geared up, and headed right to the cliff! The instructor barely
went over what to do before he had us rappelling! The first cliff was a
practice one. It was a lot smaller and pretty flat, so you could walk down it
fairly easily. The second one we rappelled off of was a lot harder though and a little
scary when you first stepped off because you have to really lean back in the
harness and just let yourself go. Even though you are mainly stepping down, it gets really
tricky when the rocks are jutting out in a thousand directions. At one point, I
lost my step and was swinging like Tarzan until I could find a better foothold.
It started raining in the middle of it too, but we kept going, which is another
thing I doubt we’d ever be able to do at home!
At the end of
the day, DIS arranged a surprise stop for us on our way home –coffee and
pastries! It was the perfect way to end, especially after being out in the cold
for so long. We were wet and shivering, so something warm and yummy hit the spot.
Overall, it was a great weekend, and the perfect trip to take after a non-stop
spring break. I wish I had a couple of more free weekends (or even weeks) because
I would go back in an instant and explore some more!
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