Oct 1: A pinch and a punch for the first of the month, so the saying goes. For us it is also another 'can you believe it, pinch me quick' moment! It's our very last week before we come home to New Zealand and we're on our way to Sweden.
We have no true understanding of what
It takes just over two hours to fly to Arlanda and we are lucky to have some good views on the way of the coastlines of
At Arlanda we fill in a two-hour wait to catch a train to Falun, situated right in the heart of Dalarna, our destination for seven days. We are pleased to find people here easily speak and understand English. With help, we manage to catch the right train going in the right direction. Our journey takes us past many small lakes, waterways, wide open grasslands and dense forests. The autumn colours become more intense as we travel further up the country - all shades of brilliant yellows and deep rustic reds.
We strain our necks, our noses or at least a camera lens, pressed against the glass, in hope that we will see a moose or wild bear but neither eventuates.
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| Dan, Anja and Hugo |
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| Max takes every opportunity to hold baby Lukas and is helped by Hugo |
It's a great reunion - to see Anja, Dan, Hugo and their latest little boy, Lukas, just one month old and so very cute!
After a delicious meal cooked by Anja and a catch up, we all head off to get the keys and pay for our flat.
Our flat for the week costs 1050 kronor (equivalent to 30 dollars a night) plus we are lucky as it has just been refurbished and is very nice too.
These are large two-storey buildings with up to 16 flats that surround central playgrounds.
There are many of these buildings and it is easy to get lost, as they all look much the same.
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| Café Skyttepaveljongen |
Max gets to meet expats from
Coffee, here, is self-serve from a coffee pot and a selection of eclectic cups and saucers. The dark interior and rustic furniture is warm and inviting.
Our flat is within walking distance to the supermarkets and we find Lidl, an interesting store that sells food and specially priced goods such as bike and fishing gear amongst other things (in the UK, the store is called Aldi).
I struggle with the currency and find it easier to convert it to pounds to work out the cost: 10 kronor = 1 pound. We carry 20, 50, 100 & 500 kronor notes - Max feels like Jed Clampert on Beverley Hillbillies with wads of notes in his wallet. Lots of notes but nowhere near the same dollar/pound value. We find prices for food similar to Buffet lunches are popular in
We visit the Darlarna Museum
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On a day’s outing Anja takes us to Lake Siljan
Our drive takes us off the main road, through little villages and winding our way around the lake until we find the home of the Dala horse at Nils Olsson Hemslöd in Nusnäs.
The Dala horse, a small wooden painted ornament, is a national icon. These cute little horses are machine-cut, hand-carved, hand-dipped in paint, and then finished in a traditional hand-painted pattern.
They are expensive to buy - a small horse of only 4-5cm high costs 125 kronor (approx. $25). Luckily, I find one twice the size at a second hand shop in Falun for only 8 kronor (normally 250 kronor for that size - approx. $50).
The Olssen brothers started carving the horses in 1928 and the Dala horse has been handmade in Nusnäs ever since that time.
Here you visit the workshops and see the various stages of production through to the end result. Two large stores across the road from each other offer a whole range of traditional Swedish arts and crafts-style souvenirs.
Many are painted in bright colours and traditional patterns.
We continue on to Mora situated at the top of the lake, then the road takes us around the opposite side of the lake and back towards Falun.
We travel through large forestries, where Anja points out the rather spindly-built timber stands used during the moose hunting season – the hunter waits, with his gun, perched on this while others walk though the forest driving the moose to within shooting range of the hunter. A successful drive might yield as many as 10 moose.
Unfortunately, we don’t see any moose on our outing, nor any bears or wolves during our stay.
However, Max is quite relieved as he heard a story about a massive bull moose wandering across the road in front of a big truck - luckily both escaped unharmed.
A stay at Falun is not complete without a visit to the Falu Coppar, Stora Kopparberget, a World Heritage site of the Falun coppermines.
Our guide tells us that the tour will be in Swedish – we should have come the day before, she says. However once the tour group gathers around she asks if they all understand English and we are in luck – they all agree to an English version of the tour.
The huge mine pit was created when an underground cavern collapsed in the 1700s - luckily it was Midsummer's Day and all the miners were above ground celebrating in the town so no-one was killed.
The copper mine was finally closed in 1992 and today over 80km of tunnels still remain.
We don hard hats and waterproof capes and gingerly tread down hundreds of steps, through dimly lit, dripping tunnels until we are in the very heart of the mine, some 70 metres below the surface. It’s an eye opener to get an idea of the kind of conditions the miners once endured – at one stage our guide shuts off all our lighting and we experience the complete darkness and isolation that would have been felt by the miners when flame of their wooden torches died out. They would have to call out and drop to their knees and crawl along the mine shaft until they found someone.
In its hey day, in the 1700s, the copper mine was the treasury of Sweden and indeed, the town of Falun was once the second largest city in Sweden. Now it’s a quiet community where people ask us what on earth we are doing here. Visiting friends, we quite proudly reply.
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| Kanelbullen and Vaniljbullar (delicious buns with vanilla custard inside) |
We then walk back to our flat through the older area of Falun, past the miners houses.
Falun is also known for its Lugnet Ski Jumps. To get there we take the forest path that winds through the trees. We imagine we might see a moose or bear but still nothing eventuates. The ski jumps sit against the hillside and tower above the town. Built in 1974, they’re old and in need of repair now. We walk up the hillside beside them to get an idea of the heights involved in this popular winter sport. The jumps are due to be renovated and upgraded for the World Ski Championships in 2015. I take Max along to the Café Skyttepaveljongen to experience this amazing log pavilion, its coffee and food, its rustic ambiance. We try golashsoppa with bröd – a delicious goulash soup and bread.
We check out the earth cellar used to store perishables. The property is near a waterway the leads both to a bigger river and the lake. When Dan sees old photos of flooding in the area, he’s not quite as keen to buy. However, the area is picturesque, well sought after and perfect for boating.
Sweden, we discover, has around 90,000 lakes and most of these freeze over in winter making them ideal for ice skating, curling, kitewinging (like windsurfing on skates) and ice fishing. We find it hard to imagine a metre or more of snow on the ground with temperatures ranging from -20 to -30 degrees and only six hours of daylight during the long winter months.
Keeping warm is essential in this colder climate so not only do the homes have central heating but during the colder months, people also plug their cars into a heating system to stop the engines from freezing and also keep the inside warm.
We carry on to Borlänge, where we stop for lunch Rommehedslägret (the old Rommehed barracks), the meeting place and parade grounds of the Dala Regiment between 1796 and 1908.
It’s a wonderful way to finish our week in Sweden
Sat 8 we have a two hour train trip back to Arlanda and then on the plane back to London
We have mixed emotions as our journey comes towards an end – we are keen to get back home and catch up with family and friends AND sleep in our own bed but feel we could easily carry on exploring new places, meeting new people and expanding our knowledge of the world. We go home to work and plan another trip, Max declares. And I agree. We’d love to do this all over again.
Sun 9 we meet a lovley couple from It’s a stunning buffet luncheon, where the wearing of t-shirts, track pants, flip-flops and trainers are not permitted. We manage to find suitable clothing and footwear that get us in. The first class food is delicious and the desserts divine. Waiters flit around us, whisking our plates away, and Max even discovers a rest room attendant waiting to attend to his every need.
It’s a lovely finish to our five-month OE, catching up with the people who initially welcomed us into the country when we were wide-eyed with wonder.
Weds 12… Our home-coming has been great, catching up with family and friends, reflecting and sharing. How do we feel about being back home? We’re OK. Max has a new job to start and I have oh so many stories to write and photos to edit (nearly 5000 of them).
We thank everyone who came along with us on our journey, for religiously reading the blog, for your feedback and staying in contact with us – we loved sharing our adventures with you.
We've been kiwis2go on-the-go for just over 5 months, visited 5 countries, rode on 15 trains, slept in 35 beds, taken nearly 5000 photos and traveled over 50,000 km ... Oh, and we’ll let you know when the book comes out... and the next adventure!
