Swedish Adventures

I refuse to believe that it is April, that I am registering for me senior year courses back at Trinty, and that I have six weeks left abroad. I don't understand this passage of time phenomenom, and I sure as hell hope that real life doesn't happen this fast. This time next week I will be on spring break, a vacation from vacation that lasts for two weeks. After that, I have only a few weeks of classes left here in CPH, with all my course work being wrapped up by the 6th of May. End of term papers are in our midsts, and thier discussion is a common theme among most of my classes lately. At least the stress from those deadlines are enough to make the end of my time here seem distant.

I spent this past weekend on a hiking, climbing, and canoeing trip to the Swedish back country. We spent Saturday canoeing until noon on a very lazy river, which made it seem more like a social excursion on water than an outdoor excursion. After lunch, we set for the rocky coast to find an area called Nimis. Built over a period in the '80s, Nimis was hidden by its only creator for two years before being discovered by the Swedish government. The 'park' consists of over 70 tons of driftwood nailed into massive building and walk-way like structures. I didn't think much of this description, but after a 30 minute hike to its secluded location on the shore, I was, bewildered. We entered the location one person at a time, as the entrance walkway was barely large enough for me.  Very similar to a giant tree house, you walk along pathways that are way off the ground, held up by snarled twists of driftwood nailed together in absolutely no orderly manner.

There were towers and tunnels, some set walkways among the clutter of wood, but mostly you just climbed it like a jungle gym.  We spent a good hour clambering around the shoreline structures, I snapped some great pictures from the top of one of the towers. On the climb back of the steep rocky slopes, I had to take off my jacket. With the excercise and mid 50s F weather, it was too warm! That night we stayed at a hostel out in the middle of farm fields, and we had a giant fire pit set up for a barbeque. The weather was just right, jeans and a long sleave shirt was all that was needed outside while we played volleyball and then ate our bbq chicken, sausages, and potato salad dinner. S'mores (on digestive bisquets, a scandanavian thing due to the lack of graham crackers here) and ice cream followed, and the sun made its final farewell at around 8:30 pm. Playing some cards until a ripe hour of 11:30 that night (we could have sworn it was 2 am), I even manged a full night sleep. The next day was spent repelling over rock faces and orienteering. The repelling took place on giant rocky cliffs along coves at the coast. We went down two cliffs, one more of a practice for the second much more precarious descent. Only once or twice did I wonder what in the world I was doing there, usually after looking down. After we had an afternoon of orienteering, a scavenger hunt type of competition using compasses and maps to complete activities all over the hillsides. The day was very foggy, and at times you couldn't see more than 100 yards ahead. There were many references to Frodo and the Ring, as it felt very similar to wandering around Middle Earth. If only.

It was a refreshing weekend to say the least, and really got me thinking about planning my trip to Norway in May, somewhere I really hope to get to before the end.