Hi guys!
Its crazy to think this is my 16th post. I know this isn’t a lot to other bloggers, but as this is just for fun, I’m quite proud that I’ve stuck to it for the past 9 months! As I was saying in the last post, my friend Rebecca came to visit me the first weekend of May. So, I flew back with her to her Erasmus home, Växjö, in the south of Sweden. It was amazing to be with such a like-minded person! Looking forward to living with a fellow vegan, philosopher and compassion oriented woman in September 🙂
The first day was spent exploring her home town of Växjö. The first thing that hit me about Sweden was how many open, lush natural places there are, and how much less populated the place is than the Netherlands. The city is the greenest city in the whole of Europe, and its easy to see why. The town was relatively small, but the great expanses of untouched forest made it a magical place to be. We set off in the morning to see the Kronoberg Castle ruins on lake Helgasjön, and the weather was clear and warm. The beauty of the place was incredible, seeing the clear water of the lake surrounding the castle, which was a tiny speck compared to the size of the water. We sat on one of the many huge, moss covered rocks and ate some great vegan food. It was so peaceful and seeing all the tiny birds and bugs really made you feel at one with the world.
After that we went to the city centre to have a look around and see the 700+ years old Cathedral. It was a really original design with two blue devil-like horns at the top of the building. There was also a Viking rune stone that was found inside a church wall 200 years ago, that reads “Tyke – Tyke Wiking – raised this stone after Gunnar, Grim’s son. May God help his soul”. I could feel my Scandinavian roots surging to the front of my spirit 😉
After this, we took a look around her university, and saw the Teleborg castle. This a 115 year old wedding present from the eccentric count Fredrik Bonde af Björnö to his young wife. After this, the rain started to fall, and we retreated back to her house for the evening.
The next day we visited Gothenburg, the second largest city in the country. For the second biggest it is still pretty small, maybe the size of Norwich, but it was so cute! We walked to the Haga district, the oldest in city, and walked up many MANY stairs to the Skansen Kronen defence tower. We were very out of breath, but the view of the city from the top was worth it 😛 There was a lot of beautiful botanical gardens too, and it was lucky we were there in spring! The one we went to was free, and dates from the 19th century, I very much recommend Trädgårdsföreningen! After seeing the Poseidon fountain, and checking out a few churches we went for a meal on the main high street, and for Sweden, it was very cheap at 8euro for a huge meal 🙂
On the third day we headed to the south east coast of Sweden, to Kalmar. Between the 13th and the 17th century, Kalmar was the biggest and most important port in the whole of Sweden. Therefore, it has a very impressive and beautiful defensive castle, to protect from pirates. This was the first time that I had seen the Baltic Sea, and the coastline in Kalmar is a stunning mix of sand, rocky shore, natural islands and a lot of wildlife; there was even swans swimming in the sea! The museum inside the castle was amazing, definitely in the top 3 I’ve been to on Erasmus. The interactive nature, reconstructions and displays were awesome, although, I did jump a few times 😛 Kalmar itself was beautiful, and I would highly recommend it for nature lovers! Be sure to check out the cathedral too, the priest was very friendly dude, even to tourists!
That night we went out to celebrate it being PRIDE week, and it was really cool to meet her study abroad friends, and to visit her student pub. I had an awesome week travelling with Becca, and so grateful for her showing me around 🙂 I really love Sweden, the nature was breath taking everywhere we went, doing the simplest outside things there were such a joy.
Feeling very blessed!
If you want to see Becca’s blog on her Erasmus experience in Sweden, check it out at carrotsandswedes.co.uk !!
Peace and Love, Zara 🙂 xxxx
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