Naked men, fermented fish and frogs

Sitting in a hot, wooden room with a naked, beer drinking, male stranger is not something I expected to do when I first came to Sweden. 

Thankfully, Bjorn walked into the sauna first and warned me so I managed to miss that experience. However, once said male stranger had consumed his beer, covered his nakedness and vacated the room (30 minutes later), I was free to experience a sauna - Swedish style.

The sauna room

It’s pretty simple really. Light a fire in the corner and keep it stoked with logs. Throw a bit of water on the coals occasionally to keep the humidity up. When you can’t think straight, walk outside and jump into an icy cold river. Repeat.

The icy cold river with mist just starting to appear

Imagine going from 40 degree super-dry heat to suddenly being plunged into 6 degree flowing water. I chickened out the first time and only went up to my knees in the river. But needing to experience the tradition completely, after warming up a second time, I jumped right in. 

Halfway in the first time

Under completely this time

My skin instantly started prickling and tingling everywhere. My brain went into hyperdrive. My eyes focused on a single object - the ladder out. My heart rate went up to 350 beats per minute…or maybe it dropped to 15 beats per minute. I don't know. I was instantly addicted! In search of a repeat of the hit, I jumped between the steamy sauna and the freezing river a couple more times.

After the hit

Fikka is a very important part of Swedish culture and one of my favourite things. If you go to someone’s place, it’s a matter of minutes before you’re offered coffee and usually some sort of cake, bread or sweets. The coffee comes predominantly in one form - strong and black. (I did choke down one cup of the brew and stayed awake for the next 24 hours. Now I ask for hot water and milk and mix the 3 liquids in equal quantities). 

Fikka can include ice-cream too!

Fikka is as much about chatting as it is eating and drinking and it’s easy to sit down for an hour simply enjoying the time with friends. And you can have fikka anytime, anywhere. If we’re going on a long drive, we often take a thermos of coffee (plus hot water and milk) and something to munch on, and stop at one of the many lakes or rest areas for a break. 

Fikka at a bird nature reserve

Surströmming is not for the faint hearted or for anyone with an oversensitive sense of smell. Everything you have seen or heard about how putrid the smell and taste of this fish is, falls way short. All those youtube videos of people vomiting when a can is cracked open are for real. 

Bjorn arranged for a surströmming party to allow me (and 4 Swedish friends) a chance to experience this tradition. I knew I had every reason to be concerned when I first saw the can. It was bulging, so there had to be some serious chemical reactions going on inside. As soon as the can was pierced, liquid shot a metre into the air and a strange rancid odour filled the air. Mikael and I instantly started gagging, the others weren’t far behind. And the smell didn’t go away! Even the cat had more sense than to get too close.

The bulging tin

Stand well clear when opening

I had to question if this really was fit for human consumption

It doesn't even look appealing

The cat actually looked scared!

This fish has the ability to overwhelm and stick to anything it comes into contact with. A minuscule portion wrapped in potato, creme fraiche and bread was enough to taint the other flavours and ruin normal food. We even washed all our clothes when we got home as the smell of surströmming seemed to have stuck to our clothes. I can tick that one off the list but will be happy if I never have to smell it again!

Sweden is a country with around 97,000 lakes. So it makes sense that swimming is a popular summer time activity. The lakes are beautiful to swim in. The fresh water is so refreshing and the only place for a ‘shower’ when you’re out on a camping or boating trip. We often go snorkelling and watch pike hang motionless in the grass or perch that zap around just out of reach. 

Baby pike (about 5cm long)

Stripy perch with bright orange fins

Everyone seems to get changed in and out of their bathing costumes under a towel on the beach. It took me a while to get used to this, even longer to figure out how to get changed without flashing random strangers. I nearly have the hang of it…nearly.

One of the smaller lakes...at midnight

I reasoned that with so many lakes around, it should be easy to swim in at least 15 different lakes. While I went swimming most days over summer, it was quite late in the season when I finally made number 15. And while it was a lovely, sunny day, the water was only about 17 degrees...

Finally, lake #15!

Midsummers is one day of the year the Swedes really let their hair down. It is celebrated on the Friday nearest the longest day of the year and is to welcome summer and the season of fertility. The tradition states that you collect branches, leaves and wild flowers, construct a maypole and then dance around it singing songs. I personally think this festival takes the award for the quirkiest event I’ve experienced in the Swedish calendar. 

Wild flowers collected for the maypole

Construction begins

Everyone gets involved

Posing for pics

The frog song is the silliest and most well known song of the midsummer festival. We sang the nonsense song about a små grodorna (a small frog) that has no ears or tail and jumped around the maypole with our hands flapping behind us like a tail. 

Our completed midsummers maypole

After midsummers, wild berry picking trips to the forest begin. (This is where allemansrätten is fantastic as you can pick berries almost anywhere). The berry picking season starts with cloudberries (hjortron). These orange-yellow cloud-shaped berries grow in wet, swampy areas and can be hard to find. They have an exquisite taste, like nothing I’ve ever tasted before and go perfectly with wine and cheese.

Wild, swampy areas where you hunt cloudberries

Cloudberries ripening

Best way to eat cloudberry jam

Raspberries (hallon) ripen next. These are a little trickier to pick because of the spikes on the bushes. For me, it’s a small price to pay for being able to eat unlimited raspberries!

Blueberries are next in line. You can pick these by hand or use a berry picker. This contraption allows you to pick lots of berries at once meaning you can easily pick a couple of litres a very short time. And finally, bright red lingon berries are ready. Like the blueberries, these can be picked quickly with a berry picker.

Picking blueberries with the berry picker

Sorting blueberries is not so much fun

We simply freeze the fresh berries and either defrost a few for breakfast each morning or make them into jam. It’s been such a novelty for me to be able to eat as many blueberries as I like and these wild ones have so much more flavour than the farmed variety.

Towards the end of summer, mushrooms begin to sprout up everywhere. Kanterell’s are everyones favourite and it can be a race to get to the best spots to pick them first. And they are so simple to cook. A cast iron frying pan, a lot of butter, splashes of pepper and you’re done. There are so many different species of mushrooms and toadstools growing. A few are edible but many are not, and every year people end up in hospital having mixed up some of the edible/inedible mushrooms. 

They look beautiful, but you can't eat these...

...or these...

...or even these...

So there’s a few of the Swedish traditions and events I’ve experienced in the short time I’ve been here. They have enriched my time here and I've had so much fun participating. I’m really looking forward to spending a winter here and seeing what events pop up that have to be tried at least once (anyone for ice swimming???)

Gotland and Fårö

If you ever end up in Stockholm with a few days to spare and preferably a car, then I recommend you grab a ferry ticket and head over to Gotland. 

Visby - the walled medieval city on Gotland

There’s a medieval, stone-walled city, hidden bays, secluded, sandy beaches, artwork, wild animals, and a few sheep. We took 5 days to explore the island and even got in a dive one afternoon.

The car ferry that gets you from Nyäshamn to Visby and back

Out in the archipelago near Nyäshamn

Some of the artwork in the city

Stone sheep are used to keep cars off the footpaths

Sheep are a common tourist trap...

(While I recommend taking a car, you can still enjoy Gotland - especially Visby, without one. It just means you won’t be able to travel around the island so much as public transport is pretty limited).

Walking around the wall

Outside the wall - beautiful on a sunny day

Gotland is the largest island ‘owned’ by Sweden. You might remember in my last blog, I told you a local myth about how Gotland came to be. Basically, a chunk of land was carved out of Sweden creating Lake Vänern (Sweden’s largest lake), and then dumped in the Baltic Sea creating the island of Gotland. I still haven’t found out who the amazing mythical creature or person was who did this but they must have been big!

Sunsets are magical here

Visby is a photographers dream and a driver’s nightmare. Narrow, one-way cobbled streets weave randomly between the buildings. Stone pillars sit on the corner of streets protecting homes from cars that venture too close. Footpaths are virtually non-existent with people’s front doors opening straight onto the streets. Large, healthy rose bushes poke out of the cobblestones, their scent becoming quite powerful in the early evening. While post boxes are garishly decorated with pictures of nearby homes and buildings.

One of the main squares in central Visby

More sheep

The roses are so healthy

Typical post box

The remnants of a moat are visible around the walled city and bridges are still used to cross it. Archways in the wall, some complete with portcullis grates, are the only way in. You can climb up on the wall in places and get treated to a fabulous birds eye view of the city. I really did feel like I’d stepped back into medieval times climbing the rickety wooden stairs, peering through arched windows in the stone and pretending to fire flaming arrows down on unsuspecting passers-by. There’s even a site (outside the city walls) where they used to hang criminals. That was a little creepy despite the magnificent sunset!

The main cathedral in central Visby

Looking through gaps in the wall

The portcullis grill and bridge to enter the city

One of the many wall towers

View from the top of the wall

The gallows outside the city walls

Modernly decorated homes stand next to the ruins of cathedrals creating vivid contrasts between the old and the new. Ivy creeps up the crumbling stone facades gradually taking over. I could only imagine the imposing rooms that must have been contained inside the walls and the grand events that were held in them. 

Modern homes

Crumbling stone facade gradually being eaten away by time

The roof is no longer there, but the stone archways are

Hanging out inside one of the old churches

We stayed with Mark - a friend we made while diving in Thailand. He has lived on Gotland for years and was a great tour guide. We quickly realised that Gotland’s highlights are not only contained inside the thick stone walls.

Simple fishing huts were neatly lined up in one bay, their windows too grimy to be able to see what treasures might be hidden inside. Sticks to hang fishing nets out to dry on are still standing - although more of a tourist attraction now than any practical use. 

Old fishing huts with new life rings

Sticks to hang the nets on

We wandered through the bush enjoying the shade from the relentless summer sun. Wild flowers grow everywhere. Tranquil streams gurgle and bubble beside the path. We even found some damp caves to poke our heads into.

So much cooler in the shade

Ruined fishing boats left to rot

Pretty as a postcard!

Relaxing after a tough walk...

Fårö Island (also known as 'Sheep' or 'Travellers' Island) is a 10 minute ferry ride from the northern tip of Gotland. There are only a couple of roads on the island so it’s almost impossible to get lost. There’s only a handful of sheep too - the only ones we came across were trying to escape from their paddock but decided against it as I snapped their photos.

On the car ferry to Fårö

The sheep that tried to escape

Inside Fårö church, 2 paintings dating back to 1618 and 1767 tell a story of a group of local seal hunters who went out hunting one winter. Their boat sunk and the men drifted around on icebergs for several weeks. Amazingly, they survived and made it safely back to land several weeks later.

Fårö church

The painting from 1618

Some people with a rather unique sense of humour and a love of shoes have created an interactive shoe-art exhibition on one of the rocky beaches. Hundreds of shoes face into the centre of an ever expanding circle, appearing to be worship a croc (or perhaps hoping to lynch it!) A stiletto has been embellished to look like a parrot and put in a cage. You can even try your hand at mini golf using a shoe club.

The ring of shoes

All facing in towards the croc

None worth taking though...

The stiletto parrot

Mini golf competition...

Air shot!

Funny artwork

The beaches are incredibly desolate on Fårö yet have a portentous appeal to them, and I was quite happy to wander slowly along taking in the atmosphere. 

Desolate rocky beaches

Further along the coast, rauks (enormous stones) rise out of the sea. It was a bit like looking for cloud-creatures. We debated whether they were a dog, or a camel, a person with his nose in the air or a couple of monkey’s watching every sunset.

The camel-dog rauk

The largest rauks

Kristian next to it...just for an idea of scale

Man with nose in the air...

Make your own cloud picture out of this one...

Right at the northern tip of Fårö is a lighthouse - and an armada of ducks. We had been informed that this was a really cool place to visit and the highlight of the island so we had high expectations. Turned out it was just a tall, white lighthouse and another rocky beach. It was nice to see and play in the maze next to it, but not really a highlight of the day. 

The lighthouse...

...the armada of ducks

...and the maze...

Kristian and I headed back to Fårö one afternoon and we can now cross the Baltic Sea off our list of places to dive. It certainly wasn’t colourful and teaming with life like the tropics but it was still interesting. Lots of different eels, flounders and scorpion-looking fish darted around and hid under the algae. Limestone rocks formed stairs gradually getting deeper. Algae hung in curtains from each step and fish used the algae curtains to hide from us when we got too close.

Gearing up

Our dive site near an old fishing village

My pick for the best named village in the world is found on Gotland. ‘Bro’. It reminded me of home (New Zealand) so couldn’t resist getting a couple of silly pics.

Best little town...

Gotland and Fårö really are picturesque and delightful places to visit. We found it so relaxing (except when we were trying to drive through the centre of Visby). The old ruins and castles are intriguing. The little villages charming. The locals super-friendly. And the ferry ride across very comfortable. I’d recommend heading over for a visit next time you’re in the area.

Quite a few old windmills are around the island

Love the wild flowers that are everywhere

Spring really was in the air