The countryside of southern Sweden reminds me a lot of Minnesota. Kilometer after kilometer of flat farmland, dotted with wind turbines. Sweden has some nice old windmills, as well. But the best part is that, in sharp contrast to landlocked Minnesota, the entire time I was there I was never more than 5 km from the ocean. Even though Copenhagen is on an island, I haven't seen any ocean since I've been here, so it was sooo nice and refreshing. I didn't go swimming (though I expect to this week on my study tour of northern Jutland that spends a lot of time by the water) but I did touch the water, which was surprisingly warm. Cute little harbor towns, the smell of salt water in the air, quaint little farms... I liked biking through the countryside much more than canoeing. For one, you don't need to be able to get into a rhythm with your partner so that you don't hit the side of the river every minute or so. The river was beautiful but long, and the scenery changed very very slowly. Both activities wore out my body, but the fresh air and physical activity put my cold on hold for a couple days (though now I'm exhausted and stuffy). The main stop during biking was to visit Nimis, an additional 2 km hike down a cliff to the water, where there are these fabulouos, evolving driftwood sculptures. The artist was actually there working on it when we were there, and we got to hear him speaking to some other DIS students about it. I have pictures, which are still on my camera, which I will post because it's not quite possible to describe this place in words. There will be a documentary on the Discovery Channel about it soon. I climbed to the top of a bunch of the towers, and in and through rooms and passages, which was quite the adrenaline rush but eventually I had enough.
The hostel we stayed at was quite nice. There were individually wrapped Toblerone pieces on each pillow. It was a little manor house in the middle of alfalfa fields. It was the birthday of one of the girls, so we did some traditional Danish celebrating with a toast of the most foul alcohol I have ever tasted. I was exhausted so I went to bed at 11, but I had a lot of fun. The people on my trip were great, and three of them knew other Haworthians (and knew other people that I know).
Yesterday evening I saw a cute Danish film called "Den eneste ene." It was funny and enjoyable and I strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to see a nice Danish film. I'm hoping to plan out my two travel weeks in October soon, so if anyone has any recommendations... I want to do a bunch of random things, so I think it will be hard to find someone to accompany me the entire time, plus it's hard to know at this point who would be a good travel buddy. I love (and often prefer) exploring places on my own, but I'm not very good at meeting people when I'm on my own, and I know I'd feel more comfortable with someone around to make sure I'm okay. I think I'll have some time to do some research this evening, and contact people whom I might visit.
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