Back and alive

Back, safe and sound, from the cold north.

Actually, it wasn't so cold. Well cold, windy, yes, but not snowy, if you can believe it. Our hosts said it was absolutely bizarre (thank you climate change) that the lady could go into the forest at this time of the year and pick mushrooms. They were somewhat worried, but the mushrooms tasted great.

Sweden is gorgeous. I didn't know if I would like it, but as long as you're an outdoors sort of person, it rocks. We were in Onsala, which is old Swedish for "Odin's cemetery". Onsala is located on the west coast, close to Denmark, where all the old Vikings regularly sailed through. The house is old, and was in fact the house of a sailor for many years before he died (a watery grave) and it passed on.

We got to see some great old artifacts they had found when plowing...numerous Viking axes (blo*dy big and heavy, too) with fish scrapers and other tools out of flint. They'd had them checked, and found that the materials used to make the tools had come from Gottland (a little island off the east coast) or Denmark. So nifty.

Our hosts were great, but the best part for me was when we got to go into the forest (the hubby's was when we were back in civilization ... he's not so much the landscape sort of guy). It felt so old, and you could feel things watching you and if you just sent out your awareness a little, they'd come closer. The pine trees are so tall and thin, and you stand amongst them and feel the wind flowing past...it's not a stretch to expect some Viking raiders to come tromping through. I was in bliss, although completely frozen by the end.

There was a real connection to the place. Equally as much as Australia, which is saying something.

I was kind of sad to leave it, the soul of the forest really called out to me. But no worries, we get to go back in summer and visit again. Woot!

Interesting facts (I love to collect these):

- Morfar and Mormor - the parents (Mor - mother, Far - father) of your mother
- Farfar and Farmor - the parents of your father

* I particularly thought this made great sense. No questions about which grandma or grandpa (oma or opa) here! We stayed with the Mormor and Morfar of my old friend, and it was great.

- Tack, tack-su-mikke - Thank you and Thank you very much
- Hej (pronounced Hey) - hello
- "En, du, hen/huhn/den or dyuit" - the "I, you, he/she/it" part of Swedish

Swedish has lots of ties to German, and so I'm going to take a basic course in it. If I get decent, I can also contact ad agencies there for work.

I have some pictures although they're on the hub's laptop. As soon as I get them I'll post them.

Oh, and one last note. Never use Ryanair unless you are willing to go through a heck of a lot of hassle and have leftover aggression. That was by far the worst part of the trip, and we'll never, ever use them again. Ugh.