What happened in Sweden...

We left on Saturday morning from Surrey to get the Harwich-Esberg (Denmark) ferry, which was a full 20 hours long! It was actually quite relaxing as after being ripped of for our dinner on the ferry in Danish Krona, we had a cabin to sleep and watch movies all the way. Arriving in Denmark was cool, we saw seals sunbathing on the sand bars and once in Denmark, decided quickly that we didn't have any money for tolls and didn't know the Danish for cash point. We found one soon enough and after working out that we need a clock in our dashboard to park anywhere in town (which we still haven't bought actually...?) we left on our 2 hour drive to Grenaa for the ferry to Sweden. On the way we found Legoland which was free to enter after 5.30pm so we had a great trip looking round the lego villages in torrential rain!

A dark and rainy journey followed to get to Grenna and we boarded the 5 hour ferry to Varberg, sleeping on the chairs all the way. We arrived in Varberg at 6am and went to Markus and Emma's place. It was a lovely town, I liked how all the houses were different Swedish style in wood, lots were open plan and the city was clean and had lots of cafes for Fika! (coffee and cake!) That day we had a look round Varberg, had Swedish pizza (with kebab meat and cabbage side), and managed to get a late evening sail in at A bay when the wind came in as gusty 4.7 weather.

The rest of the week wasn't windy unfortunately, but Markus and Emma showed us lots of Swedish traditions, (mostly food based!) like Kaviar with egg (I didn't like this), pickled herring with potatos and egg and creme fraiche, this was yummy! Swedish meatballs and lingonberry jam-yum! Better than Ikea! We also had a lot of Fika which is coffee and cake, or quite often a cinnamon Swedish bun, very tasty!!

Activity wise Stef and I experienced our first Swedish crossfit session as Markus went for a taster, it was good to get back into lifting again!

We also had free reign of the ice rink on proper ice hockey skates which were harder than the English flat bottomed blades. I had only ever skated in a rink where you skate in circles anticlockwise with a hundred other people, so skating right, spinning and going backwards was a novelty!

We also visited Varberg castle which was really interesting to imagine how they defended the city, and very picturesque!

I guess the highlight and strangest thing of the week was the Swedish Kraftskiva party, which is an annual crayfish and schnapps party! There was more crayfish than I have ever seen in my life and more than I have ever eaten too. We played a game outside throwing wooden posts to hit each others before hitting the central 'King', then went inside to eat lots of crayfish intermittent with songs sang in Swedish and English about crayfish and drinking and shouting lots of SKOL!! (Cheers!) A funny night.

Here are a few more picturesque shots of Varberg and surrounds:

I loved Sweden and would love to come back on a windier forecast! Thanks to Markus and Emma for having us!