Do you think of Ikea, Abba and leggy blonde girls playing for a volley ball team. Or is it meatballs, saunas, moose and Vikings with horns? Well I would love to see Family Fortunes and Vernon Kay to shout out the top 10 answers, because I must be living somewhere else.
I have experienced a different Sweden so far while I have been here. As recent as last week I was invited on a weekend away to the Sweden/Norway border to do some work on my girlfriend’s family summer house and see something new. Most Swedish people have a main house and a summer house. My main venture was to see the Sami or more known as Lapp people. I had a little read about them before I left and was left intrigued to how they live.
On the six hour drive with the family we ascended towards the Swedish Alps (svenska fjällen) and entered what seemed to be miles and miles of baron beauty. There were houses very far and in between and hamlets every now and again making you wonder, how do people live here? When we arrived I went straight to the lake by the lakeside cottage and we were surrounded by snow topped mountains as spring blossomed around. Yes, spring in June!!!
After a lot of hard work burning all the over grown trees we went on a sightseeing tour of our own. Firstly we went to a Sami village which lay beside a large river. I was impressed with what I saw, there were about 25 wigwams mixed with some normal Swedish houses together with a chapel. The Sami live in large wooden wigwams and are always on the move wigwam to wigwam as they herd reindeer.
As lucky as I was, I saw some ordinary dressed Sami moving into a wigwam on the top of the mountain range when we went to the snowy tops. To live here isn’t for the faint hearted. It gets drastically cold in Scandinavia when temperatures can drop below as -30. To think these Sami are out herding deer is beyond me. But the absolute beauty of this area is of some reward. I felt a million miles away from anywhere when I was up on the mountains. I could have been on the moon with wild rivers and magical waterfalls.
This Friday is Sweden’s biggest day of the year, Midsummer*. A very traditional time for all, so this time next week I will know the real taste on how they celebrate and how stereotypical they may be. I just wonder if it will be a day of eating meatballs, moose and listening to Abba with a leggy blonde volley ball team dressed as Vikings...
Boring Fact: It is Finnish people who are sauna people more so then the Swedes. There's more than 2 million saunas in Finland with only a population of 5 million. Now that's some saunaing.
Many photograph's of my amazing weekend away on the links below:
In The Middle Of Nowhere 1
In The Middle Of Nowhere 2
In The Middle Of Nowhere 3
In The Middle Of Nowhere 4
*This piece was wrote a few weeks ago for a column, that's why the dates are little out.
6 Have your say!!!:
It's nice of you to share with us a glimpse of Sweden. It does change one's perspective. Beautiful photos.
Thanks. It is a different way of life here where it isn't so populated, I'm looking forward to the difference when I live in the City.
it looks very lonely there. very lonely landscape :(
It wasn't lonely, it was amazing, anyway I was with a lot of people. Also there were people camping on the mountains, crazy or what?
Interesting!
I saw some of my most amazing fjords in Norway.. pretty much like the landscape in your pictures.. very nice. Thanks for bringing back my fond memories :-)
ZQ
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