Having finished our exam papers, we decided to go travelling this week! Lisa from Austria has a family friend in Sweden who invited her and a few friends to stay with her so Kerri and I and Lisa and Maria from Austria were more than happy to take her up on her kind offer. We decided to take the bus from Copenhagen to Gothenburg (which took 4 hours) and spend two days there before travelling on, on the bus (2 hours) to Jonkoping, near to where the family live.
Gothenburg was a beautiful and quite relaxed city which had just the right amount of buzz about it. There is a very quaint area called ‘Haga’ which is home to many unusual shops, boutiques and cafes where Swedes often go for a cosy ‘fika’ with friends or family. A ‘fika’ is what Swedes consider a coffee break, usually with friends or family and it traditionally involves drinking tea or coffee and eating something sweet. We sampled a lot of sweet things during our fika’s in ‘Haga’, particularly the Swedish Cinnamon Roll (Kanelbullar).
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| Fika in 'Haga' |
When it was time to leave Gothenburg for Jonkoping, I was dreading the bus journey, but was excited about staying with a Swedish family, knowing it would give me the opportunity to experience the real Sweden and not just experience it as a tourist. I was also looking forward to the scenery as Lisa told me the family live by a lake.
When we arrived in Jonkoping, Maria, the Swedish lady we were
staying with collected us and drove us to their village, Mullsjo. I can safely
say that I was right to look forward to the scenery in Mullsjo as it was
absolutely breath taking! The families’ house is situated just on the side of a
beautiful lake with idyllic views all day and night. The atmosphere was so calm
and peaceful; as soon as I arrived I didn’t want to leave!
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| The amazing garden and lake at the family home, imagine living here! |
The family were so kind and were excellent hosts. I haven’t eaten as much food in a few days as I had when I was in Sweden as Maria cooked Swedish meals and snacks for us all the time, wanting us to try different things. In terms of the importance of food as a social element of family life and of entertaining, the Swedes are similar to the Irish people.
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| Dinner |
We were taught a Swedish game called Kubb where you have to knock down wooden sticks. It’s an outdoor game Swedes traditionally play in the summer with friends and family. In that way, Swedes seems to be very sociable people, a little more so than the Danish people, as sometimes the Danes like to keep themselves to themselves.
A highlight of the trip was going canoeing in a lake, which I wasn’t actually very good at as it was my first time! However, the scenery was amazing and it was so relaxing and surreal to be calmly canoeing in a beautiful lake in Sweden. We also stopped for a ‘fika’ that Maria had prepared for us full of yummy Swedish sweet things to eat that she had baked.
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| Kerri and Maria canoeing |
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| Fika Time! |
My trip to Sweden, which was my final trip of my Erasmus experience, was truly amazing. It’s a trip that I will never forget as I experienced the real Swedish way of life and in doing so have made Swedish friends for life, who I hope to see again in Northern Ireland or in Sweden. Through our cultural similarities and also interesting differences which we were curious and spoke about, we connected very well and were very sad to be leaving each other. I felt so welcomed into the family home, and I would like to do the same for them when they hopefully visit Northern Ireland, although I’m afraid I can’t provide the amazing lakeside views!
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| Sunset and time to say good-bye! |
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