22 July to 29 July.

It is 9:30 pm and it is still daytime. I am writing this blog, looking through my window into the ocean, Once again, after driving to inhospitable roads we arrived to a tiny place with few houses on the water. Sweden has been so good...we have truly enjoyed the hot weather, the best we had since entering Europe!, all the nature, the forests, the beaches and the (surprisingly!) warm waters.

We arrived to this country singing to the tune of ABBA and laughed so loud when as soon as we entered the country we saw IKEA. The first city, Malmo was almost perfect. I said to Hecti that it looks like a model city: let’s put a straight line of trees over here, a big bicycle line over there, identical but colourful and pretty houses a bit further, some big dogs that don’t bark, very blonde people, super clean and plentiful toiletts and all the cleanliness street you could find. It was really nice, it did not look artificial or anything like that.

The next few days we just spent our time driving around, bushwalking, stopping at the beaches, going for swims on lakes and sea, being “locals” and meeting interesting people all over the place. We spent a night and a breakfast with an adorable family- mixed Belgium, Swedish and African and we had such enlightening conversations about civil rights, politics, history, racism....it was fantastic! We slept in our home on their land  in their farm.

We never go through motorways, rather small routes that take us to small villages; we loved that; the opportunity to visit places that otherwise we have never had a chance and people are very curious and receptive given that there is not much tourism around!. So the last  4 days we visited and  slept in amazing places that we couldn’t even find in the map, looking at red sunsets and listening to the water gently crushing into the rocks. Walking up looking and smelling the ocean and open the door and going for a swim even before breakfast. Some of the prettiest places we have ever seen: Marstrand, Rafton, Stromstad. 

We loved all the wooden houses, so neat and with so many colors....but we found ourselves taking ages just to dispose of the normal rubbish.....they have every so often "recycle stations"...almost 12 different garbage containers....separate glass bottles from other glass like jars, or cardboard from newspaper, and even a place for the little trays where the meat in the supermarkets are packed!.....and the funniest thing is that the "other rubbish" or the normal stuff goes into the smallest bins of all!

It is actually difficult to leave Sweden as it is so easy and safe to move around. Everybody speaks english, they know about or have a connection with Australia and they are very friendly....and finally a country with mobile internet access for visitors at a very very reasonable price!!!

I am glad that we are coming back after Norway....