Archipelago

 

 

On Wednesday our program took a boat to the Stockholm Archipelago (lots of small islands in the Baltic Sea). We stopped on the island of Sandhamn for lunch and had time to walk around a little. It was spectacularly quaint. We found a beautiful church on the top of a hill (see picture above) and an adorable self-serve cafe/bakery (see picture above- "sandhamns bageriet") where they had jars of cookies, a basket of pastries and coffee/tea all next to a jar for money and a sign that said they were only open on the weekends, but that you could help yourself to anything and just leave the suggested price in the jar. Swedes are much more honest, and consequently trustworthy, than the average American...

We ate delicious salmon for lunch (on the program's tab!)  at the hotel on the island, which was gorgeous (big red house in picture above). Then we walked around a little and ended up back at the bageriet for a fika (coffee/pastry break- very popular in swedish culture), before getting on the boat to go back to Stockholm. 

Later that night we went to the University's "pub night", which we thought would be lame, but actually had a 40 minute line to get in and was packed! Mostly international students, but it was fun. We all danced and had a great time. 

After the pub I took the bus home to Brottby (about 40 minutes outside the city), where I am living. That did not go as planned, due to an ill-timed nap on the bus and a 2am call to my host dad for a ride home from the bus stop in the middle of nowhere that I got off at. But we laugh about it now.

Today we are going to my family's "summer home," also in the archipelago. There was talk of waterskiing, but it is about 54 degrees right now, so I'm not sure I'll be up for that...