Gotland, the Viking land

This past weekend about 25 kids from the program all went to Gotland, and island in the baltic sea that was origionally an independant viking state, but since 1361 has been under Swedish, German and Danish rule. Its now owned by Sweden.
It was gorgeous there; we were (obviously, its an island) right by the water, the architecture was amazing and the weather was SO NICE.

 

Friday we had a walking tour of Visby, the largest city, where we were staying.

A beautiful old church with only half a roof

By the water near the hotel

Gorgeous vine-covered building

Friday night we went to a club on the island called "Karma" and for a long time the 10 or so of us from the program that went were the only ones there, but we had fun dancing. 

Lili and I climbing a big rock (I'm at the bottom)

Saturday we took a bus tour of the entire island where we saw some viking burials, and some really cool big rocks by the sea that you could climb on (see pictures).

My friends Dru and Zoe

After our tour we had a "viking feast." When we got there they made us put on these burlap shirt/dress/sack things with different colored collars that divided us into 4 teams. Then we did viking crafts like make chains out of copper wire and yarn out of sheep's wool. Then we played viking sports like archery, axe throwing, and tug of war.
Finally we had the feast, which we ate on wooden blocks instead of plates with only our hands. They had vegetables with oil and spices and a giant lamb on a stick that had cooked over the fire (I didnt eat the lamb, but the vegetables were good!) After we ate we had our final competition. One member from each team went up (2 teams at a time) and sat on a log 3 feet in the air with mattresses under it and hit the other person with a burlap sack/ pillow until someone fell off. Of course, I wanted to play for my team. I won the first round, but lost the second. Regardless, it was fun.

Ginny and I fighting to the death

our viking dinner

The next day we had some free time to walk around so a couple of us went to these botanical gardens near the hotel. It was very pretty. Then we went to an ice cream shop with 100 different flavors! Soooo good. I had one scoop of "lion" which was caramel and chocolate and one scoop of Daim, which is my favorite candy here (its like Heath bars).

All in all it was a fantastic trip! Next on the table? Leaving on Friday for Paris/Nantes/Amsterdam!!

My friend Grace smelling a flower in the garden

In the garden