Having arrived in Sweden a week earlier, we spent the whole week sleeping with friends and family in wait for the current tenant to move out of our apartment in Göteborg. So it seemed as if living out of our suitcases was going to be part of our lives for one week more. As part of the accommodation arrangement was a weekend spent with friends at their summer house on the West Coast of Sweden just north of Göteborg.
The coasts of Sweden is littered with thousands of little, and sometimes bigger islands. Most of the islands have a couple of houses on them, all scattered around. This of course is fantastic in summer, but very, very cold in winter, hence the often used term "Summer House". So on the Friday night we got a lift to the coast with my fiance's mom for the weekend with our friends who have been there for a couple of days already, fixing the house here and there and planting roses.
When we arrived, there was a slight breeze, which roughed up the sea a bit. There's a big difference in the sea dependant on the direction of the wind, which can cause it to look like a mirror the one moment and a washing machine the next. Because this is a sea, more than an ocean, there's hardly a tidal difference, in the way, say people in South Africa would know high and low tide having a difference of about 2,5 metres.
The proximity of all the islands, also help to give the sea the feeling of a very big lake. Just don't be fooled into thinking this is in fact a lake. One big reason you realise very quickly that this is in fact a sea, and connected to the big oceans, is jellyfish. Yes you read right. Jellyfish. So far I found 2 species. The friendly pretty ones you can touch and hold, although it's still icky to touch, and then the not so friendly, "I will sting your ass" ugly reddish ones with long tentacles that freak me out. They aren't very big, like the ones I'm used to in South Africa, which in my view makes them all the scarier, because you can't see them coming. The sting is just enough to make your swim very unpleasant, along with all the screaming and thrashing around in the water.
The first night we had a very nice barbecue, with some fillet and all the rest. Really, really nice. The sun only set after 22h00 and then stays light till around 24h00 when it gets a bit darker. Sunrise is just after 04h00. The evening was really pleasant and we sat around with some candles (which don't really work so well if the sun only sets at 22h00, but anyway) we had some beer and wine and great company. It was good to catch up with old friends and taking a break from all the travelling and really getting to grips with the word "relax".
The following day we woke up to a perfectly still morning with no wind and a really beautiful view of the islands across the sea. We went for a quick row up and down the coast in their small boat, courtesy of Erik's muscles, because the engine was acting up. It's really a beautiful place with beaches made up of millions of stones. We ended up skipping stones on the smooth water for hours. I had such muscle ache from that when I woke up the next day I couldn't open doors properly for a week. I'm definitely not 20 anymore.
Until I write again...