The Peninsula

Once again we woke up to another delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon, and hash brown type things.

Today was the day for us to go on a Swedish road trip! Our first stop was at the cemetery where both Leif's and Eva's parents are buried. Today is Swedish Mother's Day so they had prepared vases with pretty flowers. It was a very peaceful and well kept cemetery, probably the nicest one I've been in. It almost looked like a park, with lots of grass, well manicured lawns, benches, and lots and lots of flowers. Almost every headstone had fresh flowers places in front of or next to it, and even the grave stones seemed more unique than what one would typically find in a cemetery. Also, the gravestones weren't places in uniform rows, but the cemetery was slightly hilly and the headstones seemed to line the walking paths. It was a calming experience and I am glad I got to go with them to place the flowers.

Then we drove for about two hours back towards the direction of Denmark. We arrived in the town called Hoganas which is where Gunvor lives. Gunvor is my father's second cousin (Leif's first cousin) and her daughter Anna is my third cousin. Anna is older than me but I'm not sure of her age.

Hoganas is an adorable little beach town that is quite popular in the summer, and Gunvor lives right on the Nordic Sea. Her house is literally on one side of the road and the beach and water is on the other; it's amazing! When we arrived at her home, she welcomed us with a perfect summery salad with bacon bits, cucumbers, and pineapple pieces. After the delicious salad, Gunvor wanted to show us around the entire peninsula, which is supposedly one of the most beautiful areas of Sweden. We unfortunately had crummy weather, but seeing as to how Laura and I are used to Seattle and always prepared with our rain jackets, it really wasn't that big of a deal. Everybody kept apologizing to us about the weather, but some clouds and rain don't dampen all of the beauty of the areas we visited! Leif and Eva drove with Gunvor and Laura and I drove with Anna. It was a great pleasure to talk with Anna and I found it amusingly coincidental that she studied finance, like me, and French, like I wish I had. She spent about two years living and working in various parts of France, but now works as a hotel contractor for Spanish hotels.

Gunvor lives on the west side of the peninsula, so we first headed up north along the west coast. We passed through the small towns of Strandbaden and Nyhamnslage. We got out of the car at Krapperup where there is a small castle with a moat around it and gorgeous gardens. Even though it wasn't sunny, the garden grounds were really pretty and the walking paths led us around lakes, over bridges, to fountains, and around the castle. Then we got back in the car and drove farther up north to Molle, which is another small harbor town very popular among Swedish tourists in the summer. Nobody else wanted to get out of the car in the rain, so I popped out long enough to take a picture and then sat back down in the warm and dry car. Next we went to the tip of the peninsula, which Leif says is his favorite spot in the world! On a clear day you can see Denmark across the water, but today the horizon blended into the clouds. You could still see pretty far and there was more than 180 degrees of water spread out before me. The jagged rocks and lighthouses and tiny sailboats fighting the wind were all extremely picturesque. After this, we headed back down the eastern side of the peninsula passing through Arild, where I was told Norma and Howard stayed for a night in one of the hotels. Last, we passed through Skaret on our way back to Hoganas.

On Mother's Day here in Sweden, as well as on a few other holidays, Swedish people all hoist the Swedish flag. I think it's a cool idea, and today driving around nearly ever house was flying the blue and yellow flag. I just thought this was an interesting observation and tradition.

Back at Gunvor's house, Anna brought out a map of the area we had just toured and people explained to me exactly where we'd just been. Anna let me keep the map, which is both great for my collection and quite helpful in accurately spelling all the places we visited today! They were all very gorgeous so I would love to come back in the summer sometime and see all of these things again in the sun :) Hopefully I will be back someday!

While we were looking at the map and chatting, Gunvor was in the kitchen heating up homemade quiches. In case you didn't know, quiche is one of my favorite foods! One quiche had cheese and ham in it, and the second quiche was just made with a special Swedish type of aged cheese. They were both delicious, but I had to go back for seconds of the Swedish cheese quiche. It was just too good!

All of a sudden, it was 7 PM - I hardly realized how late it had gotten! I ended up falling asleep for most of the two hour car ride back to Kyrkhult, but I tried to keep my eyes open as much as I could to appreciate the beautiful Swedish country side with all the cute red houses!

We got home around 9 PM and relaxed for a bit until it was time for another movie! Leif said he had another one he thought I would like, and I told him it just better not have as much blood at gore as Hannibal Rising. So tonight we watched K2, and it was really good! Way less bloody and a great adventure movie. Though for the record I would prefer my dad to stick to Mt. Rainier and not attempt K2.

By the way, these restful days have allowed me to fully recover from my slight cold and I have almost completely stopped coughing. Yay! These slower paced days are working out quite well for me :)


Quotes:
"Summer comes on Tuesday." - Leif

Accomplishments:
Met more family!
Toured a gorgeous part of Sweden that I would never be able to have seen via the typical trains and buses routes we usually take.

Travel Tip:
Look at a map; know where you are.