Hello!
Already 2 weeks in to my 6 week study abroad. (followed by 1 week of
travel with my dear daddy)
This
last weekend I went on a school organized trip to Sweden. We went to
the coast in a city called something that starts with a "K"
where we canoed on the Rhone River, rappelled on the coast, and hiked
everywhere. I am pooped to say the least.
This
is about how it panned out:
We
met at the bus at 7:20 am on Saturday. This sounds simple but I made
the poor choice to go out Friday night and the little amount of sleep
was not conducive to happy go lucky Katie. But I made it just in
time. We then took a giant charter bus to the northern coast of
Denmark Where the entire bus drove into a ferry and we journeyed the
short 15 minute ferry ride to Sweden. Crazy.
The
ferry reminded me of my families last cruise to Alaska. I was
reminded of that intense need to puke because of motion sickness.
Cheers.
Finally
we get off the bus and head straight for the river. With absolutely
no instruction, they put three of us in each canoe and send us on our
way.
I
was shocked. I figured we would hear some safety lesson and maybe
they'd tell me how to steer, considering I have never canoed before,
but to my disappointment, they did no such thing.
This
is a common theme in Denmark I've noticed. It's a very much "sink
or swim" mentality. There is less instruction and concern but
everyone learns by doing.
This
starts at a young age. We went to a daycare center one day for class
to see how the children of Denmark are raised. These children were
making themselves lunch. What this means here is that each 4 year old
(no exaggeration) is given a 4-6 inch knife to chop up chucks of
broccoli that is the size of my head. Excuse me Denmark!!? Giving a 4
year old a giant fucking knife to cut up raw, hard broccoli? This is
a trip to the hospital and 10 stitches in the making. But no, they
chopped happily away, unsupervised and no blood was drawn. I wanted
to look away as I witnessed this impending accident and was
completely shocked but the success.
This
is how the Danes work. They expect you to be successful and don't see
a need to hold your hand to get there.
Back
to canoeing; no instruction necessary. So we road for 3 hours down
the river. My whole body is sore and I'm still cold from the rain. Oh
yeah did I mention? It poured fridged rain on us as we paddled
hopelessly down the river.
Then
we went to the hostel and ate some kind of stew. Apparently it was
beef, but as far as I know it was rabbit or squirrel. I didn't care.
I was freezing and tired and had beer tasted anything so delicious in
all my life.
We
continued to hike the rest of the day (3-4 hours) and then come back
to the hostel and pass out immediately.
The
next morning we ate a Danish breakfast of lunch meets and muselie.
Delish. And then went to rappel down a cliff followed by another
hike. I am exhausted just thinking about how exhausted I was, that's
exhausting.
The
last leg of our journey involved eating and sipping tea at the King
of Sweden's favorite restaurant. We ate his favorite pastries in this
fancy little tea house. The whole place looked like it had been taken
over by you g hobos for we were all wins blown, tired and I showered.
A good look for me I'm sure.
And
that was that. A wonderful weekend adventure. It was actually such a
great time and I'd highly recommend the same trip to anyone else.
Here's some pictures from the adventure: MORE TO COME!
xoxo, K
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