Ladonia (Micronation)

Well me and a couple of friends did a hiking trip today.  About 17km total.  We went from Molle to Arild along a trial that is part of the Kullaberg Nature reserve.  We also took the time to visit Ladonia, a micro-nation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladonia_%28micronation%29

The hike was quite lovely with some amazing over the ocean from above on the various cliffs, hills, and rocks.

The micro-nation was definitely the best part of the trip, although the second best thing was that we also got to see how Sweden responds to a broken arm ( 1 boat, 2 paramedics, 1 command post (Fire department), at least 5 firemen, and at least 5 fire trucks).  All of these first responders came down the hiking trial in full climbing gear and wearing climbing harnesses... seemed a bit overkill for a little hill I walked up, and a lady at the bottom with a broken arm.

Ladonia is mostly comprised of wooden sculptures (Although there is a stone one too).  If you want to imagine the wooden sculptures the best way that I can describe them is to suggest the following:

Imagine you told a 5 year old to build a wooden fort.  Give him as many nails as he needs, and a hammer, and a pile of driftwood.  After a couple of days perhaps he now has a cool little fort... now multiply this by a couple of hundred, and make the tallest parts of it up to about 3 stories tall and the entire thing is built out of approximately 75 tonnes of driftwood.  This is the wooden sculptures found in Ladonia.  I was impressed how even the smallest peices of wood were held in by at least 5 - 10 nails seeming to just attach everything to each other and how so little of it was built with any thought to right angles ect.  Its just kind of there.  Very rigid though since everything is attached to each other!

Pictures from the hike before the micronation:

Near Molle looking out over the water.

A nice spot for lunch perhaps?

Parts of the trails go through some fields so I found this new friend.  I named him "Ribeye"

Near the lighthouse overlooking the water.

I wish this was my house.  Such a beautiful view and a nice area.

Pictures of Ladonia:

Example of the inside of the fort descending down the "Stairs"

View from the halfway mark or so as you explore the forts.

Should I climb this?

View up the side of part of the fort.

Yes we should climb it!

Like a big kid... climbing up the outside of things.

The "border" between Ladonia and Sweden.

The end town of Arild:

Arild... finally done walking!

Malmofestivalen and Kräftskivan!

Well all of the last week has been the Malmo festival.  The festival started out with a crayfish festival.  This was held in the main square and consisted of swedish singing, crayfish eating, and of course beer!

You have to buy your own crayfish and bring them to this party downtown.  The store sells them pre-cooked and  frozen so all you do is thaw them then serve with beer and snacks!

As you can see I enjoyed the process.

Next Bite!

The aftermath!

The rest of the festival runs all week.  Its been a great week as every night there's great concerts and lots of people out enjoying themselves.

I've got a weekend hike to a micronation coming up this weekend... stay posted for details! 

Concerts!

Hiking... and Bacon Paste!

Last weekend I decided to go out for a day hiking.  I had met a German guy who wanted to join me. We decided to hike the path shown in red (Roughly drawn since paint hates me):

This trail is part of the Skaneleden trail network (http://en.skaneleden.se/) which is a well marked series of trails that stretches over 1000km.  The term trail is a little loose, some is trails, some is a random path through farms, and other areas you just walk along roads.  The system is great though, and is complimented by "allemansrätten" which I'm told translates to "the everyman's right".  Basically what this means is that you're allowed to travel or camp anywhere you like on other peoples property.

Of course this blog post also needs to talk about some traditional Swedish foods.  For reasons I have not yet discovered the Swedes love to  put their food in tubes.  The best food in a tube I have found so far is Bacon.... That's right Bacon... in a tube!

Proof:

Bacon!!

Anyway the hike was great until the sky opened up and it started to pour rain.  At this point we had done about 20km so we decided to hitchike from the nearest road and catch the train.  We ended up meeting a really cool Swedish guy doing deliveries who drove us around through a few towns before eventually dropping us off at the train station.

Pictures (I only remembered to take a couple):

Near Bastad

View from the top of a hill... it looked better in person!

Apparently bacon paste is white... but it sure tastes like bacon!

Germany!

Well I want to start by saying I know what you're thinking/going to say: "You can't count Germany yet".  Well based on the rules of the challenge ... which I made up.  I can.  Since I've started talking about this challenge I've had lots of people saying to me that I can't say I visited every country in Europe just because I've been to each one.  To be fair I don't really care, at the end its a fun way for me to pick new places to go and travel lots.  The contest doesn't say I can't go to a country more than once.  It just says I have to at least once.  Also I bet I'll have traveled more than most of those people who say it shouldn't count :)

So now that I've given that you can probably guess that I went to the edge of Germany, had a beer with 2 feet in the country and left!

Actually I did a little more I explored the town of Flensburg, which is just over the Danish/German border.  We explored the town, visited the local bars and ate Schnitzel.  All of the things you're supposed to do in Germany.  Below you can find some pictures from my little wander.

The good news is I will soon be in Germany again... for Octoberfest!

The Church

Top of the "Mountain"... actually it's a smallish hill that has a nice view over the town.

German Beer!

A kinda cool steel town sign made that blows in the wind.

The old town gate.

For some reason there were lines across the road that looked like this (Lots of them).  I assume this is how Germans sell or clean their shoes or something.

Also I saw this cool old Triumph.

Denmark!

I decided that a logical next stop would be Denmark.  For those who don't know there is a very convenient bridge that leads from Malmo (Sweden) to Copenhagen (Denmark).  This makes it easy to go from Sweden to Denmark.  I decided that I would visit 3 cities in Denmark: Sonderborg, Aarhus, and Copenhagen.  I chose these cities because I had friends in all of them to visit.

I started with the train to Sonderborg which was pretty easy.  I met a nice Canadian girl at the Copenhagen train station, on my way to Sonderborg.  Since we both had an hour or so to kill after getting our tickets we grabbed a coffee and then parted ways.  After a kind of boring train ride I got to Sonderborg and met up with my friend there.  We explored Sonderborg and also I had a chance to make a day trip over to Germany (Next blog post!).  Also I had the chance to

Sonderborg is a really small town but its quite nice.  They have a lovely bridge, and some nice beaches and area's to play volleyball and swim.  Here are some pictures:

Apparently Danes love their flags... (There was a bike race this week)

A windmill near where the last battle between Germany and Denmark occurred.

A "Castle" ... looks more like a big house I think.

After that I headed on to Aarhus with a rideshare.  In Aarhus my friend lent me her apartment which was great.  She lives in the University so I got to spend some nights in the student bar as well as wandering Aarhus and visiting with some other friends.  I also was introduced to an amazing sandwich shop: http://www.anettessandwich.dk/ it was so good I went twice in 2 days.  Also in Aarhus is a really cool looking art building that has a "rainbow" path on the roof.  Its a 360 degree circle you can walk through that's coloured all different colours.  Check out the pictures below!

The local Playhouse

The arts building with the rainbow roof.

The other side of the Rainbow building.

After this I headed home, the trip to Sweden resulted in me heading to Denmark later then I had planned to.  I had offered to bring my friends tent from Aarhus to Copenhagen so I took off and headed towards Copenhagen on the train.  I managed to have a couple of beers with my buddy who lives in Copenhagen but I'll have to plan another trip to Copenhagen to do some actual exploring.

Finland and Estonia

I found out a few friends of mine who I met in Ottawa were planning a little reunion.  Since I still had a couple of weeks before work started I booked a flight to Helsinki and headed out the next day.  I was getting a little crazy from sitting in the apartment waiting for my residence card. 

Since I was in a few days before the folks I knew from Ottawa I had a chance to do some exploring, I got in touch with a buddy of mine from Australia and he came up to hang out.  We wandered around Helsinki.  After a bit of exploring we decided to go over to Estonia.  For those who don't know you can take a ferry for about 2 hours from Helsinki and get to Tallinn, which is in Estonia.  The ferry is quite cheap (around 40 euro's return).  If you've been in Helsinki for a few days I think that you can't afford not to go to Estonia.  Tallinn is a world of different from Helsinki, the old town is very beautiful and has some nice walls surrounding it.  There's plenty of cheap beer, and of course a few old churches.  If you're in Estonia I recommend not drinking the honey beer.  Sadly its comprised of Honey and beer... instead of being created with honey in the brewing process.  The result is horrible.   And it sticks to your face a lot.

After our Estonian adventures we parted ways and I went to go and meet up with the Ottawa group.  We spent a few days more exploring in Helsinki and playing far too many games of kings cup. 

If you're in Helsinki Don't forget to see Suomenlinna Sveaborg the fortress island.  (http://www.suomenlinna.fi/en)  It's an amazing set of islands that were fortified for various reasons.  There are really cool passages through all the walls that you can explore (A light may come in handy).  If you're looking for a place to stay I stayed in a great hostel.  The hostel had plugs, and lights in each bunk.  The dorms are a little big but pretty nice, and the common area is great to meet traveling buddies.  The place is called Cheap Sleep (http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/CheapSleep-Helsinki/Helsinki/59673?load=top)

Pictures of Helsinki: 
 

The Cathedral

Me in front of the Cathedral (On a different Cloudier day)

Another church.  Apparently a couple of years ago someone stole one of the "Onions" because they're made of real gold.  Or at least that's what I was told.

There are even some bubble blowing hippies!

Reindeer Balls! ... Quite tasty... and to be specific they're balls made of reindeer.

Some crazy baby statues were everywhere!

The Fortress Island (I think the bunkers look like Hobbit houses!)

More pictures of Hobbit Houses/Bunkers

Fortress Walls and one of the many Tall ships I saw.

Example of the inside of the castle walls.  Some of these passages are very long and don't have lights at the end.

The rocks and seafront in Helsinki at sunset.

 Estonia Pictures: 

The Gate we entered the old town through.

One of the neat old churches in Tallinn

The Russian Orthodox style church.

View from the Lookout Point over Old Town

 

A good example of the thin small houses, with another church in the background.

Really cool looking modern building (to offset all the old ones I guess)