On the road...again

Well, after a few days in Oslo, it was time to pack up the bus and head for Sweden.  Sounded good to me.

Our home away from home

After a quick study tour stop at a church just outside of Oslo, the gang and I prepared for a 5 hour bus ride from Oslo to a "midway point" of our trip to Stockholm.  Along the way we saw amazing countryside as we passed into the country of Sweden, a large number of Volvos, countless ABBA CDs at the rest stop we stopped at for lunch, and more blonde haired people I have seen.  SWEEEEEDEN.

We did stop at an art museum right before we hit the bed and breakfast, and we were all quite surprised with the art that was on display.  All watercolors-very cool.  We all got a bit more carried away with the surrounding area that the museum was located; on the banks of an old dam and waterfall, with an old ass bridge crossing it.  Obviously we focused more of our attention there.  The sun was out, the water was nice, it was warm...it just felt...really nice.

That's right...the salmon colored T-shirt made the trip.

Later in the trip we were told that the place we were staying for the night; a bed and breakfast type place, was an old sheriff's home from the 17th century, and the rooms we were staying in used to be the jail cells of that town of Sunne, Sweden.  When we got to the bed and breakfast, we were somewhat speechless...it was absolutely, and remotely, beautiful.  It was something out of a Disney cartoon or something.  Rolling green hills, cows in the distant, a lake and sauna.  Very nice.

Now the Swedes have an interesting summer tradition, where they all sit in really really hot saunas for as long as possible, and then, almost without a word spoken, just get up and run outside and jump in a lake...so guess what we did?  We sweated our asses off to the point where we almost couldn't breathe, and sprinted outside and jumped in the cold lake.  Very refreshing, and we repeated this process over and over again.  No pictures were permitted in the sauna due to previous study abroad trips and "inappropriate" conduct in the saunas with cameras...so here, you'll have to use your imagination.