Saturday, July 21, 2012

Wednesday 27 June - The Swedish holiday begins


Current location: Söderköping, Sweden
11.11pm, Jumping into a lake. The most amazing lake I have ever seen. Today I left work at lunchtime and made my way through rainy London to Gatwick Airport, where my amazing (and new) friend Sha was waiting with a big glass of wine. We were in the holiday mood already – we were off to Sweden for a friend's wedding (albeit a friend I hadn't actually met...) and I was going to see some of my favourite people from the other side of the world so I was pretty excited. It was the wedding of an Australian lady and a Swedish man, and the happy couple are best friends with some of my closest peeps (including Sus and Leeli). I got an invite courtesy of Andy (who is their real-life friend) who, unfortunately had work issues and couldn't fly out with me. Luckily I had the beautiful Sha to keep my company, keep me laughing and keep me supplied with wine.

A few glasses of wine down and we were on the plane, chattering the whole way and dining on Ryanair's finest olives, cheese, crackers and wine. Fancy. When we landed in Stockhölm (well, pretend Stockhölm, as we landed at a Ryanair airport!) we had an hour's wait to get the bus to the tiny town we were staying at. Feeling the pain of not actually being at the hen do (which all the girls were having as we were waiting in a Ryanair airport), we dined on more of Sweden's wine and then took a long bus journey to Norrköping, about an hour south of fake (Ryanair) Stockholm. Once there we had another hour of waiting so, fed up of NOT being at the hen party, we hopped in a taxi to complete the final half-hour of our journey.

As we arrived in Söderköping, we were overwhelmed at what a beautiful tiny town it was. It was seriously like something out of a film set. And it was super light, considering it was about 11pm…something that I wouldn't get used to (but would love nonetheless) during my stay in Sweden.

A quick cuddle with some of the Aussies that had babies (so ducked out of stag/hen parties early) and then a car arrived to whisk us to The Lake House. Yes, this place deserves capitals. It was one of the most amazing places I have ever seen and I can't believe something like this exists. It's (as the name suggests) a wooden cabin next to the most stunning lake. Inside the cabin is bedrooms, a kitchen, a lounge, and, being Sweden, a sauna. The rest of the evening was spent either swimming in the beautiful, warm lake in the semi-moonlight-twilight-sunlight or hopping in the sauna to dry off. Turns out Sweden is amazing - and this is only the beginning!

Picture © Susann Anna.

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