Gotland

I know. I haven't posted in too long. It's a tragedy.

Okay, so a few weeks ago we took an incredible long weekend trip to Gotland, a Swedish Island and the largest island in the Baltic (how's that for a little Jeopardy trivia?). The trip was soooo much fun, but definitely exhausting. We were go-go-going for most of the time, but I'd have it no other way.

The trip was optional, but most of the kids in my program came, so we got Friday classes off. Friday morning we met up at T-Centralen and headed to the airport where we took a plane to Gotland. Poor Erik is afraid of flying, but did pretty well.

Once we got to Gotland we hoped in our bus to Visby. Visby was absolutely gorgeous. It was like going back in time to see the windy streets and cobblestones. We checked into our hotel and were off! We had a Medieval lunch at Clematis (no, "Clematis" is not an STD, I was wondering the same thing). The restaurant was a dark, candle-lit tavern, complete with people dressed up, viking food, and even a flame-blower. I didn't think it could be topped. I had such a great time that I might have even convinced myself I was an actual viking for a moment or two.

Our tour guide, Gunnar Bäck, showed us around a museum after that. Now, I'm unsure how someone gets becomes an accredited tour guide, but this gentleman fell short of my expectations.

That night we went out to dinner as a group and even stuck around at the bar later for a little late night disco with our groups leader, Kajsa and Cecilia. Cecilia had some sick dance moves, and if I recall correctly, so did Bjorn, in his own special way. I bought a 160 Kronor drink and nursed it for a solid 2 hours.

The next day, Gunnar gave us a tour around Gotland, which included visiting sand and limestone beaches, graveyards, churches, and of course, hearing a lot of irrelevant personal stories of Gunnar's. Gotland is rich in viking artifacts and recently had two massive silver hoards found. Silver isn't found on Gotland, so it had to have been imported, which indicates how wealthy the vikings were. But here I go rambling about artifacts...

The highlight of the tour was seeing the view of Visby atop some beautiful cathedral ruins.

Later that night we went to a Viking Village. No one thought we'd have enough energy to enjoy it, but the viking Village ended up being the best part of the trip by far. We dressed up in viking tunics and did a variety of activities such as axe throwing, archery, metalwork, and house-building. We competed against one another and were rewarded with Viking beads. 

Once it got dark we headed in to a lodge where we feasted on lamb, vegetables, ligonberry juice, and carmelized almonds. It was like Clematis but even better! It was such a fun evening. Once we got back to the hotel we quickly changed and headed with Cecilia and Kajsa to a small pub located in the wall that surrounds Visby. It's lit up and beautiful at night. Erik, Alison, and I got a little lost heading back to the hotel, but didn't mind because the windy, hilly, Visby streets were beautiful at night. 

Sunday morning we had just enough time to explore a little. We saw some incredible gardens and I had a chance to hit up a candy shop (yessss!) before we flew back.

I'll post soon about Paris and Madrid! More pictures to come!