Last weekend was dedicated to a trip to Dalarna, a region in central Sweden. We left directly from work Friday evening, and headed toward Mora. The meteorological conditions (= rain almost all the way) were a bit nasty, but they didn’t portend the good weather we had for the rest of the weekend. It was very nice for hiking and outdoor activities.
For the first night we booked a cottage in Moraparken, called stuga in Swedish, with all the facilities, including a TV, on which I had the pleasure to watch The Ring Two alone, since the others were sleeping at that time. If you’ve seen at least one of the rings, maybe you’ll enjoy this commercial. The highlights of the evening were a short photo session by the water, where I took the image below, and a late dinner consisting of salmon pie with spinach. No picture of the pie, I was too hungry.
Saturday was dedicated to hiking in Fulufjället National Park. We saw Njupeskär, the tallest waterfall in Sweden (93m) and then walked around it on the sandstone plateau. It took us about 4 hours for that.
We were told that during the evening, and especially on the side roads, there are high chances of seeing a moose. So after a dinner in Särna, the closest village to our accommodation place, we drove around for one hour and fed a lot of happy mosquitoes taking pictures near some lakes in the area, looking for moose. Iulian’s theory was that they were all hiding and having a good laugh on our account. He was probably right, but in the end we were rewarded with the image of a female moose that ran quickly off the road into the woods.
We spent the night in a lovely cottage called Fjällräven (arctic fox) located in Fulufjällsbyn, which is maintained by Pan Parks. There were a couple of books and presentation brochures in the cottage about Pan Parks from which I found out that they also offer their services in Retezat National Park in Romania. No horror movies that night.
Sunday started with a visit to Nusnäs, one of the Dala horse making centers in Dalarna. The traditional wooden statuette is one of Sweden’s symbols and in this place one can find it in various sizes, colors, painted ornaments and age, with prices going from 5 to more than 300 euros. The place has a few shops where you can watch specialists carving the wood, like the guy in the picture who arrived on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle (the tattoo on his hand indicated that he’s the owner of the bike outside). Seeing that cool guys carve Dala horses, I bought myself immediately a kit with 4 small precut horses to be shaped.
On the road there were a lot of signs with Loppis, which means people are selling second hand things or other stuff from around the house. The closest English translation I think it’s “garage sale”. I only entered a single loppis location and just to ask for directions, but there were a lot of nice things on sale inside, like a coffee jar painted as a Holstein cow with a cow-shaped handle. Sweeet!
nice post
Thanks.