Godis och Kanaler

School does not start on the 23rd of August for me, so I have had some time to relax and read my Stieg Larsson Millenium trilogy, get acquainted with where I am living, as well as go to a few small trips. One of my favorite little excursions occurred about a week ago, when my host mom drove us to the small town of Gränna, which is the second largest lake in Sweden. It is a tourist area, where there is room to swim and camp. The center of town is well maintained with old tile roofed buildings. The village specialty is homemade candy called “polkagris.” It is thick candy sticks. It is a hard candy but by the end it becomes chewy because a lot of air has been worked into it. It was interesting to watch the candy-making process. My favorite flavors were raspberry and lemon. Which brings me to another point: the Swedes love black licorice. It is quite strong, but instead of just being sweet, it is very salty. I tried the candy and the flavor was okay, but the amount of salt was too much. It reminded me of cleaning my wounds with salt water after I had my wisdom teeth removed. Salt licorice must be an acquired taste. My favorite part of the day was when we went to an even smaller village called Röttle, right on the shores of Lake Vänern, where my host mother’s brother lives. We went on a walk with his dog. I didn’t know what to expect, but the evening walk on small gravel and dirt roads to a small harbor was wonderful. It took about 1.5 miles to get to the harbor, where the views were idyllic. We met a grandmother and her grandchildren. The woman lived in two small red cottages next to the harbor. It was very peaceful and I felt like I could have stayed there for a week.  I took pictures in Gränna, but not during the walk in Röttle.

On the walk, we came across a flour mill. It still works and mills small batches of flour:
(I found these on the internet)

    A view of the harbor:

    Gränna (the city center is below):

    Polkagris:

Yesterday, we piled into the station wagon and drove northeast of Ulricehamn. We went to Töreboda to begin a 19 km. journey by boat to Vättern, the largest lake in Sweden. We went on the Göta Canal, which was manmade, and 200 years old. It was the vision of a man by the name of Baltzar von Platen. The canal is 190 km in all and connects the west coast of Sweden with the Baltic sea, as well as the largest lakes Vänern and Vättern. At the time, Denmark controlled the southern tip of Sweden, and the canal made it possible to transport goods and people more efficiently. On the 19 km trip we took, there were sixteen locks, so it took about four hours to make the trip to the edge of Vänern. If we had continued west, we would have eventually reached the Atlantic Ocean.  I enjoyed the boat ride. It was definitely slow, but it was relaxing and it was interesting to think about the history. I am not sure I would chose to go on a boat again, but many people rent or bring bicycles along the way, and there are small cabins for lodging. Next to the canal, there is always a bike trail, so it would be possible to bike across much of Sweden. We ended the day at my host father’s brother’s home, where we went looking for mushrooms. We picked some chanterelle mushrooms, before driving home.

I start language camp this Sunday, and I toured my school on Wednesday.

We started in Töreboda and went to Sjötorp, which is the far left side of the map:

The boat we travelled on:

One of the locks:

The edge of Lake Vänern: