Gotland: got anything?

After a bit of a last minute rush to get one of my take home exam finished I jumped on the bus to head to the mighty land of Gotland, an island off the east coast of mainland Sweden. This is supposed to be the "Hawaii of Scandinavia". To our disappointment we experienced quite the opposite! Unfortunately our tour was poorly organised and we spent most of friday actually getting to the place via bus and ferry. It got to the point where on the bus, my friends Chris & Will & myself ended up playing the game where you had to go through the alphabet, listing countries of the world for each letter. We played this after "guess the celebrity". It didnt help that the landscape along the east coast of Sweden is pretty plain - field after field after field after field after field.... You get the point! However, we did stop off at a beautiful castle in Kalmar on the way, just as the sun was going down. In my mind I could not stop saying "How's the serenity" ... (quote from The Castle - I'm sure you recognise it)

Arrived to our prison at midnight. Literally. Prison turned hostel. Still had the barbed wire around the edges and the bars on the windows! Quite cool actually!

Following day walked around the little town of Visby/Wisby - wandering through the old church ruins (9 within the towns walls - the most in any northern european city) and those that still stood.

It was a cultural day for Visby so there was a cute little market in the main square (Stortoget) and we stumbled upon a re-enactment of what Visby would have been like several hundred years ago. All the young locals we talked to in the shops were extremely kind and friendly and were happy to talk to us about the island and point us in the right direction.

That afternoon we hopped on the bus to head to the northern end of the island. The rain set in and our plans for a BBQ diminished. We arrived to our destination some hours later, only to realise that our destination was, well, limestone rocks! We spent a whopping 20 mins there galavanting around, before hopping on the bus and making our way back to Visby, wet and making jokes at what a joke the trip was!

The highlight of the night was the popcorn throwing that Olaf so kindly demonstrated and we all gladly joined in. Thank you to the person who cleaned up the popcorn the next morning :) We had a few drinks at the hostel, threw some popcorn, then headed to a stylish waterfront bar where we listened to a Swedish cover band (questionable about their ability) and went hard with the dance moves upstairs in the club. Was a bit sad to see the atrocious state of some of the people though. Not really my kind of scene. Thanks though to the Swede who bought me the peppermint shot just as I was leaving. Was SO YUM!

That was the trip basically. No, hang on. The best bit is to come.

Joke no.1: Lets get on a bus at the hostel to go to the ferry terminal that is literally just next door, only to have to walk back past it again to get into town to kill some time before boarding the ferry.

Joke no. 2: Lets all sit at the front of the boat in the comfy chairs, only to find out that we were approaching a storm with 3m waves and were all about to have to pay a visit to the bathroom and what we spent on coffee that morning was a waste because it all came up again anyway.

Joke no. 3: Lets all get on the bus after a horrible three hour ferry trip, only to watch Ghost Busters. I mean, COME ON.

Joke no. 4: The best part of the trip was the pizza we had in Karlskrona - something we organised ourselves. Thanks team. (you were awesome by the way - thoroughly enjoyed bonding over all the negativity!)

But wait, there's more! The fun didnt stop when we arrived back home to Lund. I managed to throw up without cease for the next day and a half, just so i didnt forget how incredible the trip was. All in the name of Gotland.


Photos