28th of July 2009

I picked myself a big bag of cherries then walked out of Lister´s Udde and into two really rough days. I got soaking wet from the rain in Sölvesborg, then I got stuck more then 4 hours trying to get a ride in Karlskrona, the only highlight of the Saturday was that the last ride of the day gave me a polish beer to have with my dinner, A feast on beans in tomato sauce with pasta!
The Sunday wasn’t much better, I had luck in the beginning getting to Kalmar and having a quick look at the castle (My budget wouldn’t allow me to go inside), then I sneaked on a bus and crossed the bridge to Öland.
Öland is the second biggest island of Sweden and its packed with ancient monuments and other attractions. Sad thing is that it is also so overcrowded with tourists. Öland has about 25 000 inhabitants and they get an estimate of 3-4 millions visitors each summer (2007 they had 3,2 million hotel bookings).
And tourists + weekend = unhappy hitcher. So I got stuck in the first town another 4-5 hours before I got a short ride to a nature reserve where I could put up my tent.
But alas, Monday morning all my luck turned for the better and pretty fast (after sleeping in and having a walk in the reserve) I got a ride with a local that ended up giving me all his spare change because he liked me so much, directly after he dropped me off a guy asked me if a I needed a ride and told me I could come have a shower and some food at his place when he was done for the day if I wanted. When he dropped me of I soon got another ride and got to this Nature Reserve “Trollskogen” (TrollForest). Had a walk there to then found myself tons of blueberries, goes great with my breakfast :D.
Read a funny thing while walking here, between the 17-19th century the king of Sweden declared the whole island to be his hunting ground. So the locals were forbidden to hunt all wild animals because they all belonged to the king. Sounds fair!
Next I got picked up by another nice couple that drove around to several attractions and we also found some gooseberry to pick, dessert for me!
That’s one thing that so much better with hitching in Sweden compared to Australia, you know what you can eat from nature here and can be pretty sure it won’t kill you!
At the end of the evening they dropped me of at a rest stop and gave me their leftovers from last night’s dinner, so free food for me. That night I camped out just south of Resmo which is part of UNESCOs World Heritage, the whole southern part of Öland is actually because of its old agricultural landscape.
Öland is a really interesting place and I would like to go back here again, but I will make sure it isn’t during the tourist season, and that I have my own ride.
Today I haven’t had too much problems catching rides and went to the south of the island and checked out the lighthouse there before I hitched back to the bridge between mainland and Öland, and then off the island.
Sitting in the corner of a shopping centre right now so I can recharge my laptop batteries and write this entry. I haven’t had a shower or a change of clothes since last Thursday morning so don’t feel all too fresh, but tomorrow I’ll hopefully get to Växjö where I know people so I can clean up properly.
Make sure you read the texts on the pictures for more info on the stuff I’ve seen. Soon I will also start putting up where I’ve taken the pictures on the map.
And oh, tip of the day. Don’t wear a big green raincoat and have red hands (from munching cherries) while hitching, people look at you very weird and you can almost see em reaching for their phones.


Edit: I got another ride to a rest stop just next to a lake, which is just next to the place I want to go tomorrow :) Just went for a swim in the lake and I feel like a completely new man!


Edit2: Feels like I stressed my last two entries, haven’t had time to think them through so aren’t that interesting to read =/
Also alot of pictures (hope it isnt to many for you to view!) Also ran out of battery so posting this today instead