midsummer

Arriving in Sweden on Midsummer was a whole weekend of celebrations.

The tradition of Midsummer is to be with loved ones, friends and family and to celebrate being together. Little girls make headpieces of ivy and flowers and they dance around the ivy pole. The girls pick 7 flowers and put them under their pillow and dream of the boy they want to marry. The traditional food they eat will be potatoes and ‘sell’. This is raw herring in a marinate (different types of marinate) with egg and wooow it tastes sooo good.

The weekend is one big party time and luckily the weather was great. Because of this the campsites are packed and the roads are busy too – however, really this is not a major problem as most drivers are easy with you being on the road.

I left Sandefjord by ferry around 5pm and arrived in Stromstad near 7:30pm – I think it cost around 20GBP and this is easy to do with no need to book prior, as you are bicycle. I arrived and cycled not far Stromstad to a place called Tjarno and pitched here for the night. A lot of the campsites are positioned in Sweden either next to a lake or sea – this is great if you want a spot of cold swimming – early mornings are best.