A trip to Falun

In the beginning of January, I went to Falun to visit my parents. They live a seven hour train ride from Lund and when I booked my tickets I got to experience one of the weird things about the Swedish train ticket system. The ticketing system in Sweden is nothing at all like the Swiss one. It actually resembles the system for the flight tickets more... Why? Well, to get a good price you have to book your tickets far in advance since the prices go up the closer to departure date you come - at least on popular travel days and times. This time I booked kind of late (that is not three months in advance) so the tickets were quite expensive, but ok. The funny thing was that the 1st class ticket was cheaper than the 2nd class one! This happens now and then since people in general travel 2nd class to save money and never even consider checking the 1st class price. It is very weird anyway.

However, as a 1st class passenger, my ticket to Falun not only was cheaper than the 2nd class ticket, but it also included breakfast since I left quite early in the morning. So there I was, sitting in a nice chair on the train having an excellent breakfas and paying less than many in the crowded 2nd class carriages!

Then I reached Falun and my parents and met a winter wonder land! The temperature was about -25 C all the time, and the sun shone from a blue sky. Falun really is a very nice town and almost every day I took a walk along the river and one of the lakes close to my parents house.

The sun stands very low during winter and the light is fantastic. I really love winter, and dressed in long johns, warm glowes, good shoes and Matts' warm winter coat I could enjoy the cold. I did get an ice mustache though as well as nice, red cheeks, but I really didn't freeze.

From Falun I took the train to Kumla to visit my grandmother and then I went to Örebro to see my brother and one of my sisters as well as meet her boyfriend for the first time. Then I went back to Lund. During these parts of the trip I did experience more of the Swedish train system. First, going to Kumla, we had to go on a bus in the middle of the train trip since the rail was broken for a bit (probably due to heavy cargo trains with bad wheels literally cracking the cold rali). Then, from Örebro I once again had to take a bus instead of the train for the first bit since a train had derailed... And then, of course, my last train was about half an hour late to Lund... But all in all it was a very good trip.

Road trip around Siljan

We took the car and went on a road trip around Siljan, the biggest lake in Dalarna. My sister was driving (she is about to take her drivers license) with my mother on the side and Matts and I sat in the comfy backseat. Our first stop was on Björnberget, the bear mountain, close to Siljansnäs. There they have a nice restaurant where we had a summer buffet lunch after climbing the tower in Naturum, an information center about the nature in the area. From the tower the view was stunning:

After lunch our next stop was Nusnäs, one of the main production areas of the Dalahäst, the horses that come from Dalarna. We walked around in the factories, inhaled the smell of fresh wood and paint, took a look in the stores and I almost bought a pair of clogs, but they didn't have them in my size in the color I wanted. But I will buy a pair of clogs sooner or later...

We then continued to Rättvik where they have built a long bridge, Långbryggan, 628 meters right out in the lake. From the bridge the steamer M/S Gustaf Wasa departs, but we didn't have time for a boat trip on the lake this time. Instead we walked all the way out on the bridge, enjoyed the view over the lake and then walked back and my sister drove the last bit back to Falun with one small fika-stop at Vidablick of course. The weather wasn't very warm and sunny, but look how beautiful Siljan was with the sun behind the clouds:

Swedish moose

This is how big the Swedish moose is.

The World Heritage Falun Mine

Today Matts and I visited the World Heritage in Falun, Falun Mine. Here copper and other valuables have been excavated from the 8th century until 1992. In and around the mine, some very strong characteristics of Sweden saw day light for the first time. The most famous ones are the Falukorv, a typical Swedish sausage, and Falu rödfärg, the paint used to give Swedish cottages their red color. More about this and also the sad story about Fet-Mats can be found here.

Matts and I took the under ground tour and then we got to wear the lovely orange outfits that you can see on the picture above. The tour started on a platform with a fabulous view of the Great Pit that was formed when the mines collapsed in 1687.


The tour then took us down to the man made caves and it was really interesting to walk inside the mountain and to picture what it must have been like to work there. Our guide told us that because of the fires that burned all night to soften the walls made the temperature in the mine very high: in the mornings it often was around 50 C and then it sunk to 30 C before it was time to call it a day...

The guide also told us that the men often used the buckets to transport themselves into and back up from the mine. They would jump onto one bucket and stand on it with one foot, holding on to it with one hand and using the other to carry their tools. In addition to this, they held a torch on a stick in their mouth and as an effect of this they didn't have any facial hair, had burned face skin and very short teeth...

After the guided tour in the mines, we had lunch and visited the museums and exhibitions around the mine and six hours later we returned home, satisfied after a very interesting day.

Swedish summer

Yesterday we spent more than 12 hours travelling by bus from Lund to Falun. Next time we'll take the train or even a plane... However, we arrived safe and sound and can now enjoy the "perfect" Swedish summer weather - around 15 C and rain. Good thing we brought our summer clothes and swimsuits...