This weekend I got the opportunity to visit the Sandström’s summer house on a small island on the west coast of Sweden. The island is called Gullholmen and only 100 people live on the island year round. There is one restaurant and one cafe that are only open for the summer. And over 1,000 people inhabit the island in the summer!!
Marie and Mikael took me for a wonderful walk around half the island; up to the lookout points where you could look over the sea for miles upon miles and over all the other small island uninhabited by humans.
We met a man who is one of the 100 people that lives on the island for the entire year. He studies birds and took us to his exhibit where he has made displays of all sorts of birds he studies. He told us some good stories about the history of the Swedish language and traditions as well as good strategies and tips on how to remember how to pronounce certain Swedish letters.
For example he said that anytime you have an "i" in English it makes an "ee" sound in swedish: "white" in swedish is "vit" (pronounced veet). Or usually where you have the "ou" sound in english you here an "oo" in Swedish: "house" in swedish is "hus" (pronounced hoos) Cool huh? I feel really smart now :)
Sandström's house
We went to the one and only restaurant on the island for dinner. Since it was a bit chilly out and I was craving a warm drink I ordered hot chocolate. The waitress, Marie, and Mikael gave me very strange looks. Apparently people in Sweden never drink hot beverages with their meals, they drink tea or coffee after the meal with a biscuit or treat or what not. Haha oh well! I learned my lesson. I still got the hot chocolate and it was very good!!
We were planning on heading back midday Sunday but when we woke up it was raining quite hard and decided to head back after breakfast. Even though it was a 5 hour drive one direction, it was definitely worth the trip!
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