Edsbyn with Gunnar!

We had an early start to get to Gunnar's sister's house in Gavle for lunch on our way to Edsbyn. A quick driving tour of Stockholm and then north to Gavle. We met Orsa (Gunnar's sister), her husband Henrik and their 3 kids Carl, Bjorn and Sarah. Orsa cooked us up a massive meal of chicken, rice, salad, bread, followed by sweets of ice cream and almond cookies. It was delicious and just what we needed after our morning of driving. Quick coffee, then we were off to continue the journey.

We got to Edsbyn and went to Gunnar's parents house which is where we were going to be staying while there. They were very welcoming and made us some gingerbread cookies (another Nordic specialty) and got us to try a special Swedish drink called Glugg. It is served warm and was like mulled wine (so think hot red wine and its similar to that!!) i thought it was terrible, but they seem to enjoy it!!

It was decided that Dave and i would spend our first night in the cabin. Gunnar and his dad (Rolf) hand built a 14m2 wooded cabin out on their property near a large lake. It is miles away from all civilisation and is amazing. I took about a million photos so you will see just how wonderful it was. Gunnar's mum was really worried about me staying there because I'm a city girl, but i don't think she realised how tough they breed us down in Australia!! We made up a pack for food, water, torches, sleeping bags and pillows and set off. The original plan was that we would ski there, but because this is the mildest winter on record so there is no snow so we drove! easier, but definitely more boring!! The cabin was pretty freezing when we got there but we put the fire on straight away and it warmed up pretty quickly. There is no electricity there, so it was all about the fire! Gunnar left us after dinner so it was just me and Dave and the animals! Last winter Gunnar said he found wolf tracks on the porch of the cabin, and back in about 2000 i think it was, they saw a massive bear walking past while they were inside having coffee!! Dave and i had no exciting encounters with any wildlife though, i was disappointed!! We had a great sleep although it had got quite cold by the time we woke up as the fire had gone out. Didn't take long for Dave to fix the situation though and we were having breakfast in the warmth in no time!! We had an amazing view from the loft window as well because the sun doesn't fully come up in winter, its like sunrise pretty much all the time, maybe a little brighter. So there was mist and the sun peaking through the trees and silence, bliss!!

It was also my birthday!!!

Yay!! I was very spoilt with Dave making me breakfast as well as giving me a gorgeous Tiffany & Co necklace and pendant for my present, with the promise of a dinner out in Paris as well!! Very exciting and very spoilt!! I also got about a 1000 sms's from home wishing me happy birthday or happy new years!! It was strange getting drunken messages at breakfast, but i guess it wasn't breakfast in Australia, so it wasn't as bad as it sounds!!

After breakfast we went for a walk down to the lake. It was completely frozen, you could see that the layer of ice was about 20 - 25 cm thick. We were able to walk on it which was a very different experience, but a great one! I got some fantastic photos which i cant wait to show you all when i get home. It was a bit scary though because every so often you would hear a big cracking noise, which was the ice actually cracking!! apparently when the lake has only been frozen for a week or two, the ice is still settling so is cracks and re-freezes. Gunnar arrived while we were playing on the ice lake and assured us that these cracks were nothing to worry about!!! A few times when the ice cracked you could even feel it vibrating and moving!! scary but great at the same time!!

We had some coffee with Gunnar and he bought me a birthday cake and they both sang for me!!! We packed up the cabin. We went for a drive through Edsbyn and through Gunnar's parents forest. It was pretty cool, but very cold!! Then it was time for lunch (i swear, all we did when we stayed with people was eat and drink coffee!!). Gunnar's mum made us a big meal of potato bake, cold meats, several types of salad and special Swedish bread which is basically exactly the same a ryvita biscuits!! Dessert was ice-cream and lingon berries, which are small red berries which grow in their area and are slightly bitter tasting, but when served with the ice cream, were absolutely delicious!! Of course, we then had coffee!!!

That afternoon was spent on the Internet organising the trip from Edsbyn to the airport, and from the airport in France to the hotel in Paris. We got really cheap flights to Paris so it doesn't land at the main airport there, so we needed to figure out what we were doing!! We also got a walking tour of Gunnar's parents farm which was pretty interesting. His family have been farming the same land since the 1500's!!!

That evening Gunnar prepared us a big 3 course meal!! We weren't really hungry but it was so yum looking we ate it!! We had a Swedish entree which was some type of prawn stuff with toast. not really sure what it was but it was good!! then we had steak and veg for mains (much like home which was a good change!!) and ice cream and cloud berries (another local berry - delicious!) and coffee for dessert!

That evening we didn't do much, watched the Robbie Williams concert on TV and watched Black Adder before heading out to see the town fire works display for new years eve. Even though Edsbyn is a pretty small town they had great fireworks!! We were very impressed. They have a tradition of doing a poetry reading first, then the fireworks. There wasn't really a countdown like we have, but i don't know if that was disorganisation or if they just don't do one?? We celebrated with a bottle of champagne which went down well with all the wine we had before we went out!! It was so cold, around 5 below, so we needed all that booze to keep warm!!

Gunnar had bought some of his own fireworks for us to let off after the main ones, so we headed back to the house and set them off in the backyard. They were great fun and i got to light them because it was my birthday!! Dave has a great video of it on his camera which you can see when we get back!

Today when we woke up and looked out the window we saw everything was white!! it had finally snowed!! yay!! Admittedly it was a pretty small amount of snow, but there was enough to cover everything in white!! we quickly got dressed and ran outside and spent the next hour or so just messing around!! we built a snowman which was so much fun!! in our haste to get out there we forgot to grab gloves, so our hands were pretty red and sore by the time we were rescued by Rolf (Gunnar's dad) bringing out a pair of gloves for me and mittens for Dave!! We threw lots of snowballs and made lots of patterns in the snow and had a great time!!

Then it was breakfast, packing, a quick drive through the town for a look before we headed back into Stockholm ready to catch our flight to Paris tomorrow morning.