Days 33, 34, and 35 – Trip to Åre ☺

The view from the patio of the cabin.
This is what we woke up to every
morning! Absolutely AMAZING!

This last weekend in Sweden has been truly amazing. I cannot believe how fast the weekend has gone by and tomorrow will be Monday. We spend the weekend in Åre, Sweden. We were kind of sad that we never had the opportunity to travel to another country, but we were about 650 kilometers from the Norwegian border!

Here is how our weekend in the mountains of Åre came about: We were talking with our supervisor, Lennart how we wanted to spend a weekend in the mountains or travel to another country when we went to the Elk farm. Later that evening, Lennart sent us information about spending a weekend in Åre. He explained to us travel arrangement getting to Åre and prices for hotels in the area. Eventually as we started getting more interested in traveling, Lennart was kind enough to rent out his son’s cabin for the weekend in Undersåker, Sweden. It was about 14 kilometers from the cabin to Åre. The more we all thought about how to spend our last weekend in Sweden, we decided that we were going to go to Åre and spend our last weekend there.

The train station in Undersåker. This
is where we got off and go on the
train as part of our travels to Åre.

Traveling to Åre was nice. On Thursday night, we took a night train from Umeå to Ånge, where we had to wait three hours for our train to take us to the Undersåker train station. Once we arrived in Ånge, we were nervous that we were going to have to wait inside at the train station and stay awake the entire time to watch our luggage from 1:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. As we were getting off the train, one of the ladies that was checking the tickets, told us that we could wait on the waiting train. It was a single car that waited three hours for it to connect to the train that would take us to Underåker. We did not have to worry about getting on another train after we boarded the waiting train, which was really nice. So we all slept on the train and about 4:00 a.m. we started moving and we knew we only had about 3.5 hours left on the train before arriving to our destination. All of us agreed that taking the night train was the best thing ever, and being able to sleep on the waiting train was even better. So around 7:30 a.m. we finally arrived in Undersåker, our next task was to find where we were staying. Luckily there was a newspaper guy dropping of newspapers and he helped direct us in the proper direction. We walked about 400 meters to the house, in the snowy, cold weather. Once arriving at the place we were all amazed at the sight we were seeing.

The back of the house. You can even see
the little bit of snow that we presented
with upon our arrival that lasted all
weekend :)

The city of Åre.

The cabin house is located on a lake in Undersåker and across the river were mountains. As the morning sun began to rise, we could start to see the mountain that Lennart explained to us before we left. It was still a little cloudy and snowy, but we were able to see something truly amazing. After finally settling into the house and deciding what we were going to do for the day, the girls and I decided that we were going to call a taxi and go to Åre for the day. As we were walking around Åre at 10:00 in the morning, we realized that most of the shops did not open till about 11:00 or 12:00 and that the ski lift we ALL wanted to go in was not open because there was not enough snow on the mountains to go skiing. We were quite upset that we were not going to be able to go to the top of the mountain. So on a Friday morning in Åre, we were walking around trying to decide what to do. Finally, some shops were open and we went in to look around to see what they had. Eventually we made our way to the information center of Åre asking for site seeing ideas since the mountain ski lifts were closed for skiing and even mountain biking.  http://www.are360.com/sv.aspx.

The outside of the Church in Åre. It is
extremely small. The building to the left
was the bell tower and the building to the
right is the Church.

Inside of the church.

So after talking with the very helpful ladies at the information center, we walked to one of the oldest churches in Sweden. The church was erected in the late 12^th century at the Saint Olaf Pilgrim’s Route. The church was made entirely with stone and remains the only stone church in the Scandinavian Mountains from the Middle Ages. The Åre Old Church has room for 150 seated people and is still active today for church services. It is open year round to the public where you could listen to an automated voice who explained the church and view the interior of the church. The church was amazing, not only is it made out of stone, but there were not lights in the building. Their way of light is through candles because in the Middle Ages, they did not have electricity to produce light. The interior design and the details were amazing.

Chocolate Factory.. YUMMY!

After visiting the church, we decided that we wanted to warm up with some coffee. So we went out in the stormy weather and walked around till we came to a shop where we could get lunch and coffee. I only had a sandwich and some water to drink for lunch, but some of the girls decided to get coffee and lunch. Finally after lunch, we started walking around in the shops to get ideas for gifts that we could bring back home to our families. Before the day was over with, we decided that we wanted to visit one last place. The place was called Åre Chokladfabrik. The famous Chocolate Factory of Åre, Sweden. We went in, sampled some of the amazing chocolate, and decided to buy a few bags of chocolate. Åre Chocolate Factory has handmade chocolates that are sold throughout Sweden. There are over SIX MILLION chocolates manufactured in the chocolate factory year round and it is all done by hand. And might I add, they tasted AMAZING, well at least the ones we got to sample! Finally, we made our way home, made dinner, and rested for the evening.

Undersåker Waterfall.

On Saturday, we decided that we were going to visit a waterfall in Undersåker, find a way to the top of the mountain to see the beautiful sights, and shop for Christmas and birthday presents of our friends and family. We had so much to do and so little daylight to accomplish everything!

Undersåker Waterfall

We started out our day by going to the Undersåker waterfall. The sight was truly amazing. I have seen waterfalls in the summertime in Canada, but this one did not compare to what I have seen before. The snow and ice of the running waterfall made it feel as if it was not real. It was so breathtakingly amazing! We spent about an hour out in cold weather, and we did not care how cold it was because the scenery was absolutely amazing. We even walked around so that we could have a straight on view of the waterfall and just watched as it was coming down!

Working our way up the mountain.
I know this is what it looks like as
a downhill view, but it was really
steep!!!

After the Undersåker waterfall, we made our way back to Åre. Once we were in Åre we started walking around slipping and sliding everywhere we walked. Because it had snowed the day before and all they have are snowplows that do not do much, the roads and sidewalks were really slippery from everyone walking around on them. Erika, Amanda, Kim, Sara, and I decided that we wanted to see the view from as far up as we could go up the mountain. So we started our adventure walking up these HUGE slopes, where we felt like we were going to slide down at any moment. It was a way to get our workout in for the day! About half way up the mountain, Kim and Sara decided that they were going to head back down and start shopping but Erika, Amanda, and I were determined to get as high up as we could. So we kept walking... then it happened, we finally reached the top of the mountain, well not the exact top, but as far as we could go without taking a ski lift. We were so excited to see the sight, which was also breathtakingly beautiful. All I kept doing was taking pictures, but pictures never do justice until you have visited the sights that I have seen. After spending about 30 minutes on the top of the mountain, we decided to make our way back down to start some shopping. We had to be careful getting down because everything was becoming slippery from the cars driving on the road that we had to take. At one point we were sliding so much, we start to run and could not stop ourselves from running. We all got our workout in and are extremely sore from walking up and down the mountain in the snow.

A view from the top!

On top of the Mountain as far
as we were able to go!

After spending a few hours shopping, we met up with Kim and Sara to eat dinner. We walked around and ended up eating at a small little restaurant called Broken. The food was absolutely amazing. We all loved our meals and enjoyed eating together for one of the last times in Sweden. After our eventful day, we headed back to the place we were staying at in Undersåker.

Sunday we spent our day traveling back to Umeå. We left the amazing weekend in Åre around 10:30 in the morning, got on two different trains, and the we ended our adventure on the bus. We finally made it back to Umeå safely around 7:50, were Lennart was kind enough to pick us up. Plus he wanted to get his cell phone. He was kind enough to let us borrow the phone for the weekend since we had to travel by taxi all weekend. Plus he was checking in with us ALL weekend.

Right to Left: Amanda, Erika, and I with the
waterfall in the background!

Through my traveling adventures I have noticed that I things I used to be nervous about I am not so nervous about anymore. I used to dislike calling people or picking up the phone unless it was certain people that I knew I needed to talk to. But I have had a lot of practice calling cab companies and talking with people to find directions. We have had to ask a lot of people for directions or advice on places/sights to see. People are extremely nice here and are always willing to help. Even if you stop some on the street to ask them where you are or places to visit, they are more than willing to help! I have also noticed that I am becoming PRO at traveling by every form of transportation as possible. I have traveled by train, bus, taxi, airplane, and bus while visiting Sweden. (Watch out dad, I might be better at traveling by train than you are. ;) Just kidding, I know you will still be pro since it’s your job working with trains.)

Undersåker Train Station

This is the last week of living in Sweden. As much as I am enjoying the adventure, I am ready to come home. We do not want to leave the schools, the kids, or the scenery of Sweden, but unfortunately, we are all starting to miss home. This week will be our last and final challenge before we head back home to the United States. We are looking forward to finishing up this week, having dinner with Lennart and Ywovvne, and packing up to head home.


By the time that I get this posted, it will be 5 days and counting!