We spent this past weekend out of Stockholm, bittersweetly trying to squeeze in friends and a little Swedish summer before we leave for good. Our excellent friends AnnaSara & Andy invited us and Melissa & Kevin to their family "estate" near Furudal, in the middle of Sweden in the region of Dalarna. I say "estate" because there are a gazillion houses and buildings on their property, and the family seem to be related in some way to all of the neighbors.
What's great is that these houses are the cute little 'Faluröd' red & white cottages that you see in all pictures of idyllic Sweden, and they were all in view of a big lake.
And it is Dalarna, which means the furniture in their house and in every other establishment we went into is *awesome*...I have always, always loved the traditional folk designs of the region, and just learned this weekend that it is called Kurbits.
The weather didn't exactly cooperate, but despite the rain, we still managed to pick blueberries in the forest and eat smultrön (teeny, tiny, super sweet Swedish wild strawberries), make flower wreaths, we fika'd (and fika'd and fika'd) swam in the lake (well, not me. I'm a wuss.) we climbed through the pastures and forest, visited Dala horse factories, AND, to boot, I drove a Volvo through Swedish wilderness. Seriously, it doesn't really get much more Swedish than that...we just needed snaps/aquavit and more singing. It was such a great weekend.
Our camera is in and out of commission so I don't have pictures of the cute little fäbod we visited or the lakes or blueberries, but I got some great pictures at the Dala Häst factories at Färnus and Näsnus, where we watched them turn chunks of Swedish wood into cute little orange horses. I bought a green one:
Sounds so fun! Still haven't really made it to Dalarna, but I'd love to have the chance to wander around and see all the old-timey workshops and crafts and houses. Good luck with the move if you don't post again before you leave!
ReplyDeleteWe stayed at the vandrarhem/hostel in Furudal...it was excellent. I'd suggest having a tour guide who knows the area (and has a car), since AS & Andy were awesome at that.
ReplyDeleteAnd I didn't write much about it, but the fäbod was very cool--tiny little cottages used by teenage girls during the summer when they lived on mountaintop pastures to care for their families' animals. Its like a little village of cabins, and we visited one still in our friends' family and over 300 years old, and the area still has animals every summer!