How To Declare Your Own Country

I signed up for the Sweden Canoe trip before I set off for the my semester abroad, not realizing that it would be the last weekend before leaving Copenhagen. I did not mind that it was going to be this weekend, but of course this is the time people want to get together to meet up one last time. Oh, it is also the last weekend before Finals, so I would have to be studying throughout the trip. Either way, I was out of the country for the weekend and I would not have sacrificed it for anything else! Not even a DIS-provided picnic.

We left at 7:20am which was murderous, but I got up and made the train MOSTLY on time! I walked onto the bus and you would not guess the surprise guest for this trip... It was WILL! We only really had one super excellent quote, and it was literally the first thing he said to the group: "Hello. My name is Will. I am from Wyoming, and I love steak."

I tried studying on the bus/ferry/bus to Sweden, but that didn't happen. Sleep happened. When I woke up, we were in Sweden and on our way to the river for our first outdoor tirp that weekend. We paired up for canoe partners and I was in a group with Cole (who was also on the Czech Trek) and Scott who I recently met on the ferry! It was a relaxing cruise down the river and we, of course, were cruising as fast as possible. It wasn't officially a race, but that didn't stop us. When we go to the halfway point, the canoe company was there providing Ice cream boats. It was a boat-shaped waffle filled with ice cream and jam, topped with whipped cream. Great way to start the day.

At the end of the canoe trip, we drove to the hotel to drop off gear and eat lunch. The hotel was completely in the middle of nowhere, and also pretty adorable. They hosts asked that you take off your shoes at the door and provided little felt slippers for guests to walk around the house in. Afterwards, we went west to the coast and were driving to a site called Nimis. And here we have a story. It turns out that several years ago, an artist started taking pieces of driftwood that washed up ashore in Sweden, and started nailing them together to form structures and pathways between them. It took the Swedish government about two years to notice he was doing this and then eventually told him that it was totally illegal to be building structures on the government's land. So he did what any sensible artist would do... he declared his own country. It is an approx. 1 square km micronation called Ladonia on the South Western coast of Sweden. You can apply to be a citizen for free, or apply for a nobility title for about 12 USD. (http://www.ladonia.org/)

Nimis is the main attraction of Ladonia and is a gigantic labyrinth of driftwood that you can explore and, more importantly, climb. It was like a large, more dangrous, and sharper adult playground. It was so fun to find a path to the top of the spires and it was such a unique experience. You would think that it is just a large pile of sticks, but it is actually fairly elegantly constructed, with pathways and several directions to scale the towers.

That night we had dinner and started playing King to get to know each other. Eventually we started to build a bonfire outside. The bus driver brought lighter fluid. Which is cheating. Cheating a lot. Regardless of the cheating nature of anyone involved, we had a grand time roasting marshmallows and snobrød which is a Danish campfire treat (basically bread wrapped around a stick).

The next morning we drove off to the coast again and started out the day with orienteering. We basically used the map to find checkpoints and solve puzzles/finish tasks at each station. One station had tangrams, one had us guess distances, another had us tie knots (Boy Scouts skills right there), and a few others. We didn't win the official competition, but our team was, by far, the coolest. So there's always that.

Then, later that afternoon, we got to rappel. I had plenty of that in the Czech Republic, but it was just completely different here. We were on the shore with the wind and the waves and we had an amazing view from the peak. Finally the sun came out at the end of the day, and it was beautiful as we exited the country by bus.