Sweden Road Trip 2006- Day 4

The mannequin in the youth hostel was a bit creepy, in fact it was very creepy. Otherwise I really liked this hostel. The bed was cozy and the shower hot, well ice cold, but all the same.

Today we went to two different glass factories. Like I said yesterday, I think that it is sad that all the factories are combining to make one factory. Today’s factories are still independently owned and operated. The first one was Skruf, which used to be one of my favorites. In the past they made cartoon type animals. I always wanted one, but when they were produced, we were in our poverty time. Now they make mainly glasses and vases, so I never got one (time to check ebay). The other factory we went to was Johansfors. Unlike most of the glass factories, we were not allowed to go onto the production floor. We did end up getting some stuff, ironically it was M who suggested. I did not argue or comment, I learned that lesson years ago.

From there we headed to Karlskrona. This city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. M had never been there before, and until recently never had much of a desire to go there either. It was really nice. We parked in the very center of town and went into the tourist office and then walked around. First down to the Swedish Naval base (they have 1 boat!) and to Rosenbom. Rosenbom was a real guy at one time. He collected money for the poor, so the legend goes. M learned about him is school and was excited when we went to the statue of him. My theory is that he is a little like Johny Appleseed. We also went to the Maritime Museum. The museum is well displayed and they did a good job at the descriptions, but it is not very captivating. Nothing, other then when we went under water, just screamed out at me. The museum needs more interaction with the visitor to truly work. If you ever get a chance to come here, take a walk around the west side of the town. The houses are worth a look at.

From here we hit the road again. We made two little stops. The first one was in Karlshamn. Here we looked at a statue depicting the two main characters from Moberg’s novel “The Immigrants”. Then we went to Mörrum to look at the house that Salmon (the fish” built. I was hoping to see the fish with hammer and nails working away, or at the very least some pictures of them working. I was sadly disappointed to learn that the house was not built by salmon, but in reality was a house dedicated to the fish. To make matters worse, they wanted to charge 60:- per person to look in this house. I would not have a problem paying the 60:- to see the salmon building it, but just a house dedicated to them- HA!

The hostel was a bit of a rude awakening. First they had left the hostel organization which we are a member of to join one that cost less money. Then the lady was rude. She accused us of not telling her about N. I made the reservations and I know that I said that N was going to be with, so I was a bit offended. It worked out fine. We had a house all to ourselves and the shower water was hot. What more could one ask for?