Sweden Road Trip 2006- Day 5

N woke us up at 7:30 this morning. One of the nice things about this trip is that we have nothing that we need to hurry up to. Well, one day on the trip we do, but that is it. The hostel lady last night said that it was suppose to be storming in the morning. The sky was actually blue when we departed in the morning. Shocking as it is, it is true. We got on the road just before 10am. The lady was much nicer this morning then she was last night.

The driving part of the day was not to be too long. In fact, it was only like 100km or something. We took the small roads for the most part, so it took a little longer, but not much longer. First we stopped at Åhus. The town itself means probably nothing to you, but its product you will more then likely recognize, Absolut Vodka. The factory does not actually give tours at all during the off season, so we just drove by it. That is basically the town. Sad as it was, we did not even get out of the car. The centre was cute, but nothing that screamed out at us and N just fell asleep. Thus the reason why we headed on down the road. On a side note, the hostel there looked very cool. We looked it up in our hostel book and it did not sound nearly as cool. If we ever make it back down this way, we will have to try it out.

It was not long until we made it to our destination for the night, Kivik. This is the town that we will be spending two nights at. Our break in the trip, nothing but relaxing for two nights. Just knowing that we will not have to pack up all of our stuff in the morning sends warm feelings through my spine. Check in for the hostel is not until 5 and we arrived at noon. Five hours to kill in a town of about 4,000 people. As a side note on this trip, this is not high season. In fact, it is far from high season. During the summer, all the hostels that we are staying at would be full and we would be lucky to get a room. As it is, everything is closed and the weather has very little to be desired.

With that much time to kill, what else is there to do but go to a café. Kivik is famous for two food things. The first is smoked eel, which I hope to try tomorrow (not sure if I can force myself to eat eel), and the second is apples. Before we walked into the café, I said to M that I wanted to have something made from apples. Then we read on the sign outside the café that they specialized in items with apples. Of course, they did not have a single thing that had apples in it. The girl acted like we were yesterday’s garbage, but N needed to be fed, so we stayed. They did not have a high chair and the lady that served us did not offer one to us. So we did without. Right before we left, M went to the toilet and sitting in the toilet were two high chairs stacked up. Hmm…so much for service.

We then went to the Kivik Apple Cider plant. In the summer you can go on a tour of the factory, but it is not summer. We went into the store and bought some Glögg for Christmas. It has a cranberry and cayenne pepper taste to it. Sounds good, or at the very least interesting. N tried apple cider for the first time and she loved it. She was a little skeptical at first, but was then mad when she finished it.

There are two reasons why we have come to Kivik. One of Sweden’s National Parks is located here and the second is a nature reserve called Haväng which is located just north of the town. Today we went to the nature reserve. We did a little hike, about 4.5km long along the coast and up through the rolling hills. The area is beautiful and I am thankful that it is low season. In high season, this place would be packed. As it is, we were the only people there. At the end of the hike was a youth hostel that looked really cool. The architecture is the traditional Skåne style: white walls and the timber painted brown. The roof was a thatch roof, which I am always impressed by. Though I would hate to be here during the high season, that hostel would be an option to stay at.

We arrived at 4 to the youth hostel. We were hoping to get to check in a little early. Lucky for us, the lady that runs the hostel had to be somewhere at 5, so she left the key in the mail box for us. We were able to get in at 4- YEA!!! The hostel seems nice. For a change, we are not the only ones here. A girl from England is here as well. Tomorrow night we are supposed to have the place alone.

During dinner tonight, we got a call from M’s mother. Apparently the storm that was supposed to hit last night is going to hit tonight. According to her, it is supposed to be as strong as a hurricane. If that is the case, we are just going to have a lazy day at the hostel, which does not sound too bad. Otherwise we are going to go to the National Park. The winds are starting to pick up outside, so we will have to wait and see.