Sweden is beautiful

Saxat ur en tjeckisk rapport från skolbesöket på Vasa, september 2010, kan vi läsa följande:

„.... Sweden is beautiful, big and clean. Traditional houses are very nice - wooden, colourful with cute figures and dried flowers in the windows, like in a fairy tale. You are still expecting Pipi the Long Stocking peeping out behind the corner.
Also the weather was very friendly all the time. So, thanks a lot for the wonderful journey to the north!
Hej do!

Lenka Pešková, Eliška Cicková
Gymnázium Chotěboř, the Czech Republic"

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Eva Noaksson

Students´ Exchange Gävle - Chotěboř 1.- 11.9.2010

The long time expected day has finally come! Twenty students and two teachers from Gymnázium Chotěboř in the Czech Republic are setting out on a tiring 24-hour-bus journey to the City of Gävle in Sweeden. We are travelling via Germany and Denmark. Watching the sea from the ferry, it seems to be absolutely black. Maybe that´s because it is 4 a.m. and thanks to the tiredness we can hardly see. Anyway, it´s a great experience.
In the evening on 2.9.2010 we are arriving in Gävle. Our "new" families are waiting and welcoming us. Now, something to eat and hurray to bed. What a long journey it was!
Hope, it won´t be too boring if I write about places we visited. There were so many!
In the morning we were welcomed at school which is huge. They have got a very well equipped biology section and a library. We were also impressed by the school canteen where you can choose many meals and salads; here is even vegetarian food.
Then we are exploring the beauties of the city. No doubt, Gävle is much bigger than our home town. Here is a beautiful park, flowing river, flying pigeons and gulls.
The symbol of Gävle is a horned goat which appears in many varietes in the streets - a flavoured one, a striped one etc. It is said that at Christmas a big one is built of straw and then it is burned down as a symbol of the New Year. I am not sure if I understood well.
Everyone enjoyed the third day with his or her Sweedish family.
On the fourth day we are taking part in a bus sightseeing tour in Gävle. We are watching the sights a we are welcomed in the ancient City Hall.
The fifth day was a bit "wild" - in Järvzoo. First we watched the museum and then we went to the open air zoo. Forests here are absolutely huge, mainly coniferous - spruces and pines. There are a lot of stones covered in lichens. And reindeers, elks, bears, wolves and foxes. As I´m saying - A wilderness! Luckily the animals were in a respected distance. Then a boat trip on a lake - Great!
On the sixth day we participated in some lessons, e.g. the lesson of Sweedish language, from which I remember Hej do! (Hello). We enjoyed a lesson of circus in which we tried some stunts, e.g. juggling or walk on the rope. Ater lunch we learned some information about the history in the City Museum of Gävle, and saw some antiquities from the royal court and from voyages; and also the exhibition of famous candies Lökeroll.
On the seventh day we visited the ancient copper mines in Falun/Dalarna and Carl Larsson Museum in his picturesque house with his paintings inside.
On the eighth day we were in Stockholm. We visited the city and its sights, the port with ships which can´t be seen in our country, the building of the Royal Office, the City Hall etc. They have got the Vasa Museum. The warship Vasa is really big. It was built by king Vasa. In 1628 it sank to the bottom of the sea, a short time after she set out on her first journey. The Sweedish raised and renovated her. On the way back we stopped in Uppsala to see the famous university and cathedral.
On the ninth day we visited another museum in Gävle -The Railway Museum.You can see everything from small model trains to big steem locomotives and a high-tech simulator where you can sit and try driving a train.
In the evening on our last day our Sweedish friends invited us to a farewell dinner party. It was at school, with candles. There was a cake from every family, pizza and a friendly atmosphere. Which meals did we try? For example a smoked salmon which was very tasty and other seafood, such as scampi which I haven´t learned how to eat them yet. As far as the cakes concern, a very delicious one is cocoa cake, bullarsniglar - a "snail" of dough with cinnamon, cukier kaka - sweedish cake which is better than our "babovka" and we liked also their traditional meat balls with sauce or gum car candies Bilars which are made here.
I had a very nice time in my Sweedish family; good atmosphere and likeable people. If only they could say something like that about us!
Now, we are saying good-bye. How to summarize?
Sweeden is beautiful, big and clean. Traditional houses are very nice - wooden, colourful with cute figures and dried flowers in the windows, like in a fairy tale. You are still expecting Pipi the Long Stocking peeping out behind the corner.
Also the weather was very friendly all the time. So, thanks a lot for the wonderful journey to the north!
Hej do!

Lenka Pešková, Eliška Cicková
Gymnázium Chotěboř, the Czech Republic