In the first half of September, my wife, our dog, and I went for a road trip to Sweden. Over the course of two weeks, we drove over 4,000 km and hiked about 150 km. Quite an adventure, including sleeping in our 4x4, with quite some ups and one small but mighty down.

Germany

Let’s be honest, so far I don’t know many reasons for Germany to exist, besides for giving the opportunity of crossing it when you go to interesting places. I don’t mean it bad or something.

I just am not very familiar with Germany and I don’t know this (probably beautiful in some parts) country other than from highways, gas stations and grocery stores next to the Dutch border. Sorry to my German friends and forgive me, if you ready it. Tell me where to go to change my mind and I will.

Denmark

If you close your eyes and someone put you in the middle of Danish countryside, you might think you’re still in The Netherlands. Although it is a bit different. Architecture is slightly different, more Danish I would say.

We stayed in some village for a night and walked up and down the street (the only street) few times, just to witness quite some weird things.
Like a funeral car in one of the front yards or old caravans next to literally every house. I mean it. Every single house.

Sweden

When you enter Sweden it looks like Denmark, so also like The Netherlands in some way. Flat fields, farms, woods on the horizon, quite some water here and there. Almost disappointing, especially if you expect wildlife at the doorstep of the country.

We found a random parking lot which turned out to be a lovely spot at the recreational area. With a lake (at the doorstep of our car), clean toilets and warm shower (which we discovered after a serie of too cold plunges in the lake).

And then the whole thing called Sweden has started.

From the lake Vaxjo (which is not a Vaxjo you might have heard of), we headed up north along the west coast.

Bohuslan

On the way I found a random spot on a satellite view on google. It looked promising, but I was actually quite sceptical, since I didn’t know if it’s allowed to stay there. Again, it turned out very well. The parking place was located directly at the water in between the islands of the archipelago.

This is where I dusted my camera.

Glaskogen

Oh boi, what a place. We stayed at the camping in the woods, as wild camping is not allowed in the reserve. Though, the camping place with plenty of space for ourselves and direct access to the lake felt like wild anyway.

Next day we went for an early hike and I couldn’t resist to play my favourite game Baby, wait a second.

The rules are simple: my wife leads with a doggo, I stay far behind and can’t stop taking pictures of everything I see. I keep on saying Baby, wait a sec anytime the distance between us increases to at least 100m.
Seems like I can call myself a winner since my wife didn’t leave me behind in the middle of the ancient woods.

Car cemetery Bastnas

It’s a little drive from Glaskogen. Like an hour or more, unless you get lost and end up in Norway, first getting lost at Eurocash by replenishing the stock of cinnamon rolls. In this case it might take a little longer.

Also, don’t ask which road to choose, because we surprisingly took different way when going there and another on the way back, even though I thought there was actually no road to the place besides the one on the Norwegian side of the border.

What a creepy place.

It’s a car graveyard where around 500 classic vehicles are slowly decaying, hidden away in the forest. These cars were originally meant to be smuggled into Norway, but for some reason, they never made it there. Now, they serve as a tourist attraction, but to make sure you don’t feel too welcome, you’ll also encounter signs warning against looting the abandoned houses.
After reading one of them, which said: 'Remember, in this place no one can hear you scream...' we decided to move on.

National park Tresticklan

I’m not gonna lie, after a visit in Bastnas, spending a night at the empty parking lot at the secluded entrance to national park was at least exciting. But we made it to the morning.

During the sunrise hike we played that game again. Again, I scored by not being left behind.

By the way, it was in Tresticklan, where I got an idea for blog post about how time of the day and the weather affects the atmosphere on the pictures.
Since the trail we chose is a loop, after about two or three hours, we returned to the starting point. The same place looked completely different once the mist had lifted. I took some pictures for the reference. Soon I will write a blog about it.

Where to go

Honestly, we didn’t know where to go after Tresticklan. Perhaps we even had a feeling that nothing can beat these two places - Glaskogen and Tresticklan - and in a way we were right.
We got in the car and drove east to reach Vena, the largest lake in Sweden. Soon after that the weather has changed.

It was also time to move direction Malmo. Meaning home.

A little bummer in the end

It took us another two days to explore the southern Sweden a very tiny bit. Most of this time it was raining pretty hard, so we rented a place to avoid packing the car in the rain.
Nothing wrong with that, cause we had quite a cozy time. The only thing is we didn’t know the sunroof in the car turned out to be leaking. And one of my lenses (my favourite lens to be precise, Sony 35 mm f/1.8) was left in the car for a night, in the plastic box right underneath the sunroof.

Next day I found it soaked. I don't know exactly how much water I poured out of it. Roughly about half a cup. Honestly, I didn’t believe that this lens would still work.
However, after returning home, it turned out that after drying out and evaporating, it works just fine.

Sony, if you’re reading this (which you probably aren’t), know that I’m still slightly shocked.

Houdoe, and till the next time!

Sweden, my favourite game and soaked lens