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Friluftsliv: living the outdoors!

Hello everybody and welcome to this new post! Finally, Spring has arrived in Stockholm and it has gifted us with two weeks of uninterrupted sunny weather (15 degrees, slight breeze, great sunsets – Summer vibes!). Therefore, the time has come to get back in contact with nature and enjoy some good outdoor life (“friluftsliv”, in Swedish). Come with me on a trip to the Stockholm’s archipelago!

Picture of Stockholm taken from a boat. There's a Swedish flag in the foreground and som buildings in the background
The views of Stockholm from the boat are always super fascinating!

Stockholm is a very green city. It is built on 14 islands and offers plenty of space to enjoy the outdoors: Norra Djurgården, the park North of KTH, and Kungliga Djurgården, next to Gamla Stan, are just two examples of big and beautiful parks inside the city. However, Stockholm is also part of a huge archipelago of islands that can be reached from the centre via ferry very easily, and that’s what I did last weekend! A friend of mine came to visit me from Italy, and we decided to have a stroll in a natural reserve slightly North of Stockholm, named Bogesundslandets naturreservat.

A small village with red houses on a island
A small village close to the natural reserve. I love the cute red houses!

Getting there was pretty simple: we only had to hop on one of the many ferries that roam around Stockholm each day. No need to pay extra ticket, no need for a reservation in advance: everything was included in the SL card that I use to commute daily in the city. This makes it super easy to travel in the archipelago, exploring new places and enjoying the nature!

A boat with a dog near the Captain's room
A SL boat. Notice the dog enjoying the view from the Captain’s room!

Once we got off the boat, we took a long walk in the natural reserve. One thing that I find really fascinating about Scandinavian nature is that it is a perfect mix between a mountain and a sea landscape: you are on an island, and you can see the sea through the tree branches, but the vegetation is so dense that it really looks like you are in a mountain forest!

A forest
Your average Swedish forest

This kind of trips are also super nice because, in case you love camping, they make you discover some good places to camp during Summer. In Sweden, it is super common to camp outside and most natural reserve even have places with braziers and shelters to spend the night. In our case, we didn’t have the right gear to sleep outside and decided to come back home. But first, we enjoyed the sunset on this beautiful hill right above the ferry stop!

My friend sitting on top of the hill with a nice view of the archipelago
My friend contemplating the view after a (quite long) hike!

That is all for today’s post. In case you missed it, I highly recommend you to check out Raygo’s last post on non-EU students guide and Martyna’s last post on healthcare in Sweden. I’m sure they will help you! Also, remember to follow KTH on Instagram and to regularly check out the New at KTH page not to miss out on any of the upcoming webinars and events for prospective students!

I’ll see you next week!

// Lorenzo

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