Åre Rotary Wildcamp

When on exchange, you have many opportunities to go on trips that wouldn't be possible otherwise. The two biggest trips that students in Sweden are offered are the Kiruna trip, where we all go to the very North of Sweden and see the ice hotels, and the Europe Ramble, commonly called Euro Tour, where we spend a few weeks traveling through Europe with each other. Besides those two, we can go on many smaller trips, such as the Åre Rotary Wildcamp. We received the invitation before we even arrived in Sweden so it was common knowledge and we all talked about who was and wasn’t going to the camp during Language camp. After Language camp ended, we had exactly two weeks before all of those who were going could see each other again. By the end of the two weeks, I was definitely ready for a break from school.

The train ride from Malmö to Åre was supposed to be fourteen hours so I had stocked up on food for the ride. I met the other two people leaving from Malmö and we found our car on the train and got settled in. About an hour later, we were joined by three other students from a neighboring town. Fitting six people into a small room for 14 hours alone can be frustrating quickly, but it is even worse when the train is delayed for five hours. We were told that we would only have to wait about thirty minutes so we didn’t feel too bad, then for the next five hours, they kept giving us increasingly longer departure estimates. With the time that we were stopped, we could’ve gone to a restaurant, stopped at the local ICA (one of Sweden's biggest supermarket chains), and even go bowling. Sadly, we had no idea how long we would actually have to wait. Once we finally left the stations, the rest of the ride went off without a hitch, and we only arrived about two hours later than originally scheduled because the train conductor made the decision to go top speed to make up for lost time. When we arrived, we were driven through a beautiful countryside to our home for the weekend. I was expecting a camping trip so I made sure to pack everything that one would need for camping, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that we would all be staying in a hostel-like house. Once we were all unpacked, we went outside and explored the surrounding area.

Right outside of the house was a tree house and a swing that kept us busy until the other students arrived. The moment the van doors opened, all you could hear was shrieking as all of the students from the Ädelfors language camp found each other, hugged, and welcomed each other. We then introduced ourselves to the other students that we hadn't met yet and went inside for lunch. After a lunch of sandwiches, everyone headed outside where we would be playing games and doing activities for the next few hours. The activities included throwing axes, shooting arrows, making spruce tip tea with tree branches, and tying knots. We were originally supposed to go through stations in an orderly fashion but the groups quickly dissolved when people realized that they would rather be throwing hatchets than tying knots. After about an hour of organized chaos, it seemed like the skies split and an abundance of rain started to pound down on us. We spent the rest of the day exploring and watching movies in the rec room in the attic.

On the second day of camp, everyone was split into four groups. There were three activities overall for the two full days of camp. My group first went kayaking on a giant lake and enjoyed a lunch of hotdogs on the opposite shore. The wind gave us all a workout when we were going across the lake but on the way back we barely had to touch our paddles to the water and just let the wind do all the work. We finished kayaking around two and met up with the other group who would be kayaking that day. We wished them luck, as the weather had gotten considerably worse and they would have to fight much stronger wind, and went on our way to the next adventure. We drove to a small mountain and hiked for about four kilometers to the top where we delighted in cinnamon rolls and took pictures of the beautiful surrounding landscape. After our small hike, we drove home and prepared dinner for the camp.

The next day was my group's turn to go on the big hike. The groups from the day before told us about how it was pleasant, but long, so we prepared by bringing extra sandwiches to sustain us through the day. The hike was mostly flat but we still had gorgeous views of the muskegs and rivers. We also had many water breaks so that we could fully take advantage of the crystal clear water. The water there is so clean that you can drink it straight from the river so we made sure to fill our water bottles at each one we passed. When we finally arrived at the lake where we would be having lunch, what greeted us was breathtaking. The lake that lay below us was crystal blue where you could see through the water to the tree-lined bottom. We ate lunch and discussed the possibility of swimming. It was about 46°F that day so the water was in no way warm, but it looked so inviting that we just had to try. Only about six, including me out of the twenty-something teens on the hike got in the water. A girl from Switzerland and I were the first to go in and we thought we would be done after just a short dip, but the boys insisted we go to a better spot to jump in farther around the lake. About ten minutes away was a tree that leaned over the water and they all wanted to jump off of that instead of just getting into the water like sensible people. We all walked over to the tree to watch the spectacle, me still in my bathing suit, soaking wet. When we got there, the boys all jumped off of the tree and hastily ran out of the water. I decided I wasn't finished yet so I jumped back in once again. After realizing that I would have to walk all the way back again barefoot, I decided to just swim back through the icy water. I got about halfway back to our lunch site before I lost all feeling in my arms and had to swim to shore to walk the rest of the way. The girl from Austria swam the entire way back and I don't know how she managed to keep all of her fingers and toes. After drying off, we all hiked the rest of the way back to the parking lot and enjoyed a relaxing evening filled with Pixar movies, hot tubs, and saunas.

The rest of camp was easy-going and nice as we were able to unwind. On the last day, all of those who weren’t leaving on the plane were able to take the gondola up to the top of one of the biggest skiing mountains in Åre and hike to the top. The wind was howling and the air was thin, but I loved the view of Sweden stretching across the horizon below us. I was also quite excited to see any mountain in general because in the south of Sweden where I am staying, the landscape is mostly flat farmlands and rolling hills. It was refreshing and fun to be able to see Sweden’s amazing outdoors and I’m excited for my next chance to be able to observe Sweden’s nature up close.