Swedish Parker!

aka Extreme Picnicking.

We felt like getting out of the city for a few days. And given the completely random, decide-where-we’re-going-when-we’re-halfway-there nature of our adventures, I thought I should pick up a cheap, simple and discreet little hire car for the week…

The snow actually helps mask it’s shame; it usually looks even more “flamboyant”.

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The first time someone told me you could surf in Sweden I called B.S. straight away.

The majority of it’s coastline sits on the placid Baltic Sea, and practically everywhere is shielded by thousands of wave-stopping islands, rocks and skerries (no idea what skerries are, but apparently Sweden has loads).

Surprisingly though, you can actually surf in Sweden. And even more surprising is the fact that one of the country’s best surf spots (granted not really saying much there) is only an hour and a half from the capital.

So we hopped in our subtle little Nissan Note - even the name doesn’t look good FFS… - and headed South.

To add to the adventure, Stockholm received it’s biggest dumping of snow the night before. So not only had I gotten back into the wrong side of the road/car routine, but the roads were thoroughly icy enough for a Torvill and Dean performance.

Considering all that, plus the fact I was driving out into the middle of nowhere with some VERY unofficial directions (after the highway turn-off they read: “Follow the small, curvy road all the way, over the small bridge, past the small church, past the Torö butik (general store) and turn right after the big yellow wooden house. Keep left and look for the ocean - you can’t miss it!”), I was pretty stoked just to find the place.

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If you’re now expecting to see pictures of me surfing, you’re having a laugh - it was already below zero before we got down to the beach and discovered the gale force winds (the snow on the water’s edge summarised things nicely…)

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So instead of getting into the icy water, we decided to invent a new game:

Extreme Picnicking.

The rules of Extreme Picknicking are simple:

1. Fill a picnic basket with food.

2. Find a place that is physically inhospitable.

3. Successfully make a ham, cheese and salad roll - from scratch - and eat the whole thing before your fingers/ears drop off.

4. The more physically inhospitable the location, the more points you score.

Note: You must also allow time for a proof-you-were-there photo shoot (see example below).

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Directions (the now-official directions) to Torö (the surf spot…):

1. Take Highway 73 south from Stockholm.

2. After 70 kilometres, take the Herrhamra/Torö exit.

3. Follow the road all the way (that’s 20 minutes on a curvy little road, 30 if it’s been snowing…) over the small bridge, past the small church, past Torö butik (the general store) and then turn right after the Big Yellow Wooden House.

4. Stick to the left and “look for the ocean” - you can’t miss it.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Sweden, Surfing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.