Freedom is Calling - Page 7 of 22 - Blog about following the call of freedom

Discovering Sweden

EW July 28, 2024

Sweden is quite different from Germany: less populated, more nature, no traffic jams, almost empty roads, patient people.

On the other hand, many things remind me of the US and Canada: shopping malls, 7-eleven stores, lack of the typical German net of little access roads between fields and in forests.

The landscape is just gorgeous

And what are we doing besides driving?

Foremost swimming. Well, we are not adapted to the temperatures as you can see: https://youtu.be/8-aQxTkOVI0

Of course meals take a big part of our time: https://youtu.be/Ed_toUYZe-4

That’s it for now. More to come.

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Beauty dies first, healthy Nourishment second

GEF July 28, 2024

We knew from the start that practicality would rule. Big Paul has only limited space and what we carry has to be uncomplicated and multifunctional by nature.

Actually, some of the stuff we had on board was a nice-to-have, but proved dispensable. We kissed it goodbye and threw it into a Swedish garbage container.

Going natural

I find quite an amusement with some of the videos on You Tube that show van life in Insta style.

All these extremely good looking, well coiffed people who never go in front of the camera before they have powdered their nose and put on their eye lashes.

Their vans are parked under ever sunny skies, overlooking well-groomed beaches. They are super modern, nicely polished and some even carry decorative potted plants.

Do these guys ever come in contact with reality?

Compared to them, Big Paul looks like a Hippie vehicle from the Woodstock era.

We are the masters of improvisation. We neither have the time nor the energy or interest in looking fabulous or putting on a show. We like the „natural“ approach to van life.

"Friluftsliv" is so recreative.

In Scandinavia, where everybody seems to love „friluftsliv“ – spending as much time as possible in the outdoors – and the weather is moody, they really take it easy. And we cherish it!

They all know, you will wear yourself out. You and your nice clothes will get dirty. You will sweat. Bloodsuckers of various kinds will lurk in the bushes waiting for a chance to start munching on you.

You may realize you urgently need a shower and what you do is jump into one of these wonderful little lakes, nippy as they are, and take a dive.

It‘s refreshing, uncomplicated and extremely recreative!

Daring to go on a Swedish diet

For us, it was very easy to give up „beauty“. The second thing that went down the drain was „healthy“ nourishment.

We decided to try some of the popular dishes that everybody knows, who has ever been to a famous Swedish furniture store: Köttbullar and Fiskbullar, or meatballs and fishballs.

When it comes to dessert, you have to know that Swedes prefer three levels of taste: Sweet, sweeter, sweetest.

I probably don’t have to go into details – we tried many … Just take a look.

That’s it for now. More to come.

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Finally on the Road!

EW July 21, 2024

We spent our last night in Germany in a beautiful, secluded spot at the edge of a quiet forest of old oaks near the Danish border.

The northern Breakfast we enjoyed later was quite different from our accustomed Bavarian diet. You can see them both on YouTube.

Bavarian food (don’t get a culture shock): https://youtu.be/7_sTfkP3Ksw
versus fresh coastline specialities: https://youtu.be/bFc8Pa_zunU

See how we arrived in Sweden: https://youtu.be/yGSdeLAHCEY

Getting mobile internet in Sweden

They said it is so easy.

Unfortunately, the law changed two years ago.

So, whatever I researched before the trip turned out to be out of date.

Bummer!!! I needed a Swedish prepaid SIM card. Once they were available in most stores, but due to new and more strict regulations, most places stopped selling them. We were sent from one shop to another just to hear: “Sorry, we don’t carry them anymore.”

So, we strayed through town, admittedly a very pretty town, trying to find our way in pursuit of that precious litte piece of electronics. No card, no internet. No internet, no blog, no video clips …

We finally found a store of one of the cell phone companies. And lucky us, we arrived 15 minutes before closing.

Yes, I got a SIM card with enough capacity.

The hook is: you can activate it only via internet.

Out of luck?

The only coffee shop providing internet access closed right in front of our very noses.

My phone refused to read the QR code of the card. Additionally, it would not connect to the German internet via roaming.

My partner’s phone connected nicely to the German internet but the browser would not open the website of the provider for registering the card. Without registration, the card is useless.

How to solve the problem?

I created a hot spot with one phone.
That enabled me to access the internet with the other phone and install a new app that read the QR code and connected to the provider’s website – hurray!

Struggeling through the Swedish instructions with the aid of Google translate, I was finally able to activate the card – and – it WORKS!!!

Thanks to that, you can read our first blog articles and view our video clips from Sweden …

That’s it for now. More to come.

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When Angels travel

GEF July 21, 2024

Is it just good luck or does the Universe guide us with benevolence?

We have been on the road now for four days. At this time of the year, the peak of summer school holidays, the German Autobahn is supposed to be a horror. Not for us, though.

Riding and sweating

Very rarely, we have experienced such a smooth ride all the way down from the Bavarian Alps to the Northern coastline. Just one big, unavoidable traffic jam close to the Danish border, probably due to an accident.

That one really made us painfully crawl along for three quarters of an hour and sweat at 41 degrees Celsius in Big Paul’s cockpit.

No – we don’t have the luxury of an aircondition in our old Postal Service van … But what the heck!

Traveling through Denmark was easy and joyful again. Especially driving across the spectacular bridges that connect the Danish main islands and the South Coast of Sweden.

You might recognize this bridge from our blog banner! And you can watch our little video clip: https://youtu.be/yGSdeLAHCEY

Exploring Sweden

Hej Sverige – here we are now! And we enjoy it so much! Big Paul seems to like it, too. He is just purring peacefully along.

So far, the weather has been awesome, and Scandinavia is spoiling us with those beautiful, almost endless days and extremely short nights that never get really dark.

By day, we explore the idyllic landscape on small countryroads. And somehow, we seem to have the right touch finding hidden places where we can spend the nights close to nature and way off the beaten track.

Now we really appreciate that we put a very comfortable bed into Big Paul’s loading space! So enjoyable!

Some of these overnight places let us experience total silence after dawn, a phenomenon so rare in our modern, noisy and busy world.

Nature delights us with special events

The early mornings are a fantastic time to watch nature wake up with the chorus of the birds in the background.

A little hare came by for a breakfast of herbs and flowers. And a colorful Admiral butterfly made itself comfortable on Big Paul’s roof to sunbathe a little bit.

Some of the creatures had a less peaceful start of the day. On the lakeside, two huge grey herons were fighting for a nesting tree. What a spectacular show!

Obviously, one was the „owner“, the other an offender. So, they jumped into the battle, one in hot pursuit of the other, to and fro all the time.

In one second, they sky-rocketed in a steep curve, just to take an abrupt nose-dive again, shrieking and cawing and flapping their wings at each other.

I did my best to catch up with them with my camera at the risk of totally blurring the shots. Moments like this make you love your digital camera – you can take loads of photos and have a good chance that one of the shots will do.

The herons‘ battle reminded me of the old saying: „Nobody can live in peace if the nasty neighbour doesn’t like it.“

Well, we keep avoiding „neighbors“ and go, where the „normal campers“ don’t go.

That’s it for now. More to come.

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