Tag Archives: hiking

Jun20

A brief introduction to the Djurgården

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A brief introduction to the Djurgården

Monday, 27-May-2024


One of the big spots on my list of places to visit in Stockholm was the legendarily-huge park, the Djurgården. I’d heard stories of it before, from family and friends, and was looking forward to taking a good long walk in the woods. I’d been rocking the city life since Reykjavik, and some clean air and animal sounds were sounding pretty great to me.

After leaving the Vasa Museum, I knew it was a bit too late to kick off a true exploration of the gardens… but I am a pretty big fan of recon missions… and the Vasa Museum is right next to one of the entrances…

I checked my map, grabbed a quick snack, and headed in.



Stepping into Djurgården proper, or at least the nature section since technically the Vasa Museum is within the bounds, wasn’t much different from stepping into any city park – There were beautifully flowering plants, people picnicking, and some folks playing various lawn games. It was pretty, but nothing especially unique… at first.

As I continued walking, the garden became more and more wild. Where most city parks will maintain that base level of “tamed nature”, the Djurgården became less tame. I passed one last restaurant, and found myself in a forest of oak trees and wild underbrush. I could almost, just barely, hear some city noises… but I was essentially insulated, hearing mainly the wind in the trees and the birds chattering to each other.


I’ll admit that I didn’t wander for too long – I hadn’t had too much to eat previously, and the day was quite warm. I got some good exposure and exploration in, came up with a good plan on where to go when I came back, and started to slowly forge my way back to civilization.




Ohh! One quick extra – Something that I’ve noticed in both Oslo and Stockholm. Vegetarian Roombas! AKA automated lawnmower robots! They’re cute, but also just a little bit scary.

May31

Adventures in Kirkjubæjarklaustur

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Adventures in Kirkjubæjarklaustur

Saturday, 11-May-2024, and Sunday, 12-May-2024


My adventures brought me to a town I can’t pronounce.

Translated, the name means “Church Farm Cloister”, which is a very direct and simple description of the town – there’s a church, there’s a farm, and there’s a cloister. Or… there was, back when the name was picked. Or someone was describing it, and the other person thought that was the name? Man, I don’t understand people today, much less vikings.

And that’s a neat part! This town WASN’T founded by Vikings! At least, not entirely…. the cloister was founded by Irish Monks, who practiced and early form of Christianity back when Iceland was primarily following the Norse religion. It’s a beautiful down, snuggled into a valley with the standard huge soaring cliffs and cascading waterfalls that’re so common in Iceland.

Of interesting note – there’s two great restaurants, and Iceland’s tallest tree here.

Of also interesting note – There’s one of Iceland’s first hydro power generation facilities here! I can’t really call it a “generation plant”, since it’s approximately the size of my bedroom, but… very neat piece of previously-lost history, reclaimed by Icelandic artists.

Of further interesting note – Great hiking. We had a grand old time braving the rain and kicking around the trails around town, above town, and through town. Definitely worth the visit if you happen to be in the area!

May23

A sunrise hike up Lille Malene

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Saturday, 04-May-2024


It all started at the Art Museum.

I mentioned that I was the only one in the museum at the time, and that meant that I effectively got a private tour? Well, we exchanged numbers at the end, with the promise to get dinner some evening before I left.

That did end up happening, but before we could even send a “Hello, how are you?” message, I ran into her again out around town. Turns out she had been grocery shopping, but had lost her wallet somewhere along the way… and was freaking out more than a little bit. Since my only plan for the afternoon was to wander around town, I offered my emotional support for the scavenger hunt… support which was readily accepted.

A frantic hunt ended at her house, finding the wallet safely tucked away on top of a dresser. Which then led to my invitation to a dinner party with a whole group of exchange students, and a follow-on invitation to a 4am hike up a nearby mountain to watch the sunrise.

I… realistically should have declined, and made sure to get the standard requisite sleep that a newly-minted long-term traveler really needs. But, equally realistically, this was exactly the type of spontaneous adventure that I had hoped I’d find when I first came up with the idea of this whole trip.

We spent the evening chatting among friends – Primarily English (thank you, everyone!) with a smattering of Danish, German, and French when English couldn’t suffice. I had brought my photo album, which was received with flying accolades (At one point the New Zealander in the group asked if I’d ever hiked any of the places in the photos. He hadn’t realized that it was my book… and I got an incredible ego boost when he realized who’s name was on the cover). We ate, we talked, and we finally got to bed sometime around 2am.

(As a side note – I was very glad to have squirreled a contacts case into my jacket, with a second one in my satchel. Definitely worth it for unexpected adventures like this)

At 4am, we headed out. A fun part of Nuuk is that it’s not huge… so we actually walked from the house to the trailhead. Some of the folks had crashed at the house, while others has camped out near the trailhead – we met them en-route, then headed up into the wind.

Of note – I’d originally had a water taxi tour scheduled for Saturday… but it had been delayed to Sunday due to the high winds. While I didn’t have my windproof layer with me, nor any of my standard mountaineering gear, the group had convinced me that they wouldn’t be necessary… I borrowed a rain-shell from my Art Museum friend, which ended up being quite warm enough to make the ascent.

An ascent which felt like a lifetime. The wind howled, nearly non-stop, and I fully understood why this would have been a horrid day to be on the water. As it was, I had to keep my head down the entire way, and keep myself moving throughout to avoid cooling off too badly… the temperatures in Nuuk were around 6 DegF. with windchill, and were well below zero up on the mountain summit if I had to make a guess.

That summit came, though, with beautiful sunrise views… even if my face had long since gone numb from the wind. We took shelter in the lee of a meteorological station just long enough to appreciate the views and the shelter, before starting back down again. In told, the whole adventure (door to door, including the walk back to my Airbnb) took around five hours. It felt like a lifetime, and I’ll freely admit that I fell into bed immediately upon my arrival back home.

It had been glorious – I couldn’t have asked for a more amazing start to my trip.