OSTERSUND (SWEDEN)

Travelling south from Lulea and Pitea, I took an overnight train to the picturesque town of Ostersund in central Sweden. Situated adjacent to another of Sweden's many lakes, the town was quite cosy and the weather just brilliant and as such I spent much of my time just wandering around and checking out the various sights of interest. Following the rainy and cold weather I had experienced throughout most of Norway and in parts of norther Sweden, this weather certainly made for a pleasant change. Following a full day in Ostersund I continued south to an area of Sweden known as Dalarna, more specifically the town of Falun. Whilst the town contained a number of interesting churches and cathedrals and was absolutely crawling with students, I didn't see anything of particular interest and hence stayed only a few hours. From Falun I took a train to Uppsala and a connecting bus back to Norrtalje to catch up with friends before heading further south. As a brief stopover on the train south, I took 2 hours to have a look around Gavle, which was once again nice, but didn't offer anything of particular interest.

I found the area of central sweden to be quite pictureseque but nowhere near as exciting as Norway. Whilst my dissapointment with much of the wilderness scenery in Sweden can be partially attributed to the fact that I came to Scandanavia expecting all the countryside to contain rugged snow-capped mountain ranges and deep fjords, Sweden was quite tame. Relatively flat and with not much more than some nice forests and lakes, the similarity in landscape across much of the country was somewhat dissapointing. Still, the central regions of Sweden were nice, if only to provide a few days of relaxation before returning to the hustle and bustle of magnificent Stockholm.

Photo 1: Cathedral in Falun
Photo 2: Sunset over the lake in Ostersund.
Photos 3&4: Views of Ostersund and the lake.