💎 Hidden gems remaining: 8
A small university town with idyllic nature. In winter, covered by huge amounts of snow. In summer, hilly green grass parks emerge. A very relaxing atmosphere. No hurry, a lot of love. An accepting local community. Student accommodations are walking distance from campus, and living in the same neighbourhood (10 min of walk between diametral points) has numerous benefits for social life.
In Umeå, pedestrians and cyclists have the highest priority in traffic. The walk/bike roads are ploughed first when fresh snow falls. And they are proper roads, around two cars wide, and separated from car roads. When you try to cross the road, even when you are still multiple metres away, the car drivers will notice you and stop without exception. (Well, in winter, they have to act like this because the breaking distance on snowy/frozen surface is very long, despite the spikes in their tyres.) Thanks to this driving culture, no pedestrian traffic lights are needed in the city.
Our plane landed at 16.50 into the night. Leaving the aircraft felt, well, cold, as the outside temperature was around –30 °C. How to survive such cold temperatures? It isn't that harsh actually.
By putting on all the clothes in multiple layers, you'll be fine (unless you stand still for hours on a frozen lake waiting for aurora). A great physical property of temperatures way below zero is that air humidity is practically zero. Humans lose a lot of heat when water evaporates from their skin (heat of evaporation). However, if air cannot contain any water, then it won't evaporate, hence you won't feel that cold.
Days were short. I woke up, it was dark outside. When I left home, it began to dawn. When I reached uni, it began to dawn. During lectures, the sun rose to some extent, but when leaving school, it was already on its way to setting.
However, this all changed in summer: all of a sudden, nights turned into days as we had eternal daylight (the sun did set, but it never got dark).
The Nydala lake is just 30 min of walk away. It is the meeting point of all young people. Take a walk there, get to know new people, start a bonfire and have a . To make things easier, there are designated fire places all around the lake! Bonus points if someone brings a guitar!
You may also walk on the frozen lake to feel the vastness of a winter night. Some stars can be seen (there is some light pollution, however). If you are lucky, you may even catch an aurora dance!
Umeå lies enough up in the north to showcase some aurora borealis. You might have guessed that a good place for it is the all-purpose Nydala lake. Once again, starting a fire might help you beat the freezing cold slipping through your clothes. Caution: the fire is hot and may melt your shoes!
Make sure to bring a camera and preferrably a tripod, although you can also be inventive (snow piles + boxes + backpacks + phones + wallets can make a great "tripod"!) or simply use a hand-held modern iPhone.
A beautiful dance of aurora
Our first potluck dinner. Can you guess which dish helped us decide for this autumn's journey?
This is probably the most exceptional advantage of the Umea University. Hundreds of participants are divided into Buddy Groups of 30 international and 10 domestic students. Various activities are organised in the programme, as well as within individual buddy groups. You really don't have to worry about being lonely there – in fact, you will have to purposely schedule some self-time.
Diverse buddy groups are great for sharing cooking culture and eating good food. A potluck dinner is an inevitable part of it.
In the evening of the middle of each week, students are invited to O'Learys in the city centre with free bowling, shuffleboard, darts, billiard and other games. They say there's also some student beer discount.
By now, you have probably got to know your new classmates, so 🎙 🎶. Be sure to reserve the bowling lanes early.
Have you ever tried shuffleboard?
Hockey is a national sport for Swedes. There's a hockey place just a bus away from Umeå with regular matches (at least during season). Pay a visit to grasp the cheering atmosphere. It is suggested to take the standing tickets (better vibe) – your legs are still young 😉.
Plexi glass will protect you from high-speed pucks
Lakes tend to freeze in such cold winter temperatures. But this poses a great temptation: what happens if you cut a hole and dip inside? You get ice-bathing!
This activity is great for improving your focus and willpower. Mind has to be directed away from feeling the freezing water temperature.
To heat up, start a fire prior to bathing. There are fireplace-bowls around the coast.
At 15.00, the sun was already below the horizon
You cannot go to Sweden and not go to Ikea. This Swedish store will offer you everything you need. In case the shared kitchen in your corridor contains no shared equipment, head no further than here.
One day per week, they offer you very cheap meatballs if you quickly create an Ikea Family Card while queueing. In the keller, they have a machine-served ice-cream, we had a lot of fun 😄
You will find items with interesting names. Make puns while crying tears of joy 😂 Or write a using nothing else but names!
Husky sleighs used to be a core means of transport in arctic lands. Trained very well, they listen to your vocal when exploring new areas. When being close to home, they know automatically where to go.
There are numerous companies and individuals offering this experience. Some take you to a forest, some let you drive the sleighs on your own. Find what suits you best.
Sleighing like a pro
When a person from our part of Europe mentions hiking, we think of mountains. A relief with many altitude metres. A great view at the top.
However, this is not the case in Sweden. They call "hiking" every walk in the nature. Even if it's completely flat. Yet, it is no less beautiful!
As we still had our rented car, we went to Bjuröklubb. The view of the Baltic sea, half-frozen and half-molten, is out of this world. If you approach the border, you can hear a special sound: the waves from the liquid water submerge beneath the icy surface. Due to different speeds of sound in liquid and solid water, you can hear something really special.
I fell in love with this view
Now I understand what attracts arctic researchers
Pure joy
We ate what we cooked 🤷🏻♀️. Even if they want to convince you otherwise, there are places to eat on campus (Lindelhallen, Universum, Indian buffett just a corridor away from the MIT ...).
But there is actually something exceptional in Sweden: their Fika culture. There are two very famous pastries: Semla and Princess cake. Although the former sounds like "Žemlja" (bread roll), it is actually similar to French princes krof". And although the latter sounds like "Princes krof", it is a completely different cake.
The filling contains almonds and the dough Mohn; it is very tasty!
