Our final week in Sweden was spent mostly in a tent. We began with three days cycling around the island of Gotland. The island is 2,994km². To help you appreciate the size, that is about the same as Choiseul Island in the Solomon Islands, 4.8 times larger than Benjamin Island in Chile or 0.00058% of the Earth's surface.
The first night we stayed at the beautiful Ireviken.
Thanks to the Everyman's Right, in Scandinavia you can put your tent just about anywhere. So we did just that, made a fire and watched the sunset.
And watched the fire
We made some great friends along the path
A rest on day 2
On the second night we stayed just south of Slite. It was again very pleasant.
The third night we were in the island's medieval walled town of Visby.
As medieval towns go, Visby is very well preserved and still has many cute old houses.
That evening we stayed in the old Visby jail. Cell 13.
After escaping the island we made a quick stop at the Kalmar Castle. It was here that in 1397, Sweden, Denmark and Norway were unified by Queen Margaret I of Denmark.
Mmm.... cheese in a tube.
We then spent 3 hectic days at the Hultsfred music festival.
Our great spot by the lake.
The first act was one of Josh's favourite bands, The Gaslight Anthem. They did not disappoint.
Later on day 1 we were privileged enough to experience Slash. It was quite simply incredible. He played a great set including the 5 best songs from "Appetite for Destruction". For a guy who has probably spent more time playing guitar than sleeping in the last 30 years, he genuinely seemed to enjoy himself.
The combination of the shining sun and Swedish singer-songwriter Anna Ternheim made for a very relaxed start to day 2.
The second day climaxed with a set by The Cure. They started just before 1am and played until 3:15. It was a surreal scene as the sun started to come up and the exhausted crowd simply swayed back and forth like zombies. In the end Robert Smith announced that the police had threatened to shut off the power, so they did "Boys Don't Cry"and called it a night.
The best performance was from a Norweigen band called Katzenjammer. They played a mix of pop, folk and rock and switched instruments so many times it was ridiculous.
We also saw The Stone Roses, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Garbage, Kasabian and of course on the main stage Sweden vs England in the European Championships.
It all finished with an amazing show (or multimedia handjob as they described it) from the Gorillaz.
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