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Kosterhavets National Park, Seals and More…

Strömstad, Sweden… Skagerrak sea, long Norway spruce, Scots pine, marine mammals and birds… When you are working for your project all the time, nearly day and night (including weekends!), you barely find time to enjoy the beauty of nature during joint school. I think the only way to make us focus on something other than the project and go out is to make it mandatory. How? By including an excursion to the joint school calendar! And today was THE DAY!

Everything started with a boat trip to Sydkoster while it was pouring. Therefore, before we left from Sven Lovén Centre in Tjärnö, I went to my room to grab my umbrella. Well, a few people were commenting on the fact that I took an umbrella with me (even some of our mentors commented that it was their first time that they saw someone taking an umbrella on boat) but once we were all on the boat and moving, one of my friends asked to use the umbrella and at the end, 4 of us were hiding ourselves from rain under it. So I guess it wasn’t a bad idea.

When we reached Sydkoster, firstly we visited naturum Kosterhavet Information Center. We watched a short documentary about marine species that are found within the region. Apart from being informative, it gave us some time to relax indoors. There was an exhibition (in Swedish) going on and one of the posters that has a drawing of a boy in a boat had a chair underneath and I decided to rest a bit. When I sat down, it was one of the most comfortable chairs and I had the chance to joke around that I am “a part of the exhibition” and even someone told to me that the boy in the drawing looks like me so I had so much fun while resting.

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A picture from the exhibition in naturum Kosterhavet Information Center

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A picture of me sitting on “the chair”

Afterwards, we went to a small island called Ursholmen on which there were only a few houses and a lighthouse. One of the interesting things about the island was that there was a garden surrounded with rocks where potato plants were cultivated.

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A picture of small town on Ursholmen island

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A picture of the lighthouse on Ursholmen island


On our way back to Tjärnö, we finally were able to see seals laying and sleeping on rocks. Unfortunately, they were actually pretty far away but still recognizable. When we made it back to land, everyone was rushing to leave their life jackets and go to dinner. I guess the whole journey made everyone super hungry including me. To be honest, I really enjoyed the excursion and it was one of a kind experience that I will always remember.


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