Hello from Sweden,
We are just at the end of our third day in Sweden and it has been an interesting experience. This is the first time i have had a chance to blog (thanks to Arber and his amazing iphone). We are staying on a campsite of sorts (swedish campsites are very different to ours) and the wireless network can only be found at certain points and even then it is really slow. Not to mention the extremely long days we are having. A lot of people (especially my friends) think we are just here for a jolly but it is definitely hard work.
Things did not get off to the best start. After a long drive to Stanstead (via Rotherham) we landed in Sweden a little early but the coach did not leave for a couple of hours. Great we thought, have a coffee and relax. That was until the coffee cost £4.50!! (Nescafe) Crazy prices in Sweden!! England prices are cheap in comparison and i never thought i'd say that. A 2 hour coach journey was followed by an hour on the metro and the final leg on bus should have taken 20 minutes.
But things are never that simple. As it was a Sunday the bus we were supposed to catch was not running. No problem, there were other buses going to karsogarden. Catch the 177 i was told by the information desk, the stop is just outside Mcdonalds. We asked the bus driver if this was the right bus, he grunted and nodded. We asked him if he would tell us when we reached our stop, again he grunted and nodded. Great we thought, almost there!! That was until we reached the end of the line and the bus driver grunted something (body language said what are you still doing here?). We realised we found a bus driver who was probably the only person in Sweden who did not speak English. I got Vanessa (the conference organiser) on the phone, she spoke to him and then we were told to take our seats. Turns out i dont think he spoke Swedish either, because we ended up at the same stop we got on and then he grunted at us again!! haha. It was all fine though, we caught the most expensive taxi ever and finally got to the site at 10.30 (we were due at 8).
Thankfully, things have been very motivating and inspiring since then. The groups from Sweden, Holland and Ireland are all awesome and we are already like a big family.
We spent Monday visiting youth work centres in Stockholm and sat through a few lectures. We are supposed to be out here to try to help the Swedish develop and define youth work but they are already doing some inspiring work. We visited a world class youth centre called Fryshusset which has an indoor skate park, BMX park, basketball courts, dance studios, a free school, café etc. etc.as well as a number of unique projects. One was called Exit which helps to support right wing defectors, run by a former Nazi. Another was called United Sisters which works with and supports young girls. They also have a free school which has a unique problem based method of learning (especially interesting for me as I work in education), a professional basketball team and an amazing project which employs young people to patrol the city centre/train stations and work with young people st stop anti-social behaviour, graffiti etc.
We spent the evening cooking for each other and one group set-up an amazing Halloween themed dinner, complete with a ghost and pumpkin. It was a fantastic evening which ended with some presentations and a de-brief.
Unfortunately we did not get to bed till after midnight and were up for 5 am to get to the Conference in Orebro. Again, this was inspirational with some very knowledgeable speakers, particularly Philip from Belgium who talked about the history of youth work in Europe.
We also took part in something called an idea market, which was something new for most of us, but a very interesting way of sharing ideas and practices with other people. Orebro is a beautiful city and it was a shame we did not get any time to look around but we have a very busy schedule and there is not much time for anything else, even blogging.
Apologies for the long blog but we are travelling to Umea tomorrow and who knows when I will get a chance to blog again. Enjoy reading and keep checking for further blogs.
Hej doǺ
A very tired Shabs!!
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