December 30th: Southern Gotland

We woke up earlier, hoping to catch some morning sunlight. But the sky was grey. We strolled through Visby, snooping down alleys and spying at old churches. The guy we are renting from said that the major reason for the churches all being abandoned was the plague!! We walked down to the water, then up by the wall. We found a corner fortress that you could actually get up into, so that was nice.
In the botanical garden, we found decorative English Ivy, bamboo, and butterfly bushes. It's funny that these are plants that Portland is working hard to keep at bay, but in Gotland the weather is still too cold for them to spread out of control.
All in all it was about an hour of strolling around without a crutch. I did okay until right at the end when my calf started to tighten up something fierce!
Our first stop out of Visby was to hunt down the wild horses of Gotland. They are an old breed native to the island. Or, rather native. They've been there for a few thousand years is all. And it turned out that they weren't so wild at all. We drove down a little road, looked into the fenced area to our left, and there we saw a small herd of horses munching on fresh hay. It was great big enclosure, but an enclosure none-the-less. They were beautiful. Stubby and fuzzy and completely uninterested in us, but beautiful.
After the horses, we headed a bit further south to the studio of Sweden's finest carbon printing photographer. Per had been in touch with him and he was willing to show us around his workspace. When we arrived, we were greeted by a fierce and tiny dog, and there was evidence of a studio cat as well. Peter Ragnarsson is the photographer's name. He gave us a very thorough walk through of his process. Hopefully someday we'll get to go back and take a workshop from him.
When we'd talked ourselves short on time, we headed out to catch the ferry back to the mainland. My foot still wasn't up to driving, so I had a good chance to take in the burning-red sunset.
That night we stayed at a weird little hotel in Oskarshamn, right on the water. Weird but okay. But weird.

A rose in the city. Gotland is warmer than mainland Sweden. Some say that it's maybe the fabled island of Atlantis because the roses bloom all year.

Cobblestone streets

Below: The view from inside the fortress

Below: I rant about capitalism, in two videos.

Gotland horses

Carbon print of a photo of an earth star

Burning sky