Hiking trails through Uppsala: Gula Stigen or The Yellow Trail

Uppsala can feel quite small if you are used to live in big cities, but it can also feel very fresh, natural, and free. The city is surrounded by fields and forests and, therefore, there are a lot of opportunities in terms of outdoors activities. "Low level" hiking (of course, almost no hills here!) is one of them, and today I'm going to talk about the Gula Stigen trail.

"Gula Stigen is a hiking trail of about 10 kilometres long, running from the Studenternas sports stadium via Kronparken, Rosendalsfältet, Ultuna hagar, Gottsundagipen, and Vårdsätra Forest, to Skarholmen. It was created as a skiing and hiking trail back in the 1930’s. What is unique about this trail is that runs through an almost continuous green belt in the middle of an urban environment. The trail’s surroundings include broadleaf groves, old pine forests, arable land, and pastures. This means that you can enjoy a rich variety of countryside. The terrain is occasionally slightly hilly, with boulders and roots, but there are also easily accessible stretches in the northern part of the trail that are suitable for disabled persons" (from Uppsala Kommun).

It is an easy hike, although it can be quite tricky if done during the winter months, as ice and snow cover the path and it becomes slippery. In these case, you are never too careful! That is also one of the reasons it took so long to do it. I think it can take about 1h 30m, more or less, in spring or summer conditions.

Some pictures I took the other day (February 21, 2015):

Path through the forests

Food craziness in Sweden (intolerances, I mean)

I'm not going to complain about anything at all because, LUCKILY, I'm talking about intolerances and not allergies, but they are giving me a hard time anyways, I also have to admit that. Fact: I'm currently intolerant to lactose AND eggs.

So, last year, when I was in Copenhagen, I found some products that helped me overcome my lactose problems and I managed to be, more or less, happy with my life. You know, it's really difficult to live without dairy products. I know vegans, I know! You do it! But I have not reached that state yet, sorry, although... who knows! Ironically, vegan diet would be the best for me but, please, with a steak on the side! (another fact: I'm trying to reduce my meat consumption, there you go ^^).

Let's go back to Denmark. So I found some products in there and I was okay with that (read post about that). But when I realized I was moving again, this time to Sweden, I got scared for a second. Shit! Will they have lactosefree milk? Some cookies? Butter? I mean, scandinavian gastronomy is based on dairy food, but I didn't know what to expect and, as I said, Denmark was not heaven, you know. Moreover, lately, in Spain, they've been releasing all these fancy lactosefree products that danes didn't even had, so I was kind of jealous and all. And then, as a parting gift (thank you, btw), I developed my intolerance to eggs, which just made everything awesomly perfect (and goodbye to trying to eat less meat...).

Whatever. And August arrived, I moved to Uppsala, and I went grocery shopping for the first time. And, oh, babies, OMG!, Sweden is the LACTOSEFREE HEAVEN !!! Ok, maybe not that much, but almost!

And this is just the ICA selection (Willy's also has lots of them!)