karenp@zeus.UUCP (Karen Palmer) (03/26/84)
My boyfriend and I went to Scandinavia last summer. We spent most of our time around Copenhagen, seeing the local crafts and sampling the food (especially pastries). I found several good buys in the small shops along the walking streets, mainly well-designed, inexpensive materials jewelry. Wool coats and sweaters were also much cheaper there than in the U.S. Driving out into the country was also very pleasant. We drove about 2 hours west of Copenhagen to a little seaport town where they were reconstructing a Viking ship. I forget the name of the town now, but the Danish tourist board would know. An interesting side trip was to take the ferry to Malmo and drive along the southern coast of Sweden to Kalmar. There is a great old castle there. Also, that whole region is filled with glass-blowing shops, ceramics and textile manufacturing plants. We are interested in glass-blowing so we concentrated on those places. There are the big places like Kosta, Boda, and Orefors; but more interesting were the little places with names like Scruf and Pukeberg (they don't sound that bad in Swedish). These little places do not have guided tours or little ropes to herd you around. They just let you wander around wherever you want. You can look right over the shoulder of the guy spinning very hot glass or stick your head in an oven if you so desire. Even though most of the people don't speak English, they try very hard to explain what they are doing and how it is done; everyone is very friendly. These places are way out in the sticks and the countryside is beautiful. The tourist bureaus publish little map