Midsummer tale: Leaving Lolland to embark on a long-awaited journey

My favourite evening of the year is upon us. With a bonfire as high as we can manage, we welcome the long nights of summer. As much as I love Christmas, nothing is quite like Midsummer. At least not to me. It has always been that way. I remember the joy I felt as a child, running around with the other children of my community, the sky still blue despite it being 10 PM, waiting for the bonfire to be ignited. As twilight emerges, the bonfire is lit and everyone sings Midsommervisen, a song about our beautiful country, written in 1885. We welcome the carefree months of summer, and this year, Midsummer also marks the beginning of the end of two difficult years. Every Midsummer celebration is special, but this one more so.

This year, Midsummer also marks a change in my life. Although my life is often changing in all sorts of directions, this one comes with a sense of awe I’ve rarely felt before. I’m leaving my current life on Lolland behind to embark on a six-month journey through whichever countries in Europe will take me. Some destinations are planned, a few flights booked, but most remain unknown. I’ll see as the months pass. But one thing’s for sure, I can hardly wait to resume my travel life. I’ve missed it dearly. Although Lolland has been very good to me, and I’ve enjoyed my time here, my life is just not complete without discovering new places and rediscovering well-loved ones. After Christmas, I’ll be back on Lolland, back at my job at the museum, back to excavating, exploring Denmark and walking the dogs.

The Faroe Islands are up first. My twelfth visit. I’m flying there in just nine days. The mountains are calling. I have zero plans, except for visiting friends, camping and hiking, hiking and more hiking. I think I’ll focus on Nólsoy and Vágar, my two favourite islands, but maybe I’ll be inspired to go elsewhere. Who knows! After the Faroes, Iceland will be calling. I’m only going for three days, but I’ve been to Iceland before, and I’m only really going for one reason – to see the volcano Geldingadalir erupting. It will be the experience of a lifetime. My friend Lucie is supposed to join me, although we’re still not sure if she can due to quarantine rules. I was previously infected, so I’m good to go. Lucie really wants to swim in a natural hot spring. Me too. What else we’ll get up to is unknown, but we do have a car and our tents – in other words, total freedom to go wherever we want. Some suggestions are the Solheimasandur plane wreck, Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon and the Raufarhólshellir Lava Tunnel, all places I haven’t been to before.

I’ll return to Denmark in mid-July to recharge and spend time with my family. Hopefully, this will be the year when I visit the island of Vorsø in Horsens Fjord, but it’s only accessible on guided tours and those sell out quickly! After about a week in Denmark, I’m off to Albersdorf in North Germany to attend the annual Stone Age gathering with a bunch of friends! I can’t wait to reconnect with my people and spend a week relaxing and geeking over the Stone Age.

By the time I return to Denmark, it will be early August. I’m not sure where I’ll go or what I’ll do in August and September, but one thing’s for sure – I’m definitely spending part of those months at home in Denmark. I just love Denmark during the summer (isn’t it obvious ^^). However, I’m also considering the Netherlands and Belgium, two countries I’ve only briefly been to before, as well as a trip to my other home country of England. If I go to England, I’ll probably also visit the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Snowdonia National Park in Wales. I’m also considering adding Switzerland and Liechtenstein plus Cyprus to the mix – if I have time, that is. Switzerland and Liechtenstein because my mum and I had to cancel our trip TWICE last year due to Covid, and Cyprus because I’m intrigued by the political and geographical divide of the tiny country. Most of y’all probably know that Cyprus has a Greek part and a Turkish part, but did you know that it also holds two British exclaves? That’s right! They’re called Akrotiri and Dhekelia, and apparently they’re very easy to get access to!

With the arrival of autumn, I’ll be heading to Kiel to meet up with a team of archaologists from the university there. Then we’ll drive all the way to Serbia and spend two weeks doing geophysical surveys on Late Neolithic sites! It’s such a unique opportunity for me, and I truly can’t wait to participate in the surveys, to widen my knowledge on archaeological methods and hopefully watch new friendships blossom.

After the survey, my plan is to travel around eastern Europe for two months, focusing mainly on the countries I haven’t yet been to. I’ll start with a few more days in Serbia to explore the capital of Belgrade and hopefully hike in some beautiful nature areas. Next up will be Bosnia, a country I know very little about but am very excited to discover. Then I’ll head to Dubrovnik in Croatia, not to sunbathe, but to discover this exclave which is cut off from the rest of Croatia by a narrow strip of Bosnia. Next up will be the ridiculously beautiful country of Montenegro, and then Kosovo, another mysterious country to me and one I’m so very excited to discover. I’ll head through Albania and North Macedonia on my way to Bulgaria, and I might stop in a few places although I won’t be spending much time in either as I’ve been to both before. Bulgaria, on the other hand, will definitely require some time. Highest on my list is Varna, home to a prehistoric burial site with the oldest gold treasure in the world. I also plan to travel into Turkey, although only the European part as I’ve been to the Asian part before. I can’t wait to finally explore Edirne, a town where Bahá’u’lláh spent part of his years in exile, and Istanbul, the city where east meets west.

I’ve been to Romania before, so I’ll whizz through the country on my way to Moldova, another country I know hardly anything about but can’t wait to explore. Funny enough, I know a lot more about Transnistria, a breakaway state in Moldova. Most tourists visit the “capital” of Tiraspol for a day before returning to Moldova, but I want to truly discover Transnistria. I plan to spend at least a week there, so I have time to go way beyond Tiraspol, visiting villages and going for hikes in Transnistria’s truly off-beat wilderness. At the end of my trip, I’ll enter Ukraine for the second time in my life to visit Odessa, a gorgeous city on the banks of the Black Sea. My plan is to not fly once on this journey, so I’ll be heading back to Denmark via trains and busses from Odessa! I’ll arrive home shortly before Christmas and spend the last week of the year with my family in Denmark.

But before I leave for the world, I’ve got one week left to cherish here on Lolland. Tonight, I’m going to enjoy the Midsummer celebration with my host family in Marielyst on Falster. They made my time here wonderful, and I’m so glad to be spending this evening with them. The pictures below are from last year’s Midsummer celebration on Endelave, one of my favourite islands in Denmark. I joined my aunt and some friends of ours for a wonderful evening of good food, meaningful conversations and heat from the bonfire.