Observations of Ostersund.

Ostersund is a beautiful town located on a hillside adjacent to a lake. Everyone can speak abit of english- so it is fairly easy to get around and get assistance when needed.

The houses remind me of barns: brightly painted and full of windows. Each house is a different colour- red, blue, green, pastel yellow, mustard yellow, cream, salmon, pink, and the list goes on and on. They are very co-ordinated aswell-- the picket fences match the house colour.

There are parks everywhere you turn. Some are large and some are small, all with benches, waterfalls, pathways & kids playgrounds. The whole atmosphere here is very naturalistic, with garbage cans located sparatically around town as well as in the vast trails outside of town.

Bicycles and walking are a part of life here and are well integrated into the road system. On bothsides of the road are pathways which are as wide one road lane that house the bike path and sidewalk.

Off the main roads are small one way streets; very european looking. Pedestrians rule the roost here. They do not look before crossing; they just cross--it is up to the drivers to anticipate and stop. Sometimes they, if they realize you are waiting to cross, will stop and let you. Other times if you do not just go...and hope that they will stop...you will never get across. Everything is a mode of transportation here, aside from the automobile-- from bicycles to dirtbike to motorcycles, scooters and I even saw a ATV 4 wheeler on the road this morning.

As for the cost of living...I thought it was going to be really expensive, but it seems (if I am converting correctly) that it is somewhat reasonable to Canada. There are afew things, such as household items that seem rather expensive. I have learnt that there are three ways to indicate monetary value:
SEK400
400kr
400:-

The krona is difficult to adjust to. It is like paying for everything in pennies. The numbers can get very high, which, if you don't convert, may seem really expensive. For example my rent is 1985kr which is about 300CND- not bad.