Outdoorsy Things to do in Uppsala

I chose to live and study in Uppsala due to its proximity to nature. After spending over a year there, spread over 2020 to 2022, I wanted to share some of my favourite outdoorsy things to do for nature-lovers or biology students who might find themselves in Uppsala! From Poison Dart Frogs in the Tropical Greenhouse and foraging for lingonberries, to looking for bearded tits in the reeds of Hjälstaviken, there's tonnes to do!

1. Visit the Uppsala Botanic Gardens (Botaniska trädgården).

If, like me, you find yourself in Uppsala surrounded my a lot of unfamiliar green things, the Uppsala Botanic Gardens are a fantastic way to become acquainted with the local flora (and, of course, more exotic plants, too). It was here that I learned the difference between a beech and a birch (obvious if you grow up around them, but just two similar-sounding 'tree names' to a girl from Down Under!), and learned what a Hazel, European Larch, Scot's Pine, and Linden tree all looked like. From these early days, the trees around me turned from strangers to friends, and so my surroundings became more familiar and started to feel like home... P.S. - The botanic gardens has some great exhibitions on, including a fantastic Snowdrop walk in March/April, concerts, and more!

2. Forage for blueberries and lingonberries

Unless you have expert or cultural knowledge, most Australians approach plants and animals with a "Don't Touch" rule, so the concept of foraging for berries was super quaint to me. Blueberries and lingonberries grow just about in every forest in and around Uppsala (and around Sweden), from late Summer to early Autumn. Simmer the lingbonberries with sugar to make your own lingonberry sauce to serve on a traditional Köttbullar (meatball) dinner. You can also buy fresh berries from the markets at Vaksala Torg, and I bought my chanterelles here because I was too nervous to forage them myself. Check out this really interesting article about the fairly recent transition to mushroom foraging in Sweden: Svanberg, Ingvar & Lindh, Hanna. (2019). Mushroom hunting and consumption in twenty-first century post-industrial Sweden. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. 15. 10.1186/s13002-019-0318-z.

3. Go birdwatching at Hjälstaviken Nature Reserve

Birdwatching is big in Sweden, and big annual migrations of birds in Autumn and Spring are worth popping in your calendar. We saw some Bearded Tits in Hjälstaviken in Autumn, which is accessible from central Uppsala via buses 803 and 804. Massive flocks (tens of thousands!) of Cranes come in March/April, which can also be seen at Hjälstaviken. P.S. in spring on the south side of the lake you can see the ephemeral bloom of the wood anemones at Stora Parnassen!

Smudge 9000 from North Kent Coast, England, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Some of the birds you can see at Hjälstaviken.

4. Look for Poison Dart Frogs at the Tropical Greenhouse

The glasshouse at the Botanic Gardens is free for Biology students and worth a visit. It's suppperrr humid inside, so this is a great winter-friendly activity for when you want to see something other than mud, snow, sparse trees, and lichen! Inside, you can see heaps of cool plants, including the double coconut (Lodoicea maldivica, world's largest seed), the mosquito fern (Azolla caroliniana, world's smallest fern (aquatic, too!)), and Blue spikemoss (Selaginella uncinata, which has iridescent blue leaves). Perhaps most excitingly, there are many colourful Poison Dart Frogs hopping about!

(WT-shared) Riggwelter at wts.wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Poison Dart Frog at Uppsala Tropical Greenhouse

5. Hike the start of the Upplandsleden

The Upplandsleden is an almost 500km long trail, and you can hike from Uppsala city through to Fjällnora over a weekend. See details here - https://www.naturkartan.se/sv/upplandsleden. Catch the bus 809 back to Central Uppsala from Fjällnora vägskäl. Along the way, we stayed at Lunsentorpet in Norra Lunsen (great facilities, bunkbeds, fireplace, tables, hut, all free) and at Käppbacken in Fjällnora (cheap camping with firewood, see: https://www.naturkartan.se/en/uppsala-lan/taltlager-kappbacken-fjallnora).

6. Walk in Stadsskogen (city forest)

The city forest is south of Uppsala but very accessible with a short bus ride. It's a very relaxing forest to walk in, with lots of joggers, cyclists, and walkers. There are lots of picnic tables and benches where you can stop and have fika (afternoon tea)! The local orienteering clubs (e.g. OK Linne) are super active and have a lot of races set up in this forest. It's especially gorgeous in the winter with lots of lichens!

7. Do one (or all!) of Linnaeus's fieldtrips

For the uninitiated, Carl Linnaeus invented the binomial scientific naming system that is still used today, and is considered the "father of taxonomy". It must be said that he also attempted to classify humans and associate behaviours and personalities to them - unsurprisingly, the European 'species' was characterised as a 'wise inventor' while other 'species' were described as "cheerful", "greedy", and "sluggish". While many academics have attempted to minimise criticisms against Linnaeus for this work, arguing that while he classified humans by geography and colour, he did not 'rank' them, these kind of classifications nevertheless likely contributed to scientific racism in the following centuries. He conducted and published much of his botanical work in Uppsala, and often took students out on fieldtrips. Eight of these walks are marked around Uppsala with nice noticeboards including historical information (see: https://linnestigarna.se/).