🚱 We pay to live without electricity and water, that's how good our lives are

Do you dream of living without electricity and fetching water with a bucket from a well? Do you think that a water closet is an unnecessary luxury and prefer a bit of a breeze around your bottom when you sit in the outhouse? Then you should book Kyrkestatorpet in Blekinge, Sweden.

They offer accommodation without electricity and running water, with an outhouse and a wood stove.

Ah, at a discounted price because it lacks modern amenities? No way! At a premium price because it lacks modern amenities.

"Here you have a unique opportunity to feel the wings of history and live as the crofters did in an 1800s dwelling without electricity and water, with an outhouse and proximity to animals and nature."

It's the Eriksberg Hotel & Safari Park that provides this accommodation.

My first thought when I see this is: How crazy is it that people pay to get rid of amenities! Clean water straight from the tap is not just convenient, it's very good for our health. Deaths from unsafe water have dropped significantly in the last 30+ years.

Especially because access to clean water has increased.

Not to mention electricity. It would be a very long text if I went through all the benefits of electricity, so let's just briefly stop at artificial light. There's a reason the light bulb 💡 is a symbol of a good idea.

Before the light bulb, the world was a dark place. Light existed but was expensive and therefore used sparingly. If we 700 years ago were to produce as much light as 10 modern LED lamps do for seven hours, it would have cost the equivalent of 50,000 dollars!

And now we pay not to have this light?!

But then I think again. Maybe it's not so stupid after all.

Those who stay there will hopefully have a cozy stay (candlelight is nice) and also experience another kind of luxury: The almost physical feeling when you, in total darkness, look up at a starry sky.

And when they sit in the outhouse, they might also reflect on how good we have it.

Back home when they flush the toilet, switch on a lamp, and turn on the tap to see clean, cold (or hot!) water gush out, they will probably feel a deeper gratitude and a new understanding of the amenities we often take for granted.

Mathias Sundin
The Angry Optimist

My wife and I have visited the Eriksberg safari park and stayed at the hotel – with both electricity and water – a few times. Recommended!