SWEDEN:Sweden isn't just about Abba and Ikea - it's a place where you can buy a holiday home in beautiful wilderness from as little as €30,000. Holland-based Irish journalist ISABEL CONWAY reports.

A DRUNKEN elk can take the blame for our decision to buy a holiday home in Sweden. The sight of the mighty beast, struggling to his feet in an alcoholic daze after feasting on fermented apples in our future orchard, was the deciding factor.

"Where would you find it?" we tittered in a poor imitation of that daft Swedish cook of Muppets fame - and promptly bought the place.

The property was a romantic early 19th century villa on a couple of acres near a lake in the middle of Sweden, 300kms west of Stockholm and 40kms north of the university city of Karlstad in Värmland.

On closer inspection we found that it provided nourishment for another species of wildlife: beavers had laid siege to trees hanging over our stretch of river to build a dam, before abandoning the project.

We were not that bothered. There was enough wood for everyone. We gave up counting after the 80th majestic silver birch, with a whole forest at the bottom of the garden.

Real estate prices in Sweden collapsed in the early 1990s in a major property crash. It was a huge wake-up call to the country, and property prices there have now stabilised. Devaluation of the kroner against the euro - Sweden refused to abandon its national currency - has made it something of a holiday home bargain destination.

With 100,000 lakes and more than 24,000 islands, Sweden has waterfront properties covering a vast area, cute dark red country cottages, villas, and even mansions for sale at 1980s prices compared with Ireland.

You can find good quality holiday homes from around €30,000. Our five-bedroom turn-of-the-20th-century yellow house "Gundesvik" cost €95,000 at the end of 2005. ("Gundesvik" has literary associations - it is mentioned in the writings of one of Sweden's most famous female writers, Selma Lagerlof, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature).

Nearby Sunne, an attractive lakeside town with a few hotels, restaurants, shops, spa and a renowned golf course is also Sweden's most southerly ski resort. Buyers from Holland, Belgium, Germany, Norway and Denmark and a few from the UK have boosted prices in recent times.

There are no restrictions on ownership by EU member state residents who are treated equally and there is a double taxation treaty between Sweden and Ireland.

Swedish neighbours are welcoming, taking the view that there is room for everyone in their vast wide open spaces.

In our district you could be back in the Ireland of the 1950s, when people left their sheds unlocked, neighbours helped one another out and the aroma of home baking met you on arrival on the doorstep.

And it is, contrary to its reputation, relatively cheap: the cost of public transport, car purchase, motor and home insurance premiums, central heating bills, mobile telephone charges, are all cheaper than in Ireland.

Popular label French, Italian and new world wines are up to 25 per cent cheaper in the Swedish state monopoly (Systembolaget) liquor shops than in Irish off-licences.

And eating out is a true bargain. A two to three-course lunch in any golf club, roadhouse or hotel, will rarely set you back more than €8 or €9, though à la carte dining will be more expensive.

So how did we find our charming cheap second home? I would love to tell you that we tramped through swathes of starkly beautiful wilderness - here is Europe's nearest equivalent to Canada, despite being only a two-hour flight from Dublin to Stockholm - and stumbled across it. The truth is more mundane.

We had been forced out of the over-priced holiday home market back in Ireland so began looking on internet sites for a place in Sweden after falling in love with its great outdoors and discovering a great unsung real estate bargain.

Actually buying the house was only a little more complicated than the later purchase of a car. Swedes are straightforward, efficient and flexible in business. An added bonus is that English is widely spoken and understood. House purchase contains few hidden extras, apart from investment in decent central heating for the cold months, if you intend to "weather" a Swedish winter as we have been doing.

Each month since has brought a challenge. Autumn was for learning which edible mushrooms to pick, where to look for Viking graves in the forests and watching the migration south of flocks of geese and cranes.

The long dark pre-Christmas winter brought on a mild form of SAD (seasonal affective disorder) known as Lapps disease. This is so common that many Swedes have taken to combating it with exposure to light panels and spending a fortune in suntanning salons or heading to foreign sunspots. Come December we were only truly accepted as locals after our car, like so many more, left the road in a spectacular dive during the first snows.

Be warned . . . Sweden is definitely not for those whose idea of holiday heaven is restaurant hopping, and nights at the pub. Drink-driving laws are draconian and the place is pretty much empty: don't expect to see crowds of gregarious holidaymakers about.

Rural pleasures are simple. Life in summer revolves around being outdoors. In winter, there is skiing and snowshoeing.

There is also the chance of spying the country's national emblem, the mighty elk (sober or otherwise) not to mention the odd wolf, bear or lynx, all of whom roam the forests.