After dropping Stefan at the airport, the next day we headed south to go to Skövde. A little town midway between Stockholm and Gothenburg. There we went for lunch with a very good friend of my dad Bengt.

His name was also Bengt he has been a priest his whole life and in 1985 he sent a letter to my dad to say that his son Anders was coming to New Zealand and that he would like to meet us in Foxton. He told my dad that he was flying from Sydney to Auckland on a certain date but didn’t say what time. We happened to be in Auckland on that day and so my dad went out to Auckland airport and met every single flight from Sydney with a sign saying “Welcome Anders!” At around 6pm Anders arrived along with his girlfriend Nina and their friends Mats and Mia. They were so surprised that someone was at the airport to meet them, and my mum was equally as surprised when dad came back with not one Swede but four!

Years later I received a message from Anders to say that his son Carl was coming to NZ and so I was at the Auckland airport with a Swedish flag and he came home to us in Orewa. Then when Stefan visited in 2019 he stayed with Anders and Carl. We also met with Anders and his beautiful wife Maja on this trip and they served us a real swedish smörgåsbord. Hospitality has a way of finding its way back to you. 

Bengt and Bengt grew up in a duplex house in the small village of Danmarksby right next to our beautiful church. I had last met Bengt when we stayed with him and his wife  Helena in 1990 so it was lovely to spend some time. I had asked him to tell me stories about my dad and my grandparents.

He told the story that my mum and dad met because of him. My dad had been visiting Bengt when he boarded the infamous train back to Stockholm where he met Margaret. He told me that my grandmother was the Commander in Chief of the family, that she had gone back to work only a few weeks after my dad was born and that his family use to get a little bit annoyed with her every August. This is the traditional time to eat Surströmming (fermented herring) and the Fromén family would eat Surströmming every day for a month. Brita, my grandmother would then store the empty cans in the shared cellar space of Bengts family where it would reek and envelope the area in a rotten stench. 

We returned to Sweden in 1972 as a family and had a wonderful winter (which I don’t particular remember as I was just over a year old). 

Bengt told me that he was one of the first to receive a heartbroken phone call from my dad when he returned to Sweden the second time since leaving and found out his mother had died while he was travelling. He told me how he couldn’t understand what was happening as my dad was crying so much. He said that at my grandmothers funeral my dad lit four candles on the far side of the globe so that me and my siblings and mum could be there for the funeral too.

He told me that he helped my dad to clear out the house after his father died which was the third time my dad returned to Sweden. He also said that after the service for my grandfather my dad got down on his knees at the grave and said “I don’t have a home here anymore, everything is gone”. I know now that he was wrong on that front. Our family have such an amazing connection to Sweden and it now grows in Stefan as he views it as his second home. My dad would be so happy that we have all made so much of an effort to keep up that connection. I just wish I could experience what I know now with him. And that he and Nigel could eat all the fish like the locals.

Bengt also reminded me of the fourth time my dad returned in 1990 and we all stayed with them at their beautiful home. My brother John played the organ in his church and I sang (knights in white satin if I remember rightly).  My dad loved that trip in 1990, he connected with every single person he ever knew. We ate shrimps and drank schnapps and ate more cloudberries than I care to remember. 

Bengt told me that my dad was a really good friend to him and that the whole Fromén family were very respected and loved members of the community. He told me that my dad loved politics and that he would quite often stay in Bengts wife Helena’s flat in Uppsala and smoke all Bengts cigarettes. 

I remember looking at my Dad as we left on the ferry from Trelleborgin 1990 as he stared towards his homeland. It was the last time he saw Sweden and it was a really sad moment for us all, as in some way I think he knew it. 

I was asked while I was in Sweden if my dad missed home. He did. But he loved his life in NZ as well. I know he would be so happy to know that our connection lives on, through family and friends and a shared love of Swedish hardbread. 

We love Sweden, like absolutely love it! We love the food, the landscape, the nature and there are loads of friends and family there that we love too. So as we came through the Stockholm archipelago on the boat from Estonia we felt truly happy. It takes about 4 hours through the little islands so close you can almost touch them.
We sailed past the house we rented in 2018 on Tynninge and remembered some really good times.

We parked Trailer Swift up at Rösjön Camping about 20 metres from where we were parked in 1995 in our little van, where we lived until it got too cold and we got an apartment. We knew what bus to take to town and remembered swimming in the little lake from last time. The best bit about all this was that Stefan was there for the week and so we hired him a little stuga (cabin) so he could work during the day. We then rocked up every morning to have breakfast and use the shower and then he would come with us to party at night.

After we picked him up at the airport we went straight up to our church outside of Uppsala where my grandparents and parents are buried. The summer flowers were out on the grave and it was just absolutely beautiful. We’re so happy they are all together in such a special and beautiful place. 

What is also cool is that Stefan now has his own Stockholm after visiting so many times and after studying there. He showed us his favourite spots and where his neighborhood was. He took us to his favourite pizza restaurant around the corner from his flat and told us all his Stockholm stories. 

We had an amazing full schedule of seeing friends and family. Our friends Magnus and Jen even threw a Crayfish party for us with some of their friends, which was epic. We played games and ate little red crayfish and drank schnapps. My Swedish got even better with more schnapps, Stefan’s got worse!

Everyone we saw showered us in the most incredible hospitality. We caught up on all the news and determined who was supporting AIK in football and who were Hammarby supporters (don’t make the mistake of assuming that everyone on the family supports the same team!

We did administrative things too as we still have a bank account and pension in Sweden so we trotted off to the bank to get all sorted with Swedish Bank ID (which you can’t do much without now in Sweden).

Then we’d go back to our little camping spot and play cards and eat shrimps and just have a lot of fun together. We loved every minute and it was a bit sad seeing Stefan off at the Airport, but also great knowing we’d see him again in a couple of weeks.

To us, our Sweden truly feels like home. 

So we have been to Poland before to stay with our friends in Warsaw.  On one of the days we went with them from Warsaw to Poznan as they had been offered a job there and wanted to see what it was like.  I recall a city square that was ok, it was the middle of winter and so very cold and icy and the square was covered in dog poo. 

I think they made a life decision that day based on the amount of dog poo and the condition of the road to get there which was terrible, as they stayed in Warsaw. 

Fast forward 19 years and after becoming part of the EU, Poland has built great cross country motorways. We stayed close to Poznan and there didn’t seem to be as much dog poo. We stayed on the outskirts of Warsaw and spent the evening in the grounds of a palace. 

We wanted to spend as much time in the Baltics as we could so we kind of legged it through Germany and Poland. We bought polish beer for our friend and ate sausages and salads along the way.

We hit Lithuania and immediately hit roadworks after the highly efficient Polish four lane highway. The roads didn’t get that much better to be fair and Google took Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift down some decidedly narrow roads. We spent a few nights at a campground outside of Vilnius the capital. 

That’s where we decided that it wouldn’t be the world’s best decision to try and hop into Belarus as it’s on virtually every countries ‘Do not travel’ list.  Belarus is Russias closest ally in the war on Ukraine and is run by a dictatorial leader who according to the UN stole the previous election. It is very volatile and you are likely to encounter military action from Ukraine.  So Belarus will not be making it to our country list right now.

We took a day to head into Vilnius and have traditional Lithuanian food. It was cold beetroot soup (Borscht) and a potato dough thing with meat inside. It was nice.  Nigel also had the best caviar he’s ever had so that was a bonus. We also got to see a TikTok challenge happening in the main square. Groups of gorgeous girls (mainly) all lined up and when a TikTok song would play those that knew the dance routine would step into the middle and those that didn’t would wait on the sides.  Seemed like this was the thing you did in Sundays in Vilnius.

Next on to Riga in Latvia. The roads got better, their English got better and the food got even better. It felt less Soviet and more Scandinavian and the streets of Riga were cobble stoned and really sweet. We loved wandering about and seeing a beautiful mixture of old and new as the old city merged into the modern with high rises and architecturally inspiring buildings lining the river. We spent some good time driving around and seeing the outer suburbs as well with some spectacular old buildings.

Then we headed off towards Tallin in Estonia and it got even more Swedish. The town names and the houses and the flagpoles all looked familiar to us. The roads got even better, the English got way better and there was a very familiar feeling for us. We stayed on the outskirts of Tallin and so took a train into the Centre to have a look around. Wow what a cute colorful beautiful old town. Very medieval. You could wander the streets getting lost in the alleys for hours. Everywhere we turned we wanted to see what was around the next corner. There were a lot more tour groups than the other Baltic countries and as it is a port city built for cruise lines that’s probably why.

I had googled authentic Estonian food restaurants which led us to a medieval place right in the heart of the old town. It’s a themed event with the serving staff dressed with wimples and shoes with curled up toes. The menu is apparently authentic to what would have been served at the time including duck, elk, wild boar and bear! The bathrooms are authentic to how it would be in medieval times (except they flush) it was really really cute. There was a lot of saffron and berries and herbs and grains. Everything came with a story and a ritual to perform. Along the way you had schnapps and wine and herb beer. We loved it. 

So far our decision to come up through the Baltics has been such a great one. The thing that I love most about travel is going to places you’ve never been.  The feeling of what’s around the next corner?, will we be understood?, is there actually a campground at the end of this road?, keeps you on your toes and alive. There is comfort in the familiar and excitement in the unknown. 

It is however really annoying to constantly buy sparkling water instead of still because you forget to use your google translate. Three times now!!!!

Sweden and Stefan and family and friends and crayfish parties and feeling like home and the familiar is next.