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.