After seven years away, I returned to my first overseas home away from home: Stockholm, Sweden.
I still remember the first time I went to Sweden, in January 2000. I took a week off from school to go with my parents to house hunt and check out the schooling options. Then, just a couple of months later I was back - this time with the whole family and not for a holiday. My brother and I were incredibly jet-lagged and spent the first morning walking around the empty streets of downtown. I lived, studied, and played in Stockholm for fourteen months. My family was lucky enough to be able to travel, both domestically and internationally. I went to an international high school that was small and not too terribly formal. All of these factors resulted in an amazing time. I didn't want to leave and for a very, very long time I longed to go back. Finally, 2008 gave me an opportunity.
In between semester exams, I made a quick trip by ferry to Sweden. It was an early start to catch the bus north to Frederikshavn where I caught a ferry to Goteborg, Sweden. It was a rush in the city as I tried to make it from the ferry terminal to the train station in 20 minutes. From there I caught a slow train across the country, putting me into the "Capital of Scandinavia" (well Denmark and Norway contest this claim, but it's definitely the capital of Sweden) around 21:00. With a bit of help from some very accommodating Swedes, I managed to get in touch with my friend and caught the t-bana out her way (conveniently just a few stops after my old stop).
It was a quick trip and pretty relaxed. My friend Nilo has been busy working, studying, and raising a family since I last saw her. She graciously opened her home to me and I really enjoyed staying with her, Jonathan (her sambo... equivalent to "partner" in English I suppose), and their two little kids, Darian (four) and Livia (almost one). We went downtown and did a quick tour of the Kulturhuset the first day. Second day we went downtown again and walked around doing a bit of casual sight-seeing. That night we went to her mother's place for a home cooked dinner including Nilo's sister and her sambo.
Because of the kids, Nilo didn't have a lot of time to go out and about. That was ok because the weather was pretty gray and I was content with just seeing a bit and taking a break between my exams. I took the bus back to Goteborg on Saturday and spent the night there. While I didn't have a lot of time there, I took a nice long walk at night before going back to my hostel to pack for the early morning departure back to Denmark.
My time was short and I didn't do a lot. I got some dancing and singing (in Swedish) in since Nilo's kids love Lazy Town, I got to re-experience a city I have fond memories in, and best of all I had the chance to see a dear friend from my past. Not exactly an exciting or momentuous sort of story, but another trip in for my memories.
--Note: Do check out the photos, but for more and some description check out the set on Flickr.
