Int’l Edition: Arrival in Sweden
Sure, Canada counts. Right?
My first trip out of the country was last year, in 2018. Cheyenne and I traveled from Seattle, Washington to Vancouver, BC. While it was extremely fun and an excellent time, I had been on longer and more exotic trips going camping with my family when I was a kid.
So, Cheyenne invited me to go with her to Sweden to visit her extended family in 2019. Which brings us to today: I am currently blogging from Vadstena, a small town that lies roughly at the midway point between Stockholm and Gothenburg. To quote Samwise, it’s the farthest away from home I’ve ever been.
The total travel time was about fifteen hours, with the breakdown as follows:
- Nine hour flight from Seattle to London.
- Three hour flight from London to Stockholm.
- Three hour drive from Stockholm to Vadstena.
Sweden is nine hours ahead of Seattle in terms of time difference, so when I am waking up at around 7:00am abroad, it is 10:00pm the night before at home. Jet lag has been manageable, but I have been on the ground for not even a day yet so it’s hard to tell how much it has affected me.
We timed our visit for Midsummer, a celebration of the summer solstice and the longest day of the year. This weekend, I am told the sun will be up for a grand total of 23 hours. On that particular day it is bad luck to sleep, so we will be filling the day with food and activities like making flower crowns and dancing around the maypole and such.
You, in the States, may have heard of Midsummer because of the A24 horror film scheduled to be released July 3rd. Cheyenne and I are very aware of the film’s existence, partly because I am an A24 fan but also because our friends have been teasing us relentlessly about our trip. “We’ll see you when you come back!… That is, if you come back,” they tell us with a wink.
Cheyenne is a bit frustrated that the film depicts “the happiest and most wholesome holiday ever” in such a sinister light, but we know that we will have to see it once we get back to compare our experiences.
Sweden, so far, is beautiful. For the drive to Vadstena, I got some potato chips seasoned with dill (“They put dill on everything here,” Chey says with a shudder) and enjoyed the views: expansive fields, little cottages and farms, and wide open skies with beams of light shining through the clouds.
There will be a lot more to write about, but I am going to be focusing on enjoying myself and relaxing rather than putting pressure on myself to blog, vlog, or do other kinds of work. I enjoy writing so much that it is more of a hobby than it is a chore (it gives me an excuse to hang out at cafes), so you will most likely hear from me again. But know that I’m having a good time, refreshing my soul, and getting some of that good ol’ culture out here in Scandinavia.
