Leif & Eva | Heaven

Before leaving Jan's flat, I cooked for myself for the first time this entire trip. It felt so nice to create something again, even though it was just a small snack. I boiled my two potatoes and sauteed my cute little diced shallot. When the potatoes were done, I set them on some aluminum foil, buttered them a little bit, put some dollops of left over sour cream with green onion dip (from vegetable pancake dinner night), poured my shallots over them, and wrapped the foil up. They smelled amazing and I couldn't wait to eat them!

Jan took us all the way to the train station and it was a little bit sad to leave him. He has definitely been one of the easiest hosts to get along with naturally, and it felt like we'd all been friends far longer than 72 hours. Jan babysat our bags while Laura and I went on a Danish pastry hunt. I spent my last kronors on 4 delicious looking pastries.

The train ride to Bromolla (where we were to be picked up by Leif) was very quick and the only eventful thing that happened was that I gave into the aromas of my potatoes and they were a deliciously satisfying snack!

I think traveling should be partially about self exploration. I believe it is probably inherently that way for many people, but it's especially good to be aware of it. I have known that I am 1/4 Swedish for as long as my parents have told me my heritage, but I've never had any contact with my extended family who still live in Sweden up until a couple of months ago. Regardless of whether or not meeting any of this family would be possible, I wanted to use this trip as an opportunity to at least go and see the country where I (partially) originally came from. I don't think many American travelers visit Scandinavia in general or Sweden in particular, and I also like to travel off the beaten path a little bit. So I have been very excited to visit Sweden for quite some time. My grandmother Norma was able to put me in touch with Leif and Eva who live in Kyrkhult, a small town about a 4 to 6 hour drive south-ish from Stockholm. Leif is my father Eric's second cousin, which means his children (Daniel, 28, Helen, 25, and Sandra, 21) are my third cousins. Aside from Leif's family, I have also been in touch with Gunvor, another second cousin to my father, who lives across the way from Denmark in a town called Hoganas. Once in touch with Leif, he generously offered for both Laura and I to come stay with his wife and him for as long as we like...even until Christmas! At first I was very surprised by this offer, I figured my new found relatives would want to maybe meet up for a day or an afternoon or a meal, but I was not expecting them to suggest hosting both Laura and I for a few days! I wanted to get to know my family though and this was a perfect opportunity, so I very happily accepted their offer. That was a few weeks ago, and I have been looking forward to meeting them since then! Finding out you have 'new' family doesn't happen every day! Family is really important to me and I like learning about my family's history and my roots, so staying with them was a very special offer.

Leif picked us up in a car (another car!) from the train station and drove for about 20 minutes until we arrived at his adorable home, where Eva was inside cooking us something that smelled AMAZING and two little fluffy dogs were eagerly jumping on the newcomers! They had a whole bedroom prepared for us - imagine that, our own personal space and a separate mattress for each of us! There was even a TV in the room and a huge bowl of chocolates and candies. There were two bathrooms in the house, one upstairs and one downstairs. Laura and I were staying downstairs and Leif and Eva sleep upstairs, so it even felt like we had our own bathroom. As if all of this wasn't overwhelming enough, the downstairs bathroom had a BATH TUB in it, and Eva had left little bath packages (with bath fizzies and bath gel) on big, clean, terry cloth towels on each of our mattresses. We were in heaven. A Swedish countryside heaven. With new family. And dogs. And a bathtub.

After putting my bags down I sat down and began playing with the elder dog, Wayne. Soon Wayne was curled up in my lap, soaking up the attention, and Leif came in to tell me that he wanted to give us a quick tour of the house and that if I didn't just stand up I'd be sitting there for two days with Wayne in my lap! After becoming familiar with the house, Eva asked if we had any laundry we wanted to wash. LAUNDRY? Yes, please! We happily unloaded all of our stinky, over used clothes that we've been wearing for days and had enough to do I think three loads. By the time Eva announced that dinner was ready she had already put some of the filthiest things in to wash. Before dinner we had an aloe vera juice shot - you read it right. I didn't know aloe vera could be produced in a drinkable form, but you really do take a shot of the juice and it is supposed to work wonders for balancing your stomach and helping digestion. So that was fun! And then...

Dinner...in case you can't imagine our completely overwhelmed and excited evening thus far, Eva had prepared a home cooked meal of traditional Swedish meatballs - and not the kind you can just go buy at IKEA. These meatballs were to die for, and they were accompanied by the literally the best gravy I have ever had. And I've had a lot of gravy in my life, because I love gravy. There was also a salad and boiled potatoes to balance the meal out, and for the first time in months Laura and I both had the pleasure of drinking milk. Ahhhh I forgot how much I love milk!!! This incredible feast was followed up by fresh, homemade rhubarb pie with vanilla whipped cream (and more milk). Seriously, we were in heaven.

The dogs here, Wayne and his daughter Gucci, are also spoiled - so it's not just Laura and me. The best depiction of this was after dinner when there were a few Swedish meatballs left. Leif and Eva split them evenly on their plates, added some potatoes, lovingly mashed them all up together, and even poured gravy on it. And then gave it to the dogs! Those dogs live well, let me tell you! That is some high quality dog food right there!

After dinner, Leif brought out some old family pictures for me to look at. I think these are photos that Norma has sent him over the years. The most entertaining pictures for me were one of my parents with Erica in 1986, and another one of Great Grandmother Mor Mor with Grandpa Howard, Uncle Al, and a tiny little baby cousin Andrew! I told Leif Andrew wasn't quite that small anymore...

We migrated to the living room and lounged on the couches while the rain and wind picked up and we were officially greeted to Sweden with a thunder and lightning storm. These are always very exciting to me because in Seattle we very, very rarely get storms like these. In fact, the only place I really see these storms is when I'm visiting Grandma at the lake house, so it was quite fitting that I got to watch another storm with Leif and Eva.

Once the storm calmed down, I treated myself to a long bath complete with one of the bath fizzes Eva had left for me. I was so incredibly happy to be in a house, in a bathtub, full of delicious, traditional home cooked food, surrounded by incredibly sweet, caring, and funny relatives. It was a huge treat that I am so incredibly thankful for. Getting out of the bath, I did feel a bit like I had been a dirty, malnourished, exhausted, sickly child now that I was clean, well fed, and prepared for a solid night's sleep with no schedule for the next day save for fully recovering from this cold in the countryside and learning more about my family. It was perfect.


Quotes:
"You must have an easy weekend and rest, because Daniel says you will be having a hard rock and roll week next week." - Leif

Accomplishments:
Met family!

Travel Tip:
If it is at all possible to get out of the big cities, to spend time in the country side, or to meet family living abroad, you should do it.