Sweden

I came to Sweden for the first time on the 24th of January 2020.

I had an understanding with my employer to work for 2 weeks in the Netherlands and 2 weeks from Sweden. Until now almost a year ago I'm still traveling back and forth. There were many things that happen in between, including the arrival of the covid-19 pandemic. I was just on time to arrive in Sweden, after that the pandemic went bad and traveling got limited for business only. It was risky to travel by plane, trains, and other means of transportation, and in some countries even forbidden to travel.

Now it is still difficult to travel. Different countries have different laws regarding travel. Even the European countries within the Schengen countries have different laws. Which makes it extremely annoying to people.

Here in Sweden from the beginning has a soft approach to covid-19. In the beginning, there were a lot of elderly people who died from covid-19. All restaurants, bars, hotels, and all social events are allowed to a maximum of 50 people. The face mask was not introduced to use in public areas.

But now the government has tightened the approach to 2 meters distance to one another, restaurants and bars are open until 22:00 hours and no big events should be organized. The tennis club, the bowling, swimming pool is closed to the public.

We live in Sandviken, Sweden. It is a village 1-hour drive to Stockholm airport. Here is calm and nothing much going on. But the city of Gavle is just 30 minutes drive, so when I need to do some shopping I go to Gavle.

This time of the year, supposed to be autumn is at 15:00 hours already dark and it already is freezing. the temperature goes down to under zero.  

In Sweden, almost every house is already decorated for Christmas. Quiet early you should say, but because it's early dark, it gives some nice, warm atmosphere to the place.

We have been to several places in Sweden, and I really love cities like Stockholm, Norrkoping, Vasteras, etc. I love nature, the people, the calmness. there are not many inhabitants in Sweden, so wherever you go you would not find queues going somewhere. On the roads, you see only trees and water. But very dark driving due to no street lights on the highways.

Well, I should say enough for now. to be continued....

Nena