Going Home

Well, I finally did it, or rather will do it. For the past couple of years my brothers and I have been casually chatting about going to visit a few cousins in Sweden. We thought about doing this as soon as last spring or maybe even in the fall but whatever the reasons, we never seemed to be able to bring the whole idea to fruition. And now, especially since my mom's passing, we're going!! Yippee!! I sent Christmas cards to two of mom's cousins that she keeps in touch with and explained our sadness over her loss. One of them can speak and write fairly well in English and before I got his (forwarded) card to mom, he'd sent me a letter explaining that he knew something was wrong when he hadn't gotten mom's card at the usual time before the holiday. He is around 80 years old by now and there is another cousin who lives not far from him who is 84 years old now. I had read the letter to my brothers and the oldest bro thought we should start planning our trip in a year or two. Nope, not good enough and maybe too late. I wanted to go NOW. I get e-mail notices from SAS (the main Swedish airline) and wouldn't ya know that I got a notice of a spring fare special so I called the guys and said I'm booking this one.
So on May 1 we leave from Newark (since one of us lives nearby and the other two will drive down to NJ). I'm really excited. After I got everything booked on line I called one of the brothers and let him know it was a done deal. Since the guys are rail fans, I let him know that I want to see other things in Sweden besides trains. And we'll be spending about 5 hours going from Stockholm to Goteborg (which is in southern Sweden on the opposite coast and near the Norwegian border). Our relatives live within 30 miles north of Goteborg. To get to their towns, we take a bus.
We're also reading a guide book by Lonely Planet which is excellent. It tells you the places you might stay and visit and also what the costs may be as well as how not to spend your money. Sweden is very expensive so we'll need to be frugal. A beer can be around $5 or $6 and that's for the cheap stuff. I also wrote a letter to one of the cousin's and let him know that we're coming as well as asking for any travel tips while we're in his area. If anyone has any good travel tips or knows of good, yet inexpensive places to stay, leave a comment. They'd be greatly appreciated. We might stay at a youth hostel in Stenengsund or Kungalv but probably in a hotel in Stockholm. Since one bro is on a cruise with his spouse, we'll have to wait to make an itinerary. Getting the cheap airfare was our first priority.
So wish us Bon Voyage and I'll be looking for your travel tips!

So says Amma today (no negative ranting!)