Travel and Sweden etc....

[Devonian]

Hi just joined from the South West finally retiring (well more or less !) a few months ago.

I've done a lot of travelling abroad down the years whether on holiday or for work reasons and have to say that looking back I found Sweden to be the best country of all despite the cold, the lowest being in Uppsala north of Stockholm where one night it sank to minus 19 causing my eye lashes to freeze ! I spent a good 4 years there learning the language as well and wondered if anyone else had been there as well ?

I'd be interested to hear of other's favourite countries whether on holiday or living there and all their ups and downs as well....

[zoony]

Welcome to PF, Devonian. Plenty of well-travelled folk here which I'm sure you'll hear from.. I know what you mean about the eyelashes. I can claim 20 below with another 10 on top for wind-chill in Homer, Alaska. 

[Bee]

Hello Devonian and welcome.


I have lived in both South Africa and Hong Kong, I was never happy or comfortable living in South Africa but Hong Kong I absolutely loved and when we had to come back to the U.K. I felt homesick for Hong Kong.


These days with a son, daughter in law and 2 small grandchildren living in Belgium, Belgium is my favourite and only country to visit with having 2-3 trips over there per year.

[Devonian]

Welcome to PF, Devonian. Plenty of well-travelled folk here which I'm sure you'll hear from.. I know what you mean about the eyelashes. I can claim 20 below with another 10 on top for wind-chill in Homer, Alaska. 

Be a tad chilling to hear more about what daily life was like, what were you doing.... ?

Despite the cold and for me the endless pine forests I had a lot of fun learning  the language and getting to know the Swedish who once you get to know them are really nice people.

The only problem was that the moment they realised I was English they kept on speaking English so I would deliberately reply in Swedish which was miles worse than their English as it's compulsory in all schools from an early age. Nevertheless I do keep up with my Swedish on several forums and one or two old friends from the Nineties.

They do have a great sense of humour though….  

[Devonian]

Hello Devonian and welcome.


I have lived in both South Africa and Hong Kong, I was never happy or comfortable living in South Africa but Hong Kong I absolutely loved and when we had to come back to the U.K. I felt homesick for Hong Kong.


These days with a son, daughter in law and 2 small grandchildren living in Belgium, Belgium is my favourite and only country to visit with having 2-3 trips over there per year.

I lived in Durban during the late Sixties and bummed for a couple of years a la Beach Boys/ Mamas and Papas as the old man said he'd be hanged if the taxman got it all. Fantastic days when the swell was up however always with the scary thought that despite the shark nets....

What were you doing ? 

[Diasi]

I've never had any desire to live in someone else's country & have always been happy in the UK.

But less happy as time goes on.

[Bee]

My then husband was in the construction industry and an agency that he was signed up with offered him work in South Africa after much discussion we decided to give it a go, we also had three young children the eldest of whom was 14 at the time.


We lived in a suburb out side Cape Town, at the time apartheid was still in place and we found that although the Afrikaaners welcomed the Welsh, Scots and Irish, they were still fighting the Boer War with the English.


By sheer coincidence it was only this last Christmas that my eldest son who is now 51 opened up to me and said how unhappy he was in South Africa and the bullying he had to endure also different things that happened at school and we shared our feelings about the country............all in all I was pleased when my then husband was offered a transfer to Hong Kong and it was completely different and we felt welcomed and got on very well with the Chinese people.

[zoony]

Be a tad chilling to hear more about what daily life was like, what were you doing.... ?

Despite the cold and for me the endless pine forests I had a lot of fun learning  the language and getting to know the Swedish who once you get to know them are really nice people.

The only problem was that the moment they realised I was English they kept on speaking English so I would deliberately reply in Swedish which was miles worse than their English as it's compulsory in all schools from an early age. Nevertheless I do keep up with my Swedish on several forums and one or two old friends from the Nineties.

They do have a great sense of humour though….

I was a gigging musician in those days and had quite a long engagement in Juneau but the jefe asked me to go to Homer to help out his friend for a month. Interesting little place.

[Diasi]

I've never had any desire to live in someone else's country & have always been happy in the UK.

But less happy as time goes on.

I have broadened my horizons over the past few years & visited several foreign countries.

The bonus was that I could visit them without leaving the UK.

 

[Undercover Pensioner]

Sweden sounds lovely Devonian and welcome to Pensions Forum.  I moved around so much as a child that I always wanted to stay put as an adult but with two-fifth of the family living in America for over 30 years and another two-fifths in Australia there is only my daughter, mother and I left in the UK and we like to visit both countries.  I have never felt I could settle to the USA but love Australia.  My childhood memories - up to about 13 - put Cyprus pretty high up on my list but with my father having several tours in Germany I really liked living there and found the people very easy to know (and very kind about you trying to speak in their language).

The one place I have always wanted to go is Iceland.  My father was stationed there during the war and must have sung it's praises as both my brother and I had a hankering to visit.  He's achieved it but it's still on my list.

[zoony]

UP. If you wrote a note to Iceland's office of tourism and told them of your feelings and your dad, I bet you'd get a goody-bag of useful stuff in return for when you do eventually go.

[crabbyob]

i hope you manage it UP
i had a teacher at school who was posted in India during WW11
 and would go off on one whenever he got the chance...lol
so as you have perhaps guessed, here i am... i have spent the past 15 winters here...but no-one remembers him...lol...goodluck in your quest

[Diasi]

UP. If you wrote a note to Iceland's office of tourism and told them of your feelings and your dad, I bet you'd get a goody-bag of useful stuff in return for when you do eventually go.

Contacting Iceland didn't achieve anything for me but I did ok when I contacted Farmfoods.

[Undercover Pensioner]

Thank you Zoony and Crabby.  You never know.  I'm not sure I should tell them about Dad though Zoony.  The British invaded Iceland in 1940 and that's about when he was there.  The Island was neutral but Germany invaded Denmark and Iceland belonged (I think) to Denmark.  I never got the impression anyone was terribly upset by it all but then perhaps you don't tell small children that.  He had a husky while he was there and I heard more about that than about his job.

[Traveller]

As part of my job, I travelled and worked quite a bit round the UK, Europe and occasionally the USA. My favourite country was, and still is, Germany. I lived in both Mainz and Hamburg and visit the country most years.   I can't say that I really disliked any country, though I wasn't impressed by my time in Turin. (I stayed in a hotel that was once part of the Fiat factory.  It still had the banked test track - on the roof!)

My last project was in Oulu, N. Finland.  I really liked it there.  Finland has very distinct seasons with very short transitions between them - and the Finns celebrate them all.
While there we took the Santa Claus express train to Rovaniemi to visit the real Santa in his summer quarters.  We've got a photo to prove it.   It was 30C. on the Arctic circle.  Mrs. T and I were in T shirt and shorts - Santa was wearing a grey cloak - in his air conditioned office.

I'd like to go back there for a visit.