Home Sweet Home

We've made it to our house, and on Midsummer Day, too! I'm happy to report that everything here is in excellent shape. You could hardly tell that we hadn't been home for over 20 months; a bit of vacuuming, window cleaning, replacing of batteries, and we were all set.

I can also report that our fiber internet is up and running. I had made an account with Net At Once because they were willing to send me a monthly invoice. All I had to do was plug in my router, and I had an amazingly fast connection in 10 minutes. Bliss!

We made it!

Our welcoming committee!

It was a long journey, with lots of moving parts: flights from Florida to Dallas to Paris to Stockholm, covid tests in Texas and Paris, wearing a mask for 24 hours straight, and most unnervingly, getting through immigration control twice!

But everything worked out perfectly, and we made it smoothly and safely to Marcia and Rutger's house. We will head to our house on Monday. We can't wait! 

A change in fortune?

Even though Sweden is still keeping its borders closed for non-EU travelers, other countries in the bloc have opened up to vaccinated Americans. At the urging of a friend, I decided to write the Swedish consulate in Miami about permission to travel, and received an unexpected answer.

We were told by the consulate that we could enter the EU via a country open to Americans, get a covid test in that country, and then travel onward to Sweden from there! That seems like a pretty big loophole to me, but I have it in writing from the consulate.

So... we've decided to give it a try. We are going to fly to Paris this Saturday, and then onward to Sweden. Stay tuned!

Not good at all.

I've avoided posting about Sweden's response to the coronavirus over these past months. Suffice it to say that it's been much more relaxed than its nordic neighbors, which has caused comparatively more deaths:

The news in the US has had many stories about the "Swedish model." Those news outlets against public health restrictions applaud Sweden's relative lack of rules and mandates, and the freedom it affords. Others point out the much higher death toll as compared to its neighbors and lament the additional deaths caused. It pains me to see Sweden used as a political football.

To add insult to injury, Sweden announced that the travel restrictions in place until May 31 will now be extended to August 31. This is a real body blow. I was really pinning my hopes on a change in the travel policy today. As things stand, we won't be able to get to Sweden for there more months—assuming we could travel even then!