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Mary's Travels
Today Madeline and I got into Stockholm at 6:30am by bus... Sleep was rough, windows turn out to be very cold haha. However we made it, and decided to take our time at the station and get freshened up. It was very nice. After grabbing some food it was time to get on the train to Växjö, where Gun-Britt, a descendant of my great great great grandpa. The train ride was stunning and smooth- Sweden has more lakes than Minnesota haha. There were numerous times it looked like we were just gliding on the water. Gorgeous. Gun-Britt and her husband Stefan met us at the station with big smiles and hugs :) Then we headed toward their house, built in the 1920s and very close to the station. We had a beautiful Swedish lunch of salmon, meatballs, potatoes, seal, caviar, and cheese. It was so good and very filling! Then we headed out to Tigerstad, near Mörlunda where my 3x great grandpa lived. It's about an hour away from Växjö. Gun-Britt's cousin lives there now, and we got to meet her, her husband, and three of her sons. They still work on the farm (the sons have other jobs) and produce cow milk. The second we got out of the car it smelled like cows, it was perfect. I've missed that so much. The house was gorgeous, built in 1844 by Peter Jonsson (my great great great grandpa) and it is where my great great grandpa, Fred Petersson (literally son of Peter, Swedish thing) was born. We actually all hung out in the room where he was born, now it's a living room haha room of life I guess it makes sense. We talked a lot about our relatives, they were all very knowledgeable. It was so nice to get to hang out with everybody in Peter Jonsson's old house! We got to see some of his carpentry work as well around the house. Gun-Britt reminisced on the good times she used to spend there as a child, she has a special place in her heart for a certain pear tree they used to climb with her cousin (who I forgot to add is also a descendant of Peter). We weren't able to run around too much, it was pretty rainy, but it was still amazing scenery and it was really neat to be there. After that we went to Gun-Britt's great grandpas house (Karl- my great great grandpa's brother). We peaked around a bit but no one lives there anymore (it's still intact though). Then we headed over to the church's cemetery to see where Karl and most likely Peter are buried, that was really neat too. Afterwards we headed back to Växjö. We stopped along the way at a fortress back when Växjö was fighting against Stockholm but now it's just along a nice summer vacation lake. It was so gorgeous. We got back to the house and chatted for a bit, then had a delicious dinner of fish and taco pies, they were so good and really hit the spot. We skyped with my dad so he could meet his relatives too. Then we started to clean up and headed out for the train station. The day definitely went too fast, I had a great time with Gun-Britt and Stefan. They, along with Gun-Britt's cousin's family, were so so welcoming and warm, I never wanted to leave! I truly cannot thank them enough for such an amazing day, and I hope to see them all again soon! :)
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