coming home..

This year I actually for once had some Christmas feelings already in Budapest with Lucia celebration, some you tube clips with Christmas songs in different languages and I even prepared Christmas cakes and chutney. So, I was well prepared and really looking forward to going home for a couple of weeks. It has been an intense year with lots of happiness but also some sad and difficult moments, so being home for a while is probably good for me. Anyway, it's always good so I try to go once in a while.

Same procedure as last time...

Every time coming home follows more or less the same procedure. I always arrive just in time to the airport in Budapest, then I always sleep on the flight and I wake up in Denmark. At Copenhagen airport, the visitors are always welcomed by the smell of Røde pølser. Then I catch the train to Sweden, I’m always surprised how expensive it is and I always think of how good it would be to follow my mother's advice to refill the discount-travel card before leaving next time and remember to take it with me....

Correct, informative and user friendly..

These adjectives are quite well describing how things are generally working in Sweden. The train is no exception, it's clean and modern, and will most likely be in time. This time it stopped twice for couple of minutes and a friendly voice informed us that „We have now stopped for a stop sign, and we are waiting for permission to continue” I smiled a bit, of course it's very nice of them to inform the people so that they wouldn't worry but I'm also sure that most people didn't even realised that we had stopped before they announced it. And once they finished their sentence, the train started to move again. Anyway, a small thing like this makes me realise that I'm home again so it's time to re-adapt to Scandinavian way of doing things , for the good and for the bad..:) At the train station, my parents will come to meet me and it’s always a very happy moment and we always go home to have a cup of tea.

Alla talar svenska

Arriving in Sweden, there is one sentence always popping up in my head “Alla talar svenska” This is the text for Disney movies to inform that everybody speaks Swedish in the film. It’s also a bit strange to me, and in the first few days I add some English words here and there. I’m sure some people believe I do that to be snobbish or interesting…:)

So until here it's always the same, and then it will depend on if I'm staying for longer or only for the weekend. If it’s only for a few days normally there is a reason like a celebration so time is passing really fast.

If I stay for longer, I'll get a little restless quite soon. I’m used to much higher tempo, and even if I know it’s good for me to slow down and relax, I need a few days to find the good rhythms, to adapt to the silence and calmness. And even when I feel little restless, I enjoy to have some time to think, and also to knit together with my sisters and mother. It's very inspiring and I become much more creative at home. The first two evenings I made a pair of sandals while enjoying to spend some time with my parents. And now, I'm already half way with the next project :)

Sandals, made of the left over yarn from the hats I prepared for me and some friends last year, posing in the snow

So, for the next few days, I will continue with having a good time, playing with little V, spending time with family and friends and do some knitting and reading. After those first little restless days, I know that time will pass very fast. It always does, and when the day to go back arrives, I'll surely have the feeling that time at home was not enough... like always. Time is such a strange thing.