Yesterday I told you about my very first trips, the ones I did when I was between 0 and 20 years old. Perhaps that's when my first sense of adventure was awakened, but then I got the chance to go on even more adventures! Today it's time to tell you about the trips I made when I was between 21 and 28 years old. And then I met Peter! So ... let's go back to the summer of 1996 when I was 21 years old.
Tweet
Share
Share
Pin
Share
ShareTable of contents
Train journey in Eastern Europe, 1996
Looking at Interrail cards, I saw that you could choose to travel in Eastern Europe. Wow, that sounded like an adventure! My best friend Johanna joined me and the summer I turned 21, we took a ferry across to Estonia. The journey then continued through Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
The Baltic countries hadn't been independent for very long and when we tried to order food in restaurants there was usually only one dish to "choose" from. We had to get a visa to Belarus in a panic (as the train would pass through the country), ate (sometimes luxuriously!) for almost no money at all and swam in Lake Balaton.
Roskilde Festival, 1997
Roskilde Festival was fun, so we wanted to go again! I think 1997 was one of the absolute muddiest (and hottest!) years, and I remember walking around in a bikini and wellies for the entire festival.
Internship in the Faroe Islands, 1999
I was studying to be an occupational therapist and when I found out that I could apply for a Nordplus grant to do a traineeship in another Nordic country, I applied to ... the Faroe Islands! It was a two-month placement at a psychiatric clinic in Tórshavn. In addition, we had time to hitchhike around on hay bales, visit various bird taxidermists and fly regular helicopters between the islands.
With researchers in China, 1999
My father was a professor of palaeozoology and held a visiting professorship in China. He went there often and once my mum and I were invited along. We got to see everything from Beijing to Xian and Guilin and ate sea cucumber and cobra fish in sweet and sour sauce.
When my mother and I were about to fly domestically with our 'guide' (one of the scientists), we suddenly realised that we were about to enter the plane with our large suitcases. Our guide was Chinese, but had never flown before and didn't know how to check in luggage... But we were allowed to fly with our suitcases in the cabin!
Around Iceland by car hire, 2000
My then boyfriend and I rented a tiny car in a Stockholm suburb, drove to Bergen and took the ferry to Seyðisfjörður in western Iceland. Then we drove all the way round the Ring Road! Most exciting was when the car broke down in the middle of the night and we had to spend the night with an Icelandic mechanic/world champion in monster truck driving (at least that's how he explained all his trophies).
First charter - Tenerife, 2001
The same boyfriend and I decided to try a charter and went to Tenerife for a week. We climbed the Teide volcano and visited a park with birds, but the charter thing, no, that wasn't my thing ...
Association trip to the North Cape, 2002
I was active in the Nordic Youth Association (and also chairman of the association for a few years) and travelled one year on their annual North Cape trip. We took the train to Kiruna and continued north in minibuses. We went down to the Kiruna mine, visited the Esrange rocket base, hiked to the Kebnekaise base station and slept in sleeping bags in summer-empty school halls.
Final trip to Cyprus, 2003
My boyfriend at the time was working as an entertainer in a hotel in the UK. Cyprus. I had been told not to break up on the phone, so I simply travelled down to end our relationship. Such a strange trip! I broke up with him straight away and hung out on the beaches alone while he performed on stage and ran around in a stuffed animal costume. Luckily, he was probably already in love with his colleague.
Iceland for the fourth time, 2003
The travel agency Grönlandsresor wanted to test a new trip to Iceland, and I joined them as a "test person". I was 28 years old and this was my fourth trip to Iceland!
Not long after this, Peter and I met. We started our relationship by building and renovating, but after a while we started to work on our journeyswhich started with a trip to Egypt in 2005. How did you travel when you were between 20 and 30?
You might also like:
Film and TV series shooting locations - 10 places to visit
What is important to you on your holiday abroad?
View from the cockpit - a different kind of air travel
Year of travel 2023 - where we have travelled and how it was.
The travel planning stage - Aunt Anna and Googling
English (UK) 
Svenska 
Deutsch 
Suomi 
Polski
Anette says:
Want a fun cavalcade of travel.
I've done a couple of charter trips in my youth and realised that it doesn't suit me.
Maybe something when you get older.
26 July 2017 - 6:49
Helena says:
Well, who knows? Maybe there will be charter holidays for me too in the future... but not yet 😉 .
26 July 2017 - 7:57
Across the board says:
So fun to read about your previous travel experiences / experiences. I myself was probably too stingy to travel so much during that period 😉.
26 July 2017 - 7:43
Helena says:
I recognise the idea of being stingy at this age. I was a student pretty much all the time, so money wasn't that plentiful. But I think I was pretty good at sniffing out extremely cheap ways to travel 😉 The internship in the Faroe Islands was a scholarship, for example, and trips with the Nordic Association were also sponsored in various ways, so the participation fee was very low 😉.
26 July 2017 - 7:59
Kenneth Risberg says:
What different and "odd" trips, internship in the Faroe Islands, flying helicopter and 4 times to Iceland. China, North Cape and Cyprus. Exciting and challenging.
I have made a few charter trips to traditional countries, Cyprus, Mallorca and Austria, but then it has become more on my own. Among other things, diving trips to Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Egypt, where I also served as a guard in the Sinai Desert in the mid-70s.
2 years ago I made an attempt to get up to Kebnekaise but did not make it all the way up, unfortunately. But I will never forget the hike up to Kebnekaise mountain station from Nikkaluokta, 19 km in drizzle and lots of water on the hiking trail.
Not much fun putting up tents and cooking then.
26 July 2017 - 8:21
Helena says:
I have probably always been curious and the more exciting travel destinations the better! 😉 As a young student, it was probably only the economy that prevented, so I did what I could to get away on various exciting trips despite a limited budget 😉 But it sounds like you have also done a lot of exciting trips! What does it mean to sit guard in the Sinai desert ...? Sad that you did not get all the way up Kebnekaise. but better to cancel than something goes wrong ...! When we were there (I was only at the station, you could try to go up but we had little time and I wasn't very fit so I didn't try) there was actually a guy who died on the mountain. Tragic! And even if you didn't make it all the way up, you did the adventure! The weather didn't sound fun ... we had much better weather when we hiked that stretch!
26 July 2017 - 8:57
Kenneth Risberg says:
I did UN service in the Middle East in 1973-74. Several visits to Cairo and along the Suez Canal.
That I didn't get to the top is probably due to the hike up to the mountain station the day before, tired in my legs and feet. But I saw the entire Kaffedalen and the other beautiful surroundings.
26 July 2017 - 16:18
Lennart says:
Nice report!
26 July 2017 - 8:21
Helena says:
Thank you, glad you appreciated it!
26 July 2017 - 8:57
Fantasy Dining says:
Lovely to see the photos from the past, so many trips you have made:)
26 July 2017 - 8:21
Helena says:
It is a bit fun to go through old photos - it is not so often I look at them if I say so! 😉 And yes, I've probably always travelled as much as there was time and budget for 😉.
26 July 2017 - 8:58
Anna, Travel on a Cloud says:
How cool that you made so many special trips during this time! Haha, hope you still had some fun on the trip where you finished, 😉.
I already told you in the comment to the previous post what I did between 20 and 30. I mostly went on so-called last minute trips to Greece in my 20s (in the summers between university studies). But I didn't like charters either ...
In the mid-90s I was a new mum and stayed at home (well, actually over 30 then) 🙂 .
It's great to see your cavalcade of memories!
26 July 2017 - 8:29
Helena says:
Haha, I don't know. The Cyprus trip was pretty weird. I mostly hung out alone on beaches and went to eat alone in restaurants (and was annoyed that I got fries and mayonnaise with everything - even when I ordered fish and rice!). One day, my ex/boyfriend and I went on an outing with the colleague he was probably in love with. Strange that we managed it, but it worked 😉 I have been very little in Greece (only once in northern Greece) but it may be sometime too 😉 Have a nice time!
26 July 2017 - 9:01
Anna, New York - My Bite of the Big Apple says:
Haha, yes, it was a strange trip. French fries and mayonnaise for everything, so sick! They probably lumped all tourists together. `(I have been to Cyprus twice but probably don't want to return. It felt far too exploited last time).
Oh, you have to go to Greece! There are so many amazing islands that you just have to love. The food is absolutely wonderful too and it is about far more than moussaka, tzatziki and souvlaki. I think I have probably been to Greece 12/15 times.
26 July 2017 - 13:37
Family trekking says:
What fun to read! Thank you for sharing! ❤️
26 July 2017 - 8:45
Helena says:
Glad to hear that the post was appreciated! 🙂 Have fun!
26 July 2017 - 9:02
Mr Steve says:
You have photos and you remember, which together made for a nice walk in the "avenue of memories". You really have travelling in your blood.
26 July 2017 - 8:46
Helena says:
Photos are good for memory! I remember various events, but it's good that I wrote down the years in the albums! Travelling is fun 🙂
26 July 2017 - 9:03
Anette Åhnbrink says:
Now I have caught up on your travels! Always fun to look at old foton❤️ And you have undeniably travelled to some odd places, one can say, myself, childhood was often spent in Norway with tents and a lot of mosquitoes, fishing was to be done and once we camped next to a pig farm?! Otherwise, I had a pass on the Y-bus from Sundsvall to Stockholm, Stockholm in my ❤️. The first trip abroad was to Mallorca after the ninth grade, we swam, burned ourselves and had a small whiskey bottle in the drawer because you should? A bunch of nice Spanish football guys made the trip complete! After high school it was a year in the USA as an au-pair, the friend made fake IDs that we had in our shoes all the way there? Once there, I unfortunately did not travel much, lack of money, but to Santa Barbara to visit relatives and even a crazy girl's trip down to San Diego it was! Once home again, I studied in Åre and then practiced on Jersey in the English Channel, and it was a fun trip / time! After seasonal work in the Swedish mountains / west coast, I met my dear man❤️ But then I had just been on my second charter trip to Kos and their famous bar street? (The thoughts go to the Swedish guy who died last week?), we made a late trip to Crete 30 years ago, wondering if we should not go there in October and celebrate?! Looking forward to more nice old photos! /Anette
26 July 2017 - 9:58
Helena says:
Anette, what fun to read!!! It sounds like you have had a lot of exciting experiences 🙂 I have actually never been to the United States. It is perhaps iofs not the country that has attracted the most, but some parts of the US I am curious about! Maybe it will be sometime in the future 😉
26 July 2017 - 19:36
Johnny Friskilä says:
Great reading! Then at least I know that you went interrail in Eastern Europe a year before me, I went in 1997 when I just turned 18 and I went and visited various pen pals that I had then. It was a lot of fun! Regular helicopter should otherwise be a little here and there, I think.
26 July 2017 - 10:19
Helena says:
Is it true? What fun! We had a friend who we visited in Riga (she had been in Sweden for a year on a scholarship). Otherwise, we just travelled like crazy, but it was fun! 🙂 Regular helicopter is certainly available in more places. In the Faroe Islands, it is common because there are so many islands, and because the cliff edges in many cases are steep and difficult to dock by boat.
26 July 2017 - 19:42
Ruth in Virginia says:
For me, born in 1928 and living in a forest ranger's house in the middle of the
forest (without water, sewage and electricity) until I was 4 1/2 years old, when my father died,
there was no travelling. Moved to the nearest town, Ludvika, where Mother opened a restaurant; never a holiday except for an annual train journey to Stockholm to visit Aunt and Uncle in Stureby for a few days.
Commercial high school in Norrköping, 1945-47. No travelling. Job and apartment in Stockholm. First flight: -48 from Bromma to Visby.
where I met some of my former teammates from IFK Norrköping's handball team. Engagement in 1949 and cycling on Gotland. Engagement
First trip abroad - a boat trip on the Sognefjord with Mother and Sister.
In October the same year, I boarded the m/s Gripsholm in Gothenburg.
and landed in New York. Sponsored by family with relatives in Worcester,
Massachusetts. Worked as a driver and companion for an elderly couple.
Train with the aunt from Providence, Rhode Island, to Tampa, Florida:
return journey by car along the East Coast. Train to Chicago, where I worked at a country club outside the city.
Wanted to see the West Coast, but didn't have much money. Found out that you could drive used cars west and just pay for petrol. Got a car to deliver to a company in Salt Lake City. Stayed in SLC a few days, and got a Cadillac to deliver to Las Vegas. LV had only ONE hotel at that time! Bus from there to Los Angeles, where I arrived around 2am. Bus station at that time of day - scary!
Took the first possible bus to San Francisco, which would be my last stop before travelling home.
January 1953 I met "my destiny" in a boarding house, where we both lived; married in June the same year. Move to the suburbs, baby in August '54 and June '56.
No holiday, because Don, who was a geologist, had field work during the summers, and we were with him. Spent three summers in Lovelock, Nevada,
a SMALL town between Reno and Winnemucka. - Then I was just 30 years old and had not yet returned to Sweden. Didn't happen until 1960.
So yes - those were my first 30 years! Quite different?
Sorry it was so long!
26 July 2017 - 11:19
Helena says:
But oh, thank you for your story Ruth! So incredibly exciting and interesting! Growing up without electricity and running water feels alien in Sweden today. You can experience it in a holiday home at most, but usually only for a few days at a time ... And today most modern holiday homes also ... I must say that you still got away on very exciting trips to the USA! I haven't even been to the US yet ... The only thing I can recognise is not having too much money for travel. I have studied a large part of my life and thus mostly been a "poor" student. Many of the trips I've taken in my life have been budget trips, travelling on scholarship etc, but I've still managed to get away and I'm extremely grateful for that! Thanks again for your interesting stories!
26 July 2017 - 19:50
Husis blog says:
Between those ages, there were other trips when he was playing football and there was not much free time, except for the hobby of football. But on the other hand, there were a lot of different training camps, in Sweden in the summer and Germany or some warmer country before the season.
Some of the years it was also the university and then the cash was limited in a different way.
26 July 2017 - 12:24
Helena says:
The important thing is that you do what you enjoy, and in this case it seems to have been football. Have fun!
26 July 2017 - 19:54
BP says:
You have probably got the travel with the mother's milk; -) What a wonderful life on the move, also to destinations that are quite far from the charter world if you say so. Fun also that you have always managed to combine benefit with pleasure. Laughed well at the separation in Cyprus - hahaha:-)
Then I must say that Ruth's long fine comment was incredibly exciting to read. I mean she is a little older than you and had completely different conditions than you. What a girl!!!
Travelling between 20 and 30 for me: England, Camberley - work for 6 months. Switzerland, Austria, Italy, France - ski trips and many business trips throughout Europe - not bad at all;-)
26 July 2017 - 15:40
Helena says:
Thanks for your comment BP! Charter is not my thing, although it might be ok for a change. Yes, the trip to Cyprus is a bit absurd ... haha. Agree that Ruth's comment (story!) is interesting. But I kind of always love her stories 🙂 And you seem to have made both interesting and nice trips during this age in your life! 🙂
26 July 2017 - 19:57
Johanna in Skåne says:
Just have to find my photos from the train ride when I get home. Fun and rather unplanned trip (before the advent of the internet)!
26 July 2017 - 16:47
Helena says:
Yes, you must do that! Maybe you have other photos? Would be interesting! Now I may not be able to see them ... but maybe on occasion! Yes, maybe the trip was a bit unplanned? Still, it feels like we got important highlights! 🙂
26 July 2017 - 19:58
Christian says:
Fun and ambitious to scan old photos!
26 July 2017 - 18:08
Helena says:
I've been thinking about it for a long time, but only now, when we had to empty the storeroom due to water damage, did it happen ... 😉.
26 July 2017 - 19:59
Matts Torebring says:
When we met at Elmia Husbil 2016, who knew there was such a wealth of experience hidden away. Fun to read!
26 July 2017 - 18:21
Helena says:
We all carry experiences, of different kinds. I have always liked to travel, when the opportunity arises 🙂 .
26 July 2017 - 20:00
Goatfish says:
You had many memories hidden there! WHAT fun to read! And to see the old photos! You must have been born with a love of travelling. Tough, that with Cyprus! 😀
I still laugh about my short light blue coat with white short boots and dark blue shorts. I was 22 years old and for the first time on a charter to Spain with a friend. I had just had a baby, which the in-laws were looking after.
The next trip was with the same child, then 2.5, alone to Germany. Another trip to Germany with children 2 and 3 at 30 years old.
There are only possibilities, right 😀?
26 July 2017 - 20:51
Helena says:
Haha, yes, Cyprus was a special trip! And that thing about fashion in old photos ... you don't know whether to laugh or cry sometimes 😉.
26 July 2017 - 21:59
Britt-Marie Lundgren says:
What fun to read about your travelling in all directions during these years. Between 20 and 30 there was not much travelling for me. Apart from the aforementioned Morocco trip, there were holidays in rented cottages or in my parents' caravan as we had three daughters and built a house ourselves during those years. Each thing has its time and I have also travelled. ....
26 July 2017 - 21:04
Helena says:
Of course, everything has its time! And there are many other things than travelling that are important and significant in life! Hugs
26 July 2017 - 22:01
Elisabeth says:
Flights, lorries and some travel by car. Fun to discover different countries and meet people.
26 July 2017 - 22:41
Dryden - Traveller's Edition says:
What trips. I have never tried to do a final trip. Probably not going to try either actually. 🙂
I road tripped down to northern Italy during 2000-2005 (20-25), as my father's partner is from there. Got very nice experiences when we stayed at her mum's house. In 2005 she passed away and then we didn't go down any more times unfortunately, and then my jobs collapsed and I got a bad economy until 2011 when I resumed travelling seriously again. I don't regret that. On the contrary. And what networking it has become since then! 🙂
31 July 2017 - 17:22