When we returned from Bali, we started looking for a place in Sweden. We found Eddy’s information on Google – his name popped up here and there. We sent him an email and that’s how we got in touch. It was all very relaxed. Eddy was in Sweden at the time and looked at two properties for us. One of those two ended up becoming our place. The key handover was a bit of a drama, but Eddy helped us and everything worked out in the end.
After the move, the whole adventure began. Our company consists of several buildings. We moved into the rear building, which was in poor condition, just like the other buildings. Together with about 100 volunteers, we renovated everything. We were able to do a trial run at Christmas, when it was -25 degrees. Unfortunately, we had to send everyone home on Christmas Day because there was no electricity! Then the water pipe burst. Fortunately, a plumber came on Boxing Day. However, we had to wait a month (!) for the electricity to be reconnected. But at the end of January, we were able to reopen and since then we have already received several booking.com review awards.
You often hear that it’s impossible to start a B&B or other business in Sweden. That’s not true! Everyone has to earn a living, but you decide how hard you work. With the necessary creativity, entrepreneurship and hard work, you can earn a very good living. You may have to work harder than in the Netherlands, but there is less stress. That’s what we love about Sweden: the quality of life is simply better. You have much more freedom. There’s a kind of “mañana mañana” mentality here: what doesn’t happen today will happen tomorrow. It’s not for nothing that we waited a month for electricity… That’s something that happens quite often in Sweden, that you have to wait a long time for things like new windows. You have to figure out how to solve those kinds of things yourself. Oh, and without a personal identification number, you can’t get anywhere.
The Swedish language is fairly easy to learn, but so far, and we have been here for over three years now, we have hardly needed any Swedish. Only now that we have a child and are getting more involved in the community, are we noticing that it can be useful to speak Swedish. However, people here also speak English very well. We haven’t needed Swedish at work either. Sweden is fantastic with children. The school system is different, much less performance-oriented, and the children spend much more time outdoors. Rain, wind, snow – nothing stops anyone from taking the children out into the woods; these weather conditions are simply part of life in Sweden. In winter, they even take the pupils skiing!