Transjö, SW

Transjö, SW

Wednesday, 15. August 2012

There are so many nice people! On Monday at 2pm we boarded the ferry at Frederikshavn for Göteborg in bright sunshine and straight away found our lift to Halmstad; Elna and Bengt from Sweden. We were very grateful as in Göteborg it was raining heavily. Throughout the afternoon the weather got better and by evening we had even made it to Växjö; unfortunately though it was too late, as all the Youth Hostels had already closed. So we spent the night in a meadow under a tarpaulin, fortunately without any rain which was a blessing. The next day, with the help from various people, we made it via Lessebo to Transjö.

A German expat took us the last part of the way, and drove us straight to the entrance of the Transjö Hytta shop, where the entire staff had gathered. We climbed out of his company car, got our rucksacks from the boot, said our goodbyes and stood our bags against the house wall. So we had made quite an entrance before we had had a chance to introduce ourselves. Jan-Erik Ritzmann remembered our email that we had written to him ages ago and showed us around straight away. Unfortunately, as it is the summer holidays here in Transjö there is no furnace running. Despite that and to our delight, he offered us a place to stay at his assistants’ house. At the moment, his assistants Lars and Dan live there, who gave us a really warm welcome.  As it was only 4pm, we decided to go on a small cycle tour in the forest. Thank goodness Lars had lent us a good map as we somehow managed to completely lose our bearings in the never-ending expanse of Swedish forest. Rescue came in the shape of a small sign to a village which was also marked on our map and so we were able to find the right forest track back. 

Lastly, let us say again: there are really so many nice people!