Autumn in Stockholm

I have always loved autumn, but particularly so in Stockholm. It is so beautiful here at the moment, and the change is much more dramatic than I have seen before. Here I am surrounded by beautiful golden, orange and red trees, and piles of leaves everywhere, and … mini decorative pumpkins!

This was taken the other weekend in Skansen, the open air museum in Stockholm.

My local tram stop looks like this right now. It makes me happy every day as I walk past it:

One thing I particularly love are the mini decorative pumpkins you can buy everywhere:

I have seen these mini pumpkins in flower arrangements, and in autumn some people buy them to decorate their houses… it is pretty cute really.

Here is one in my teacup for scale:

Swedes love to make the inside of their houses cosy and beautiful, probably something to do with the very long and dark winters, most of which are spent indoors. They are the kings of indoor plants (especially orchids), flower arrangements, lamps, fairy lights and plenty of candles – everywhere. When I go out for dinner at night here, most of the windows I walk past have candles lit, it seems a very Scandinavian thing. I did once read that the year Denmark was rated as the most happy nation in the world, they also coincidentally were found to be the highest consumers of candles per person in the world. A coincidence? I think not.

Now perhaps I should go and light some candles …

Shopping – Swedish style

I can’t drive, and I love to walk, so back in Melbourne I always walked to the supermarket quite a few times a week. The same in Vienna and in London. In Sweden, shopping is helped by my cute red bike.

Shopping by bike

When I was a student in Uppsala we lived up a hill in a forest about 15 minutes bike ride into town along a beautiful river and through a park. I loved riding my bike into town each day or to class – even in the snow when my eyelashes would freeze (a very strange feeling…). Uppsala seemed designed to ride your bike everywhere, unlike Melbourne where I would worry about being run over by a truck as there are not so many bike lanes.

Now that I live in Stockholm I don’t get to ride my bike as often as I did in Uppsala, but on days like today when I have to do a huge amount of shopping for a dinner party, and the Autumn sun is shining, I feel very lucky to have it.

Borderless Adventures: Welcome

Hello and welcome,

My name is Michelle and Borderless Adventures is an idea I have had in my mind for quite some time now, and by quite some time, I mean many many years. Just yesterday I discovered the start of a blog post I wrote back in 2004. Working out where to begin has proven to be a challenge – finally I have decided to just start and see where I end up.

Tulips: The Netherlands

I am originally from Australia, but half my family is Dutch. I first moved overseas 9 years ago, when I was 19, to experience life in Vienna, Austria for 3 months. I fell in love not only with Vienna (still my favourite city to this day), but also with experiencing new cultures first hand, exploring new cities, learning new languages and meeting amazing people I may never have had the chance to had I not moved.

Since that time I have lived for two years in London, another year in Vienna (with various periods living back in Melbourne in between where I luckily met my fiance) and since January 2011, I have been living in Sweden – first in Uppsala and now in beautiful Stockholm.

My intention is to share my experiences of life in another country, to help others who are in a similar position or those that might be planning to move overseas, be it for love, work, study or simply adventure.

My studies have also taken me in the direction of migration, and I have focused my masters on immigration policy, and also the exploration of identity and how it shifts and we move across borders. I hope to share some of this here as well.

Wish me luck, and let’s see how this all goes!