Coming home to a place you have never been and being welcomed in by a family you have never met.  

The tradition of an afternoon fika, the taste of baked goods not just homemade but home grown. Seeing your family converse is a language you don’t speak yet understand completely. 

A conversation where what you do is the last question asked, hours after who you are has been well established. 

My first understanding of how beautiful a bakery can be. A glimpse of a life lived differently. Expertly. Experientially. 

Standing in the home where my grandfather was born and perhaps as many as 7 greats before him. It’s clear that this brief time in Sweden I will carry with me from now on. -Dan

       Röshult, Sweden is a small town in Sweden where we knew that we had ancestors on dad’s side of the family not to long ago. Little did we know that we would get to meet them! While in Copenhagen, we got a message from dads aunt, and it was a photo of a letter that was from a family member in Sweden! This was 2 days before we were supposed to be in Sweden, and the address was 12 minutes from where we were staying! That odds of this happening where unbelievable. So less than 48 hours later, we were driving to our (supposed) distant relative’s house. They were so wonderful! Everyone we met were so nice and inviting. We even got to eat authentic Swedish “fika”!  Fika is a traditional snack time at 3 p.m. where you have tea, coffee, and freshly made pastries. Needless to say, we loved it. The house we visited has been in the family for many generations. My great grandfather was born there, and moved to the United States when he was 16 with his brother, while other family stayed in Sweden. The food was terrific, and we felt so welcomed. Not everyone spoke English, but those who did translated for the others. However, sometimes you don’t need words to communicate. After fika, we were taken to the bakery next door and given a tour. It is such a beautiful bakery, and it is run by the family. The family built the bakery by hand out of an old barn! Another amazing thing is the fact that they open the bakery whenever they want, and people will be lined up outside the door! It’s amazing that that is possible. They promised to open it in two days, for the wood burning oven needed to be heated up. Two days later, we came back, and could barely find a place to park! There was a line out the door, and all the tables were full. We gladly waited in line, and then watched as they pulled fresh loaves of bread out the oven, and made coffee and delicious pasturies. It smelled amazing! We got to the front of the line and Anneli, the lovely lady and distant cousin that runs the bakery (She has the black chef outfit on in photos), was so geniully delighted we were there. We ordered some of the best breakfast I have every had, and talked with some family members. It was such a lovely experience that I will forever remember. If you are ever in Roshault, Sweden, make sure to visit the Roshaults Bakery!

       On another note, the place we stayed was lovely and calming. It was a nice house, and there were horses! We also had a quiet lake nearby. It was the calming down period that was much needed in our crazy lives of traveling. Hope you enjoy the photos, and have a lovely day! -Ava

The most miraculous thing happened in Sweden. Right after we booked our place to stay my dad got a text from one of our relatives in Iowa, it was a picture of a letter from a relative in Sweden that we didn’t even know existed! And it turned out that the place we booked was only 12min. away from their house, so a few days later we went to their house to connect the dots on our family tree. While we were there we had fika, fika is a Swedish tradition where they have a little snack at three o’clock. Two days later we had to leave that part of Sweden and before we left we went to their bakery and had some amazing food. -Carmen

Our Swedish family is really nice, they invited us into their home and gave us delicious food even though we’d never even met them before. I really enjoyed spending time with them and can’t wait to see them again! -Tucker