3 Reasons Scandinavia Should Be at the Top of Your Bucket List
I am SO excited to have my first guest post here at Waverley Design Co.! As much as I’d like to travel the entire world, I unfortunately haven’t done that yet. So I’ve decided to get some of my favorite business ladies together to give you all travel tips that I can’t! My first guest is Hiliary Stewart. We are working hard over here working on her new site and brand and it’s been so fun to see it all come together. She’s an amazing photographer and everything she does she goes all in. She runs two amazing businesses and finds time to live the life she loves. Everything Hiliary writes here echoes so true to me and my entrepreneurial heart. So without further ado, here’s Hiliary’s “3 Reasons Scandinavia Should Be at the Top of Your Bucket List.”
I worked a 13 hour shift (on my feet the entire time) the day before I gave birth to my beautiful baby girl. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about hard work, but this was a turning point for me. My husband Brenan currently owns a house renovation company, is a licensed realtor, and helps me run my photography and home staging businesses. We’ve been self employed for two years, and this is what allows us to truly live the life we want. We don’t have to get all our errands done “after business hours” when its impossible to get anything done because the traffic. We set our own schedules. Have you ever tried going to eat at the fancy restaurant at 4:00 P.M. on a Tuesday instead of Friday night? It truly is magical. In the last 18 months (can you tell i’m a mom too) we have been on 20 flights, driven 113 hours, visited 7 states, and 5 countries. Financial freedom, family, and traveling (on a budget) are the goals that have molded our everyday life into what it is today.
My favorite trip this last year was visiting Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Even though its a BIG world with so much to do, I’m already planning our next trip back to Scandinavia. Here’s 3 reasons Scandinavia should be at the top of your bucket list:
1: Norwegians get 5 weeks paid “holiday”, and they all take it in the summer.
What does this mean for you? It’s like you have the whole country to yourself. Have you ever been to a beach city in the winter? A college campus during spring break? It has this intimate feel that you can’t replicate any other time. When we hiked “The Pulpit” our bus driver said normally 20,000 people hike it everyday but that week only 3,000 people were there.
2: Norwegians learn English in school.
Have you ever had that insane culture shock while visiting another country? You don’t have to worry about this with Sweden and Norwaybecause pretty much everyone speaks English. I had to really work on Brenan to speak Norwegian while we were there, and most the time people would switch to English because they could tell I couldn’t understand what they were saying.
3: Easy to submerge yourself in the culture.
One of my biggest dilemmas while planning a trip is how to visit the country. You’re spending a lot of money getting there, its understandable that you want to get the most out of your trip. You don’t want to get stuck in all tourist traps, but most the time the touristy things are the coolest, thats why they’re “touristy”. We didn’t have this problem with Norway at all. My MIL stayed back from the hike and walked all around the city. She talked to some old Norwegians about the culture and they were so friendly. One of the cities we went to didn’t even have taxis. We walked 12 miles in the country that day and learned so much about the people.
If you’re still not convinced you should bite the bullet and head to Norway, here’s some pictures to convince you.
