Christmas in Sweden

We arrived in Sweden at night on the 20th. Caroline's dad picked us up and we went straight home. The last couple days I had become sick and it was getting worse in Sweden. I had a terrible cough, a lot of mucus and a painful headache. We actually went to the hospital to get it checked out. They prescribed me with some medicine and I slowly got better. I think I fully recovered just before new years, so my break in Sweden for Christmas was not as peaceful as it should have been but was still nice to be with family. We set the Christmas tree up in the living room and decorated it. Caroline's brother was at home for the Christmas break so we spent time with him before he went off to Brazil to study. It had snowed a bunch in Linkoping while we were in London so there was a lot of snow outside. We took a walk around the neighbourhood which was nice. We went over to Caroline's grandparents for Christmas on the 24th (which is when they celebrate Christmas in Sweden) for a lunch and dinner. Patrik wore a santa's hat and beard and handed out the presents that night as a tradition her family does. I had bought them all a customised shirt that Primark had put on in London. I had designed her dad's and brothers shirt with Star Wars and her mum and her own shirt with Disney. Plus got them alcohol. Caroline's grandparents got me some bar equipment and a light up shaker which was cool. I got socks and other stuff too. My mum had also sent a package over from Australia for me which I opened the next day whilst face-timing them all. She had got me an 'Australia box' which came with Vegemite, Aussie coffee, aussie themed socks and some chocolate (Cherry Ripes and Caramello Koalas). That day we also went to Caroline's dad's mums for a Christmas lunch and played Kubb which is a traditional Swedish game, kind of like Horseshoes but you have to knock down the wooden stick placed on the opponents side. We left Sweden on the 27th in the evening and stayed at my friends place from Melbourne for the night in a shared house. His roommate had recently moved out so I actually took his place and stayed there from the first week of January till I left for Australia again. Caroline and I found another Airbnb for the meantime and celebrated her Birthday at this place and went out for drinks on the 2nd of January. I had worked that whole week for New Years at Adventure Bar. It was crazy busy in the bar but was also so much fun with the guys I worked with. We opened a bottle of champagne whilst the count down to the new year started and had some time to take it in before getting back to work. Caroline left back to Sweden on the 11th January while I stayed and worked because we thought it best she goes back and saves some money so she could leave back to Australia around the same time as me. The money we earned in London was pretty much enough to get by and we couldn't put any aside as it was so expensive to travel and pay for a place to stay while working. We didn't earn enough to plan for the future so she went back to her parents and got a job. We saw each other again on the 28th of January. I went to Stockholm for a couple days and we stayed in a hotel in the city centre whilst walking around Stockholm, a place I hadn't got to fully experience yet. So that was nice.