When we made the decision to return to “the other side of the pond,” I told Marcus, “we really should look into going to Stockholm.”

Our friends Mark, Morgan and their children moved to Sweden 18 months ago, and since then, Mark had been begging me to come visit. I honestly didn’t think it would be possible, after the storm and rebuilding of the house, but when Marcus decided that we needed to visit his family, I knew this was my shot to get a glimpse of Mark’s new home. I quickly checked online for the price of airline tickets from London to Stockholm, and was pleasantly surprised that they weren’t too expensive. So we booked the tickets.

A few days later, I suddenly realized that Mark wasn’t the only person we could visit: my friend Lola, whose work I’ve shared often on Chookooloonks, also lives there: a National Geographic photographer, she married a Swede, and she and her family have now lived in Stockholm for years. And the amazing thing? Even though Lola and I have been online friends for probably a decade, we’d never actually met in person.

Suddenly this trip was shaping into something really special.

We only spent 3 days in Stockholm, but my heavens, we packed a lot in. We bonded with Mark and his family. We had the most amazing meal of our lives. We visited gorgeous museums. I finally met Lola, and met her wonderful husband and kids. And we even got to get a glimpse of the Stockholm Pride Parade as we left the city.

Here’s what it looked like: