Love Story with (and Travel to) Sweden
My Travel Story
My name is Cindy Miller, and I have had a love affair with the country of Sweden since the age of eight, when I first saw the Pippi Longstocking movies and wanted to be Pippi! Fascinated at that point with all things Swedish (as I still am), I asked my father to try to secure the name of a person in Sweden, around my same age, with whom I could correspond in Sweden. And, so began some years of correspondence with a pen pal from Uppsala. We were both about eight years old and corresponded until we sadly lost touch when we were teenagers. Over the years I have had multiple pen pals in different countries, I have traveled many times to Europe, and I have imagined myself stepping back into history to live amongst the court in eighteenth-century Versailles. I speak French and German, and I have studied in Boppard, Germany, during my university years. I have a graduate degree from the College of William and Mary, and my career focuses on international market research, a career that allows for some fun and productive overseas travel to visit clients and attend conferences.
The only ‘missing’ part for me in this story is that, in all of my years of travel to Europe, I have never been to Sweden. I have been wanting to go there every year. I am so interested in the people, culture, language and landscape. Every year I tell myself that ‘this is the year,’ but, while I have this great job, our company has been losing money each year. And each year it becomes harder to finance a holiday to this country about which I have dreamed for years.
I am so eager to travel to Sweden this year, and I am asking for $4,500 to do so. I would dearly love to visit the Royal Palace in Stockholm, cruise the canals in Gothenburg, and visit the Pippi theme park in Vimmerby, to name only a handful of goal destinations. I want to eat native pepparkakor and saffron buns.
And, most of all, I want to connect with three people there. As a side story, three years ago, our company almost sent three of us to Stockholm for a research conference, but, because of budget, we could not attend. However, in advance, in case we were able to travel at that time, I had tried to find my pen pal from my youth. It was to no avail, but, in so doing, I ‘met’ via email and have become friends with an author/publisher in Stockholm. It has been so nice communicating about our respective culture and countries! And, in the last few months, I became friends with another guy whom I met at a conference in Amsterdam. He is also from Sweden, and, if I did not know better, is the living image of a character I created in one of my stories. And I would like to see if I could find/meet my old pen pal. This trip would be an educational and cultural experience for me, and, because I write stories and books, could become the stuff of a travelogue of my experiences.
I hope you can help me continue my ongoing love affair with Sweden!
Thank you!
Cynthia
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Campaign Ended
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Funded -
$ 4,500 USD
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Cost Calculator
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Airfare/ International Flights
$ 2,000
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Accommodation
$ 1,000
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Local Travel Expenses
$ 1,000
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Medical/ Travel/ Accident Insurance
$ 500
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