Why write a blog? (Keir)

I swore I was never going to write a blog.  There was no need.  Sure, we had plenty of funny stories about the kids, the dog(s) and day-to-day life, but who doesn't?  There was never really a need to write anything down, but November last year (2014) things got a bit more interesting.

My work was offering some positions for ex-pat assignments in Sweden.  Essentially they would relocate the family to Malmö in southern Sweden for 18 months to two years so we could work with a branch of the company over there. It was a great career opportunity for me and a good chance to travel as a family.  The position was well suited to my current work and skill-sets and the kids were a good age to travel, with Kristine having just completed her Masters and starting to look at going back into the workforce it was a perfect time.


So why create a blog?
There were a few reasons I wanted to start a blog.  Firstly I wanted some way of capturing our trip, the memories and our thoughts and feelings as an ex-pat family.  Secondly I wanted some easy way to keep our family and friends back in Australia up-to-date with our adventures.  Hopefully we will be able to capture photos, random thoughts, complaints from Kristine about how cold it is, recommendations for anyone else who might travel to Sweden - who knows?  This is all still new to us too...

I don't expect this blog to be updated daily, weekly or even regularly - it will be updated when we get a chance and when we do something worth capturing - like a journal or diary.  It would soon get boring with weeks of:
"Woke up - still dark.  Went to work, came home, had dinner, went to bed."

I also wont be posting any details about the work I'm undertaking, not because it's super secret and I'd have to shoot you if I told you, but more because this blog is more to focus on the family and our adventures.

So why did we decide to go?
I have some great memories of travel when I was younger.  When I was 4, we travelled to England, France and Spain. Of course I don't remember much of this trip but I've seen photos and heard stories.  I next travelled when I was 15, heading back to England, France and Italy.  I recently uncovered my journals of the trip and my big box of souvenirs.  I think its great for kids to be able to see other cultures and other places - Australia is an amazing country, but its very isolated from the rest of the world.  We have such amazing scenery and animals that we don't really need to go anywhere for an adventure - ask Kristine, she has seen so much more of Australia than I have - but the isolation makes it hard to get a real understanding of the rest of the world.  I think this is an amazing opportunity for the children and for Kris and I as well.  One way we thought about it was to consider our trip to the snow last year - we drove 16 hours to the snowfields in Victoria.  We saw some excellent scenery and interesting places but we travelled through two states.  From Sweden we could drive 14.5 hours and head through 6 countries:

Google Maps - Malmo to London

Starting in Sweden we could go through Denmark,  Germany, Netherlands, France and then finally England.  Despite being all members of the European Union (EU), each country has different culture, languages and things to see.

We could never afford to do the travel from Australia to Europe without help - with five of us, flights to Malmo are at around $3,000 each one way ($30,000 return for all of us) - so this gives us a great way to get to Europe and be able to explore from there.
Well that's all for this post - my next post will cover our preparations and the lead up to going.