12th entry Yugoslavia, and beyond...

15 July, 1978 We went to camping Hellas. At 5 P.M. we came to Yugoslavia. We stayed at Camping Varda at 9 P.M. On the morning of the 16th of July it was very windy. We left for Skopia then Beograg, and then we camped again in our big green tent. I have gotten really good at rolling sleeping bags, since that is one of my jobs. We slept really well, it was so comfortable.

18 July, 1978 We left and drove to Hungary. The border check was difficult. We camped at a petrol station, we were the only ones there. Then when my big brother had put up our tent, we had hot dogs at the restaurant. (Drawing in journal of us eating).

19 July, 1978 We rolled our mattresses and my big brother took down the tent. We saw old buildings and nice bridges. This town looked like it was buit a long time ago, like Stockholm in the 1200's. The ladies had short skirts. We saw an old fortress by the Donau river. It is called the Sittadel. The city is named Budapest. There were large holes in the walls of the fortress where they put cannons through a long time ago. (Note from the present: The river I'm referring to which is misspelled in my journal is the Danube River, in Hungary. Here thousands of Hungarian Jews were marched to their death, shot and thrown into the Danube River during the last part of World War Two. Raoul Wahlenberg, who was a Swedish diplomat working secretly with the Americans, was able to save 10,000 Hungarian Jews from the Nazis, right at the location I visited in my journal).

AUSTRIA (Osterike) Later on we arrived in Austria. A kind old lady and man said we could spend the night in their house. All the hotels were too expensive. And we could not find the camping place we were looking for. July 20th in the morning we had breakfast. Then the lady went to a school where she was a teacher teaching people French. In the afternoon there were no people around. All the restaurants were closed. All but one we found! We ate there. Then we found a camping place for the next night.

21 July, 1978 Mammi, my little brother and I we all went to take showers. If you wanted warm water you had to put in 5 Shillings in a machine. But there was only a little luke warm water that came out, and just as I had shampoo all over my hair, out comes freezing cold water!!! It was also very cold outside. It was aweful! Then it started to rain all day. On July 22nd we left the camping place and arrived in Wien. (Vienna) Mammi and Baba (my parents) made us lunch. Then my three brothers and I picked raspberries, but then Mammi said we were not allowed to, they belonged to someone else. We went to a small play ground instead. On July 24th we went on a walk and we saw thousands of fruit trees. They all looked so good. Apple trees, pears, cherries, red berry trees, olives, peaches, apricots and plumb trees. (Journal shows drawings).

25 July, 1978 We all went on a railway car. When we were in town we met Ibrahim and Chantall. They were going out for a drive in their car. Then we went back on the rail way car to Camping West number one, and we went to sleep. On July 26th we went to one of the world's biggest built churches and we listened to the organ music. It was really beautiful. (Years later in 1980 and again in 2009, I would be in Seoul, South Korea where the biggest church in world is today, with the largest congregation). When we had finished listening to the organ music, we met Ibrahim and Chantall and their sister. We were invited to have coffee and tea with them. When it was all over we took the rail way car home (sparvagn). Chantall's sister was engaged with a man from Sweden. Baba was going to help Ibrahim get a U.N. job. He found a job he could do. He had to fill out three yellow forms.

27 July, 1978 Praten, Austria. We went to Praten, which is like Gronalund! (An amusement park). We rode on the world's biggest ferry wheel. My big brother and I went on a roller coaster. It was terribly scary! I pulled my whole neck muscle (sendrag) and could not straighten it for hours. When we were going to go home, there were no more rail cars, we had gotten there too late. (I'm not sure what we did, the journal doesn't say).

28 July, 1978 We went to a restaurant. Baba ordered a dish he didn't know what it was. Then Mammi ordered something that looked like sweet pallt with powder sugar on. (Pallt is a traditional northern Swedish dish that you either love like me, or hate). On July 29th we drove into Germany (Tyskland). We had to drive quickily through Germany. (I'm not sure why, unless we were in East Germany perhaps, and my parents did not want trouble there). We stopped at a place and bought some bread and something to drink. By July 30th we drove into Denmark. We got a new license plate for the car. There was a nice man there that gave us ice cream. We drove all the way to the harbor and by 4 A.M. we were on the ferry to Sweden. We arrived in Goteborg, Sweden at 7 in the morning. (Since I mentioned about World War Two earlier, I want to point out that the trip from Denmark to Sweden, three hour boat ride, was also the escape route for thousands of Danish Jews. They would be hidden on Danish fishing boats and taken to Sweden and taken refuge in Sweden until WW II was over).

31 July, 1978 We are at Goteborg's harbor, back home in Sweden. The vet checked out our parrot Efraim who had been traveling with us the whole time. The vet said he was healthy and we were allowed to bring him into Sweden. We drove in our car all the way home to our house in Balsta. My grandparents met us there. They had been taking care of our house while we were in Afghanistan. It was still summer in Sweden and warm.

Notes from the present: This is where my first journal ends. The second one picks up when I am in school in Sweden. I am still trying to put photos on the blog. Technical difficulties.