OUR STORY
We are all artists of our own lives and with a touch of imagination it is possible to design exactly the life you want to live and feel passionate about. This story and life path is our Rembrandt masterpiece, where the last brush stroke is not yet painted – a journey from simple two weeks vacations to a travel lifestyle where we are the masters of our own time. It all started when we met about 10 years ago. The year was 2010 and the world was at our feet.
Inspired by travel
We have been traveling together since 2010 – right from the very beginning when we first met – and have been inspired by travel ever since. Our first trip together to Tunisia consisted of a mix between beach life, city sightseeing and adventure in the Sahara Desert. After that its safe to say that we have been traveling more than most people we have ever met. Traveling the world sort of gives you that special injection of inspiration and energy into your ordinary life and for us it is essential.
Moving to Norway
The move to Norway in 2013 was one of those life defining moments for both of us. We had good jobs in Gothenburg at that time but had been talking about the adventure of moving to another country for quite some time now and the main reason we went for it was to finance our biggest dream – to travel around the world, but also because we felt a hunger of trying something completely new. Said and done – we started to sell our things, threw away half of it and whatever was left over we either took with us or put in storage at our parents houses.
When we came to Stavanger we didn’t even have a job. The only thing we had fixed from the start was a house to move into. It all felt a bit scary but we can both still remember that special feeling of freedom coming out of starting from scratch again. It all felt like being beginners again, less sure about everything. We had to find a new job, new friends, a new way to live and at the same time adapt to the Norwegian society. It wasn’t easy in the beginning, we understood Norwegian but we went trough some trial and error in the communication when we first got there.
We were so lucky to meet with fantastic people right from the start. And its because we adhered to spontaneity and went on a crayfish party the same month we moved to Stavanger. Ironically they were all from Sweden and these people instantly became our closest friends that we still hang out with today. Moving to Norway is easily one of the best decisions we have ever taken and we don’t regret a thing.
Around the world trip
Traveling around the world for more than a year changed our lives for better and for always. It sort of charged us with a stronger travel mentality than ever before and rebuilt our characters and vision for our lives.
Long term traveling does something to a person – it awakens a hunger inside that you will have a hard time to ever get rid of again. We don’t call it an escape from the ordinary life when we travel, we chose to label it as an embrace of life. We have seen and done so many wonderful things on our trip around the world that some people don’t even get to experience within a lifetime.
A travel lifestyle
Coming home from our around the world trip, we brought back something new – but if we look closer we come to realize it has actually been there all along. If there is one thing we are absolute certain about it is that we will never lose the thirst of exploring our wonderful planet. This passion for travel is so deeply ingrained in our DNA by now that it has become a lifestyle. Some may call it a curse – to never fully feel satisfied if you are not on the road exploring – but for us it is not a way to escape life as it should be but to embrace it and make sure that life itself does not escape from us.
Traveling has become a lifestyle and each new adventure is cloaked with a voice of its own saying never lose sight of the fire inside. We live and breath new experiences.
A brand is born
When we got back from our trip around the world and figured out that we actually stand for something, sort of a red thread that has always been slightly visible throughout our journeys – it all became very clear to us. We are not satisfied with the idea of simply documenting our trips for our own personal pleasure – we want to share it with the world. We want to shout at the top of our lungs that travel is and always will be a people movement – where ordinary people become enlightened on the road and make memories for life.
Inspired by the people we have met and meet every day, all the places we have been to and continue to explore, and the life changing adventure itself – we set out to create something for everyone to enjoy. Vagabonds of Sweden® – is the very definition of a life on the road – a brand built upon the love of freedom.
The past, present and future
If you are interested in knowing where in the world we are right now and what our life looks like at this very moment – be sure to visit our timeline section under the about meny. Here you can look into the past of our previous journeys, track us down and see what we are doing right now – while at the same time get a glimpse of our future adventures. In addition, if you are even more curious you can have a look at our bucket list which will give you an overview of some of our upcoming adventures in the far away future.
Moving to Australia
The next chapter in our lives is currently being written. We are planning on moving to Australia to work and live there for a year – or longer. The idea is to buy ourselves a campervan, maybe one of those old school Volkswagen Vans, and explore the entirety of Australias east coast in a slow and steady pace – à la Jack Kerouac On the Road style. The van and the road will be our home. Our days will be colored by meetings with new and exciting people, beaches and never ending unforgettable experiences – and the ever present taste of freedom and immortality will enrich our days.
We will apply for a working holiday visa to be able to work wherever and whenever we feel like it – from Cairns to Sydney and anywhere in between. Our imagination is the only limit. From there, who knows where we might end up. There is still a big world out there to explore and we have just scratched the surface.
Our backgrounds
We don’t have rich parents, and we are not rich ourselves – but we do have a hunger for being rich on life. You can read more about us and where we come from further down on this page. Here you will get a summary of our lives – and a better understanding of who we are.
FAQs
On our FAQ page, we provide you with answer to the most frequently asked questions about us, our brand and website. If you do have any specific questions that we do not adress please send us and email.
Sofia Bertilsson
Born 30 years ago Sofia is the typical chatterbox, social and kind. She see herself as a pretty normal Swedish girl, but with the wish to get the most out of life. Sometimes she focus a bit to hard on being liked by everyone. Being a big fan of the active lifestyle, she wants to think that she can achieve whatever she put her mind to.
Sofia is the co-founder, editor and author of the website vagabondsofsweden.com. She is in charge of the Instagram account full of inspiring content from our travel lifestyle.
She edit all photos on Instagram and on this website in Lightroom and currently work on our very own presets, that’ll give our magic touch and unique signature to every photo.
”Don’t dream your life. Live your dreams”
Her Story
Life doesn’t always take the path you thought was the right one for you and this is what happened to me. I’ve always pictured myself with a house, family and kids at a young age – safe and sound somewhere close to my hometown in Sweden. But life wanted differently, and since the day I met Fredrik nine years ago life has continuously shown me new opportunites and possibilites of all the alternatives there is to choose between in life. Out of these I’ve started to customize my own perfect lifestyle and everyday I feel like I’m getting closer and closer to the ideal one for me. Continue to read if you’re curious about my backround and the journey that has taken me to where I am today.
Who am I
I am the original chatterbox, meaning I simply love talking to people. I see myself as very social and kind to everyone. I try to work on not being afraid of standing out, because sometimes I´m too focused on what other people think of me.
Childhood and family
I’m the oldest of four sisters, who grew up in a house in the woods close to Gothenburg in Sweden. Looking back at my childhood I remember it as a really happy period of my life, with no worries and a lot of love. As a teenager I became more and more of a trouble maker at home, but at the same time I was known as the angel and hardworking student in school. This is something that I think was really hard on my parents, but happily I outgrew this troublemaker phase and today I have a really close and warm relationship with my family and they are all extremely important to me. Today I also have a niece and a nephew who I love more than words can describe and this is probably the hardest part for me when it comes to traveling and being far from home – to not be able to closely follow every step they take in life.
School and studies
Hearing other people talk about their time in school always make me feel a bit sad because I often hear people mentioning their school-days as one of the best periods in their life. For me it wasn’t like that at all. I often felt like I didn’t fit in and I had periods when I felt left out and it was really hard for me. I did finish school with good grades though and decided to start with University studies after a gap year of working.
Since I was 16 years old I’ve been working alongside my studies, something I also continued to do during my years at the University. At the age of 23 I graduated and got my Bachelor´s degree within Business Administration. I don’t have any plans to go back to school for the moment, since it’s just not my ”cup of tea”. At least not for the moment.
Work
I have always seen myself as a 9-5 worker, and I don’t dislike it too much. But now trying out a new alternative and hope to be able to create the life I don’t need a vacation from. What I actually do like about a 9-5 job is the easiness to build a great routine around it when it comes to diet and workout. And among colleagues I´m known as the social one which is something I can miss when not working – the social aspect.
Between 2010 and 2013 I finished my masters degree within business administration and during our 5,5 years in Stavanger I worked with salaries, payroll and accounting. I´m ridiculously interested in numbers, and when we´re out traveling I´m making excel sheets for our budget and costs to keep track of all expenses and not only that, I also keep control of how many nights we´ve stayed in hostels/hotels/campervan and how many meals we´ve cooked ourselves comparing to the once we´ve been eating at a restaurant.
During our around the world trip 2017-2018 I got 15 months off from work, so that I could come back afterwards – something that worked perfect for me that time, but for the trip we´re on now, the only right thing was to quit my job and just see what live has in mind for me, and so far I feel very satisfied with that decision.
Travel
As a young girl I traveled a lot with my family, not only in Sweden but also in Europe. My family has always been very active and loves the outdoors. Therefore we mostly used our summer and winter breaks to go camping, hiking and skiing, mixed with days at the beach.
When I met Fredrik I started to travel more, first we mostly did weekend and charter trips, but pretty soon we started to plan and book our trips more by ourselves and then they also became longer. During our around the world trip 2017-2018 I finally got infected by the “Travelbug” and today traveling has become a lifestyle instead of just a hobby.
What I´ve learned is that it´s a huge difference between traveling and being on vacation, and compared to vacation traveling isn´t all about relaxing, enjoying, good food and fun, but it can sometimes also be exhausting and a bit tough. For me homesickness can also be an issue from time to time, even though I every day on the road learn new things of how I function as a person and how I can reduce the homesickness. Everyone has different levels when it comes to comfort, and for me sometimes I need more comfort to make the traveling life as fun as I want it to be.
So to travel in a slower pace, once in a while, spend a bit more money on a room with a comfy bed and a nice shower are two things that have helped me. Trying to keep my diet as healthy as possible and workout a couple of times per week are also a great method for me. But everyone needs to find their weak points and try to find out whatever works best for them. For someone who has never traveled like this before it can be hard to understand, even for me it was hard to guess how I would react to certain situations before we started our first long term trip, and I found out things about myself that I didn´t really like.
But of course, mostly the traveling life is absolutely worth it, even if it´s not always glamour, it gives me the freedom I love.
Goals and dreams
My goals and dreams in life has changed pretty massive during the last couple of years. Ten years ago my biggest dream was to have a nice house and start a family as soon as possible, but then life happened and doors started to open up for me and I realized that there were so much more in life than just that. This doesn’t mean that this isn´t a dream anymore, it still is, especially the family part – I honestly can´t wait for the day to come when I can call myself a mom. But what I´ve figured out is that I do have time for that later and that there are things I want to do before that, so that is the reason I´m here – traveling around the world without any real plans, just living my life.
So even if my dream of getting kids is as strong as it was when I was 19, I do see a bit different on it today, and the picture I have in my head isn´t the same as I pictured it 10 years ago. But I couldn´t be more happy about where I am right now. Just knowing that the other dreams will become a reality one day calms me down and makes it easier to be present right here, right now – and enjoy the lifestyle I probably will miss later on in life when it´s not all about me anymore.
Fredrik Eriksson
Made in Sweden 32 years ago. Fredrik is an explorer, searcher and free spirit by heart. Jack-of-all-Trades. Adventurer. Truth- and inner peace seeker. Braveheart. Independent. Open-minded. Self-educated. Thinker. Dreamer. Impossible is nothing believer. Strategic. Artist soul. Entreprenurial mind. Overachieving perfectionist. INTJ personality apparently. Sometimes more or less a ”machine” – summed up with a stay hungry, stay foolish mentality.
Fredrik is the co-founder, editor and author of the website vagabondsofsweden.com. He has built most parts of this website and makes sure that it is fully updated and up and running.
He is a selt-taught writer, blogger and photographer that loves being creative and build things from his own mind, starting with just one single thought.
”Some men see things as they are and say why”
”I dream things that never were and say why not”
His Story
I quit my job to travel the world and it´s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life – because it opened a door to the soul that should have been opened a long time ago. Looking back, I’ve come to realize that traveling has been present throughout my entire childhood and now my adult life as well. Once you have started on this path there is no looking back and I don’t regret a thing. Below is a short summary of some of the key factors that defines who I am and where I come from.
Who am I
According to the famous Meyer Briggs personality test, my personality type is INTJ. Now this doesn’t really describe all of me and my character, not even close, but it gives you an inkling about how my mind works. Some of the things described in the results after the test I realized hit the spot right on, while other things might be open for debate. You should always take these things with a pinch of salt. However I find it interesting and it helps you out if you are interested in understanding what makes you tick. If you are curious to know me any deeper than that, well then a nice spot somewhere and a beer or two is the way to go.
Now, beside all that ”jibberish” and psychological bullshit, as some would put it – I see myself as an honest, kind and truthseeking man that usually ignores the social game of chit-chat to seek a higher understanding and meaning of things in life.
Childhood
I grew up in a small town in Sweden called Stenstorp and lived here until I was 9 years old – when we moved to the bigger city Falköping. Coming from such a small ”village” has been an advantage for me. I learned to work hard to get somewhere in life an by so doing it opened up my eyes to the world and gave me an eagerness to see more and fight for more.
When I grew up I was very fortunate to be able to travel a lot. Few have this privilege but for me it has always been a natural way to spend the summers as a young boy. Whenever I had my birthday, being a summer child, we were always away on holiday – camping and exploring new cities in Sweden. Looking back I now know that not many of my friends did this. And I´m very grateful for it. The sea, the beaches, the new environments and the taste of freedom defined me early on in life. It gets into your DNA and haunts you until you connect with it later on in life. And now I am.
Football
If there is one thing that really has defined the person I’ve become, it is football. Besides being just a sport – football builds character. When you are young you mostly play for fun but when you get older you also understand what other things you can deduce from it. Teamwork, dedication and discipline, to name a few, are some of the things you learn in any sport which you can apply to all aspects of life as you grow older.
And although I miss playing soccer, sort of like a wound that won’t stop bleeding – I have found other callings in life. I have always felt like there are more things that I want to accomplish, that simply cannot fit into just one tray. Call me a multipotentialite, because sometimes thats how I feel.
School
It took me a while to figure out that I was never meant to sit behind a wooden desk and study to become the model citizen. Im too much of a free spirit to knowingly accept the chains of bondage and follow the rat race. I danced to the whistle like everyone else in the beginning but life put me on another path towards something else and Im glad for it.
When I was young I was not one of the top students who always got straight A:s for years in a row – but I was pretty good in School. I´m not gonna lie, nor exaggerate – but I could learn things in a way that borders to photographic memory, however it didn’t interest me. I didn’t like the idea of studying for something to pass a test and then forget about it the moment I walked out the door. Through the years I have been self educating myself, learning things that interests me and that I knew would be useful in life as I see it. One should not be foolish enough to think that just because school is over, so is the learning – life itself is the best school one can ever have.
Working
Now that you know I was not cut out for studying in School, it might not come as a chock to you that it has been quite hard for me to also find my true path in the labor market. A regular 9-5 job has never been my destiny, although like everyone else I have to walk the walk and talk the talk in order to survive. I have had so many different kind of jobs growing up that I have almost lost track and all because I wanted to find my true calling. That is rare and sometimes I find myself envy of people who can actually make up their minds and accept a certain kind of job for the rest of their lives. Even more so the people who know already when they are young what they want to do.
But all this does not frighten me, on the contrary – this is exactly what gives me strength because I know that as long as I keep searching until I find my passion in life that makes me happy and positive as I wake up in the morning – at least I’m not living a lie or accepting less than what I’m capable of. We should all strive for this and never doubt our abilities to get what we want and desire.
Goals and dreams
I have had so many lofty goals in life that I have lost count. A few unfulfilled – but even more ticked off. It has always been like that because I am a dreamer and for as long as I can remember I have worked hard to realize some of those dreams. However just a few years ago I understood that it is dangerous to just have dreams and never act on them because that is a sure thing to a miserable life where you will always be reminded of what could have been.
I still set high goals and I still dream and think big – I mean why not. We only live once. Although sometimes we all act like we are going to live forever. Goals and dreams are so important because it will make you strive for something in life rather than just exist – to live rather than just being alive.
Travel
To travel is to embrace life, thats how I see it. Some people might call a long term journey an escape from life – but they are so wrong. They don’t seem to realize that when you travel, I mean really travel and not just two weeks vacation – you open up your mind in a way that is so hard to do living in that little bubble of comfort and security back home. It changes everything and you are able to look down on what you have previously done in life with a new perspective and embrace what is still to come in a different kind of way.
I have always loved to travel and I will for as long as I live. Because to see the world is not just about everything surrounding the trip itself it is about the trip you are taking inside that will forever effect all that you will ever do. Having seen the world I have become more tolerant and at the same time more ignorant to all the shitty little problems that is part of life. In a zen kind of way it distills everything and leave only truth and what is most important to you in life. At the very least you are able to look a things that comes your way through this spectrum. It gives you a more clear picture and instead of judging, assuming and preaching from the narrow plateau upon which your life is built and where you have created your worldview since childhood – you can now speak and advocate a clear picture made up of worldwide impressions and understanding. I now consider myself to be a citizen of the world, a member of the human race, rather than just some Swedish guy – branded and shaped to fit into a certain kind of box with a particular way of thinking. That sort of knowledge is priceless. Therefore we should all strive towards traveling more in life. To put in the words of legendary Bruce Lee himself – strive to be formless, shapeless like water.
RANDOM FACTS
Here is your chance to get to know us even better. Following is some random facts about each one of us that probably not many people know of.
I LOVE NUMBERS
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CHEEZ DOODLES FANATIC
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ALL IN OR NOTHING AT ALL
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I´M NOT A FAN OF SHOPPING
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I´M THE OLDEST OF FOUR SISTERS
We have had a rough time growing up together.
I´VE RUN A MARATHON
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I WOULD LOVE TO ACT IN A MUSICAL
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I HAVE BEEN IN A CAR ACCIDENT
Luckily no one got injured.
I´VE FINISHED THE WORLD´S BIGGEST SKI RACE
Vasaloppet.
Our once famous king Gustav Vasa
90 km of cross country skiing.
I CAN MAINTAIN A MOSQUITO BITE FOR MONTHS
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I´M VERY SHORT
I have a stool from IKEA under the kitchen sink so that I can reach the top shelf. I am 154 cm short. However this has not been bad for me in life, only different and in some cases actually a benefit.
LIFE DEFINING MOMENTS
1. Moving from Sweden to Norway
2. When I decided to go travel the world
3. When I quit my job to travel to Australia.
I REALLY HATE LOSING
I can’t stand losing no matter what the challenge or task, and although it rarely happens – losing in something as simple as a card game used to drive me nuts when I was younger.
This was something I built up when growing up unintentionally – then later on in life it sort of got out of control. I can’t really control it, because my brain is wired to WIN – through years of self-brainwashing to always be the best in everything I do. Some people actually think that you react in a bad way to prove a point – when its actually ingrained in your DNA. So sorry for any future awkward and embarrassing moments.
I USED TO BE THE BEST AT PLAYING FOOTBALL
When I was younger I was the leading scorer for my team and the one who usually did the impossible. And I was fast, really fast – with or without the ball at my feet. But that was quite some time ago and I don’t really live on old merits – but it does say something about me. A lot of the things I’ve learned in life came through football.
I´m also actually a Swedish champion. We won the championship when I played High-School football when I was around 18 years of age.
Through football I developed my winning mentality thats has helped achieve my dreams and goals in every aspect of my life.
I LOVE MOVIES
Some movies I have watched over a 100 times and almost know every line like the back of my hand.
I learned pretty good English watching movies.
On top of that I like to watch conspiracies. I´m not that extreme that I believe the moon landing never took place or that the earth is flat – but there are certain things that have happened in the world where I´m very sceptic to what media tells us is the truth.
When I was young I could sit and watch the training scenes from the Rocky movies over and over and over again – so much that these VHS tapes became useless after a while – and I had to either buy the movie in store or wait until it was televised again and then record a new tape. Those were the days.
I guess I did that because I have always loved the underdog story about a man who does the impossible that no one believes in. I sort of brainwashed myself into a winning mentality through the made up hero stories from Hollywood – but it has survived and remained with me my whole life and I have put it to practice in all aspects of life. I think few people know this about me.
I watch a lot of motivational clips, even to this day.
I´M A GREAT SHOT
When you try out a .44 Magnum – ”the most powerful handgun in the world” – for the first time and you hit the target dead center – I think the qualifies as being a pretty good shooter. Nah, beginners luck I hear someone say.
All jokes aside – I used to be pretty good at airgun shooting when I was younger. But hitting targets, not only dreams, is something I’m good at.
I´M A CHIPS FANATIC
I’ve been told I used to shake in pure frustration when I wanted chips when I was around 6-7 years of age. I was a chips addict already back then.
Sweden actually has the best chips in world – but hey, maybe thats because I´m used to it. After traveling the world though – there are certain chips flavors that you favor. Like Pitsinia Chips in Greece for example or Lay´s Classic Potato Chips. Yummy!
I WANT TO START A COMPANY
My destiny in the near future is quite obvious. I can no longer pretend being satisfied going to work doing things I don’t love to do. For me it is foolish. From my point of view thats not the way to live your life.
I SUFFERED A SEVERE FOOD POSINING ONCE
And I was seriously worried for the first time in my life that something bad might happen to me. This was in Malaysia and I probably got the food poisoning from India.
These are the times when you realize your mortality.
SOMETIMES I HAVE SLEEP PARALYSIS
This is sometimes actually really scary because you feel like you are awake with eyes wide open but and you can see things – but you are still asleep.
Feel the presence of someone there.
I READ A LOT OF BOOKS
Mainly autobiographies and success books. Like Think and Grow Rich and Law of Success.
I like to study what key factors made people successful in their lives and
Even though I´m not a fan of education I never stop self educating myself.
I´M OPEN MINDED
Rather than limit myself to only one point of view – because I wanna glow, nurture my social status, not loose a conversation or not turn my own world upside down – I try to keep an open mind to everything, always hearing out potential explanations of things and looking at them from another angle.
I have noticed this bug the shit out of people so I usually limit these discussions to people who actually wanna listen and who are open minded themselves. They are rare – but at the same time you can’t expect someone to change their point of view upon which foundation their lives are built. Sometimes I do ask myself that question though – are we really that narrow minded as humans? Wake up.
Think outside the box.
I LOVE ANIMALS
Especially dogs and cats since they have been a part of my entire childhood up to my adult life.
But I like and respect most of the animal life on this planet and can’t even begin to describe how much I hate cowards doing bad things to animals.
LIFE DEFINING MOMENTS
1. When I quit playing football
2. When I quit my University studies in Gothenburg
3. When we moved to Norway
4. When I quit my job to travel the world
5. The motorcycle road trip in Vietnam and the idea of this website that came out of that journey
6. When I quit my job to travel to Australia
Summary:
When you look closer at this list it really seems like I give up and quit things to easy. That’s one way to look at it – but I choose to look at it as someone who is not afraid to take the road less traveled. I realized I was meant for something else, took a decision that was carefully analyzed and went with it. It can never be a failure when you are certain you are supposed to do something else in life. Follow your heart and it will all work out just fine.
VAGABONDS OF SWEDEN