- Title: SWEDEN: Swedish honeymoon couple experience seven natural disasters
- Date: 7th April 2011
- Summary: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN (APRIL 6, 2011) (REUTERS) STEFAN, ELINOR AND ERIKA SVANSTROM IN THE CORRIDORS OF PARLIAMENT ELINOR SVANSTROM (SOUNDBITE) (English) ERIKA SVANSTROM, SAYING: "It started with a snow storm in Germany that slowed us down for a night. We had to spend the night there. Then it was the bush fires in Perth and also we had the monsoon and the storm in Bali, Ind
- Embargoed: 22nd April 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Sweden, Sweden
- Country: Sweden
- Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Quirky,People
- Reuters ID: LVA54ILH6XZL5ENQEIHTJUG7SJO1
- Story Text: When Stefan and Erika Svanstrom and their baby girl Elinor left Sweden for a four-month honeymoon trip little did they realise that they would experience a blizzard, a cyclone, flooding, a bushfire, an earthquake and a nuclear disaster.
"It started with a snow storm in Germany that slowed us down for a night. We had to spend the night there. Then it was the bush fires in Perth and also we had the monsoon and the storm in Bali, Indonesia. And then we ended up in Cairns, in Queensland in Australia and experienced the cyclone yasi which was of course was the biggest cyclone they had had in ages and we were evacuated for 24 hours in a shopping mall together with 2,500 others sleeping on a concrete floor and the power went out in the middle of the night. So that was a different experience on a honeymoon," the couple said and added:
"And then we moved onto the flight for New Zealand and my mother called when we were on the airplane turning off the phones. 'Are you alive. Where are you? Are you in the earthquake area?' What? So she just told us that we were heading towards new earthquake areas in New Zealand and we ended up with the earthquake in Tokyo Japan then. And we also came to Brisbane, Australia, driving after the floodings. That's a short of what happened."
After getting married on November 27 last year, Erika, 32 and Stefan, 38 and their then 6-month-old baby Elinor set off from Stockholm in the beginning of December, and immediately they were stranded in Munich in Germany due to a snow storm.
After their overnight in Germany, the family spent some quiet and relaxing time in China and Thailand before the different natural disasters started to happen all around them.
In Bali, Indonesia, there was a monsoon that kept them indoors for days.
Their next stop was Australia. They were in Perth during large forest fires and in Brisbane when it was flooded and when they went north to Cairns do dive in the Great Barrier Reef they were evacuated when a large cyclone was approaching the town. They had to spend the night in a shopping mall.
Then it was off to New Zealand where a magnitude 6.3 quake had devastated parts of Christchurch on February 22. Around 200 people were killed in what was the country's second worst natural disaster.
Next on the itinerary was Tokyo in Japan.
For two days they did the usual touristy things and were sitting in a restaurant when the earthquake struck on March 11.
The 9.0 magnitude earthquake -- the strongest recorded in Japan -- was followed by a tsunami towering more than 10 meters battering the country's northeast coast killing thousands of people.
Erika and Stefan Svanstrom said the most emotionally upsetting experience during the trip had been the Japan earthquake and its consequences.
"The most shaking (upsetting) emotionally I think it was Japan," said Erika Svanstrom who works as an adviser at the Swedish parliament as does her husband.
"Definitely Japan because that's when we really experienced the forces of nature close at hand. We were sitting at a restaurant and all of a sudden two ladies are starting to talk to us in Japanese and saying 'shake shake' so we had to get out of the restaurant and everything was shaking and we saw light posts just wobbling in the air," added Stefan Svanstrom.
The quake caused damage on the the Fukushima Daiichi power plant and on Wednesday nuclear experts said that despite the breakthrough in plugging a leak, the damaged reactors were far from being under control.
The couple was grateful that the family had remained safe but their thoughts went to all the victims of the different disasters.
"Oh - we're very grateful that nothing happened to the family and we think a lot about the people, particularly in Japan. That was very special," Erika Svanstrom said. "That was a saddening factor in our trip of course to see the devastation. We of course didn't see the devastation with our own eyes but we could see some of the destruction to some of the buildings in Tokyo and that everything was shut down for some days afterwards," Stefan Svanstrom said.
Erika Svanstrom said they kept themselves updated throughout the trip and said many were worried about them but some also made fun postings on their Facebook pages.
"We watched the news almost every hour, we had constant check on the news and the thing was that people were also writing on the Internet that 'we're not sure we want you to come home because we have seen what happens when you come around," Erika Svanstrom said.
She said one of the most unusual experiences during the trip was when they were in Cairns and evacuated to a shopping mall.
"Sleeping on the floor with those 2,500 snoring people - not all of them but - that was quite an experience," Erika Svanstrom said.
The family returned to Stockholm at the end of March:
"We're very happy to be home safe and sound," the couple said adding that the honeymoon had been eventful and that the highlight of their trip was a drive through New Zealand. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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