A Summer in Sweden (No Passport Required)

Posted on April 30, 2026 in Butterfly Games, Travel

You don’t actually have to travel to Sweden to wander its royal parks, step inside its palaces, or follow in Jacquette’s footsteps.

Every summer, I start to feel it—that familiar pull toward travel.

Longer days. Lighter evenings. The sense that somewhere out there is a place waiting to be explored.

For me, that place has been Sweden.

Over the past several years, I’ve traveled there again and again—six trips so far, more than eighty nights in total—walking the same paths, visiting the same palaces, and standing in the same rooms that shaped the story of Butterfly Games.

But here’s the truth:

You don’t actually have to go to Sweden to experience it.

The Sweden I Fell in Love With

What drew me in wasn’t just the history—though there is plenty of that.

It was the feeling of the place.

Stockholm in summer is all soft light and water—bridges connecting islands, gardens opening onto quiet paths, buildings that seem to hold centuries of stories just beneath the surface.

And then there are the domains where royal history lived.

Drottningholm Palace. Haga Park. Bellevue.

These aren’t just grand settings—they’re places you can walk. Not drive past, not observe from a distance, but truly move through. I made a point, whenever I could, to follow those routes on foot. To see what Jacquette might have seen. To understand how proximity—who you encountered, where you paused, what you overheard—could change everything.

Because in her world, it often did.

A Three-Day Escape (Real or Imagined)

If you were to visit Sweden, I could map it out for you.

Day one: a boat ride to Drottningholm, wandering through palace gardens and hidden courtyards.

Day two: Stockholm itself—Old Town squares, the Royal Palace, a quiet museum tucked into an island park.

Day three: Haga, with its winding paths and lakeside views, where history feels just a little less distant.

But even if you never set foot on that plane, you can still take this journey.

Because what makes a place memorable isn’t just geography.

It’s story.

Traveling Through Story

When I was writing Butterfly Games, I immersed myself in Jacquette’s world—not just through travel, but through letters. Hundreds of them. Personal, immediate, sometimes surprisingly intimate glimpses into daily life.

They revealed something I hadn’t fully appreciated before:

The past isn’t as distant as we think.

It’s made up of small moments. Walks in the garden. Conversations behind closed doors. Decisions made in a single afternoon that echo for years.

The same things that shape our lives now.

And that’s what I hope readers experience—not just Sweden as a place, but Sweden as a lived world.

For the Travelers (and the Dreamers)

So whether your summer includes a plane ticket or a lounge chair by the pool, here’s my invitation:

Travel anyway.

Walk through a palace garden—on the page.
Follow a path beside a quiet lake—through story.
Step into a world where every glance, every meeting, every whispered word matters.

Because sometimes the most memorable journeys are the ones we take without leaving home.

And if you’d like a place to begin, Butterfly Games will take you there—no passport required.