'Covid turned my five-day holiday into a new life'

13 hours ago

Katy Prickett

News image — Danny Welch says life in the far north of Sweden feels like a more grounded experience because so much of it is outside

Danny Welch Danny Welch turning to look over his shoulder, with a grey fleece hood up covering a cream wool hat and a black balaclava pulled up to his nose obscuring most of his face. He is sitting on a sledge with a glass screen in a snowy landscape and ahead of him are a team of huskies pulling the sledge along a snowy track. — Danny Welch says life in the far north of Sweden feels like a more grounded experience because so much of it is outside

When Danny Welch flew off to northern Sweden in March 2020, he was expecting a five-day holiday, but the Covid-19 pandemic changed his plans - and his life.

"I'd met a Swedish woman who invited me to her family cabin and we ended up spending 10-and-a-half weeks together as airports closed across Europe," he said.

The 38-year-old, who grew up in Woodston, Peterborough, had never been to the country before and knew little about it.

But he loved the relaxed lifestyle, being surrounded by nature and the people - and he soon realised he had found his new home.

"We stayed in my friend's cabin in north of Skellestae and for me it was amazing, we were making fires, camping and didn't go into the town centre, it was almost secluded," he said.

"I didn't know anything about Sweden, I didn't realise how good they were at speaking English.

"I didn't realise there can be 24 hours of daylight and my favourite thing about the Swedish people is they've never got an ulterior motive, they just feel so genuine."

Once the airports reopened, he realised he had "fallen in love with this place".

Danny Welch A side view of Danny Welch wearing a thick brown and cream jumper, a blue baseball cap and a green hoody is sticking out from his jumper. His left hand is outstretched and a bird is resting on his hand, eating seeds. Behind him are snow covered trees and a silver birch tree's trunk. — The extreme weather conditions means people are very well prepared for winter

Welch had met his friend while in Malaga, Spain, where he had set up a mobile cocktail business a year or two earlier, having always been a bit of a traveller.

After leaving Orton Longueville School (now the Nene Park Academy), he spent many summers doing bar work in Greece for Thomas Cook's Club 18-30 and his winters back in Peterborough, staying with his parents, and picking up jobs.

Welch returned to Malaga in summer 2020 to resume his business, but then his van engine blew up.

"I had just enough money to fly back out to Sweden and see what happens," he said.

"I thought I'd go for a few months and plant trees - foreign nationals get employed planting trees - but I landed a job working in a cocktail bar."

Danny Welch A very pink image of Danny Welch in a bar in Rhodes, Greece, in 2010. In front of him is a close-up of two glasses with bright blue drinks and ice, then some bottles and he is behind the bar wearing a white T-shirt with his thumbs up and smiling. — It is a contrast to his previous life, which involved summers working in Greece as a barman

Welch was working as bar manager for a hotel chain, when it sent him to its new hotel in Kiruna, 200km (124 miles) north of the Arctic circle in Lapland.

Once there, he started guiding tourists on dog-sled trips, alongside his bar work.

He said: "It's a world away from the rest of Europe, let alone England.

"They have heated streets, so the town centres and walkways don't ice up; when the snow becomes too much they scrape it into big piles and tip it in the forest to melt; and all the cars here have two sets of wheels for summer and winter."

He had managed to get full residency rights under the Brexit agreement, said his Swedish is "not too bad, better than I think", and is now applying for a Swedish passport.