I met someone while in Borås (a city located 30 min west of Ulricehamn) who startled me by saying;
- You live in Ulricehamn? (and not as in “wow, that sounds exciting” but more of a “oh, that´s such a boring place”).
I always try to stay open to new perspectives and not be judgmental. If someone finds it strange that I have chosen to live in Ulricehamn they say so due to some assumptions that I am not aware of. They most likely have a completely different image of Ulricehamn than I have. I was not prepared for the question and it was not really posed as a question and in hindsight I wish I would have answered it better. I just said that I live here because I like it! However, the comment stayed with me and when I brought it up for the 5th time Jochem told me to just accept that different people like different things. This is obviously true but what bothers me is that I had a chance to change someone’s opinion about Ulricehamn and I failed to do so. So, now I do it here and if I ever meet the guy from Borås who could not understand why anyone would like to settle in Ulricehamn I will be better prepared.
I did not grow up in Ulricehamn and I have spent approx. 14 years of my life in other parts of the world – living, studying and working abroad. When I moved back to Sweden in 2008 I wanted to bring my international family to a place that felt close to nature and still conveniently close to bigger cities. I wanted my children to be able to bicycle to school on their own, to live in a house with a garden so that we could enjoy the different seasons. I wanted to exchange big city life to life in a smaller town and I wanted this town to have some facilities such as schools, libraries, a swimming pool, shops and a genuine feel to it. All of this and more we found when we arrived in Ulricehamn 4 years ago.
The town of Ulricehamn is situated around a lake that defines our town both during the summer months (with lots of water activities such as sailing, canoeing, kayaking etc.) and during the winter months. We experience different seasons here with real winters and great skiing possibilities, hiking all year around and bicycling on 90 km of bicycling tracks. As changes here have not been as drastic as in other faster growing cities we still have a beautiful city centre with many buildings dating back several hundreds of years and many opportunities for enjoying great lunches/dinners or high class coffee in a picturesque surrounding. Small shops offering a variety of goods are sold on our shopping street dating back to before the city was established 700 years ago.
Obviously there are many places around Sweden who fits this description but very few are as strategically situated as we are. We live in a peaceful area but very close to the second largest labor market in Sweden. Logistically we are on the track between the harbor city of Gothenburg and Jönköping which is considered the top logistical path in Sweden. 45 minutes away you reach the airport Landvetter and 1 ½ hour away Gothenburg city airport. For us, this meant that moving to Ulricehamn gave us the best of both worlds.
Ulricehamn is one of the most beautiful small towns in Sweden located close to anything you might need from a bigger city. The smaller villages around Ulricehamn all carry their own history and maybe we, who live in Ulricehamn, need to get better at telling others?
So, next time when someone asks me why I live in Ulricehamn I will say that I live here because I get the best of both worlds! For anyone who is looking for attractive living possibilities, in a historical setting, who wants to be close to both nature and sport facilities and still enjoy the opportunities big cities offer Ulricehamn is the place to be! (and this is still just the beginning of the story as there are so much more to tell…)
