Tilda is back in the city by Lake Vänern

Can the place you’ve made your own feel more like home than where you grew up? If you ask Tilda Enell, the answer is “yes.” After both leaving and returning to Mariestad, she now feels content having settled in the very town she longed to come back to - where her favourite lake, Vänern, is almost always nearby.

“If you’re going to live in a city, you should live as centrally as possible, you can use the city as your garden.”

For Tilda Enell, who recently moved back to Mariestad, it’s a joy to once again live in the town by Lake Vänern. She describes Mariestad as a city that is just the right size, where everything is within walking distance.

“I think there are many similarities between living in the countryside and living in a big city, because even in a large city everything is still far away in a way. In Mariestad, I basically have everything just outside my door, within walking distance.”

When Tilda talks about moving back to Mariestad, she describes it as coming home. This might lead you to believe that she was born and raised in Skaraborg—but that isn’t the case. Tilda grew up in the countryside outside Mullsjö, not far from Jönköping.

“I got a job in Mariestad when I was 21 and moved here. It was a different feeling to arrive as a newcomer in a community at that age. For me, it was the first time I didn’t have an obvious social context where I met people my own age, like you do when you’re in school. It was unfamiliar, but a valuable lesson in building a social life in a new place.”

After four years in Mariestad, she moved to Örebro to study. It was also there that she met her partner, who has now moved with her back to Mariestad.

“I never stopped talking about how great it was to live in Mariestad! He probably realised early on that if we were going to stay together, that’s where we’d have to move.”

Allotment garden complements their home

Today, the couple rents the upper floor of a house in the city centre, which suits them perfectly. However, since they have a strong interest in gardening, they have complemented their living situation with an allotment. They now spend many happy hours there.

“Right now we’re mostly digging and walking around in mud. It’s not picturesque and pretty yet, but it’s a lot of fun! In the long term, we want to grow vegetables, but also some flowers, because they’re beautiful. Our goal now is to establish a kitchen garden and build a small greenhouse.”

In addition to working on their new garden, Tilda enjoys spending time with friends. She has kept in touch with several of the friends she made during her first time living in Mariestad, and those connections have now been rekindled. She describes how she actively sought out social contexts back then, which helped her get to know people she is still close to today.

One of the things she has picked up again since moving back is taking weekly dips in Lake Vänern.

“I really love living by Vänern! A group of us usually meet and take a swim every week - all year round! We often meet at the piers at Ekudden, where we don’t have to wade out into the water during the colder months.”

This text has been translated with the help of AI.