Aug
29
Farewell, Sweden
Filed under Sweden 2010
(If you can’t make it to the end, here are my photos and videos!)
I’ve been back home for a week and I’m overdue on wrapping up about my visit to Sweden. Where does one start an ending? Well, I got to Kastrup Airport just fine. My suitcase was apparently 2kg overweight, although it was fine when I weighed it before leaving Halmstad that morning. The night before, I had gone to the grocery store to purchase pickled herring, caviar in a tube, muesli, my new favorite marmalade (orange and carrot), and an assortment of Swedish candy. All of this helped to weigh me down. Luckily I had an extra bag with me, so I just threw some stuff in there. Fredrik and I were able to have one last meal together, in the airport, before we walked to the security gate. It was a hard goodbye, but my departure was inevitable.
This trip was much different than my previous travels. Usually, I do my homework ahead of time. I study up on my destination by borrowing travel guides from the library. I look at maps to get a feel for cities’ layouts. I come up with a rough list of things I want to see and do. This time around, I did none of that. My primary reason for visiting Sweden was to see Fredrik, not to tour the country. Plus, when it came time to do some sightseeing, I had a native to plan our itinerary. I don’t know that I made as many observations in cultural differences as I usually do (a friend, who has already seen some photos from my trip, mentioned that there were a lot of blonds; I never took notice of that!). However, here are a few I haven’t yet mentioned.
Not only are there no billboards, I’m not sure that I saw many (or any) bumper stickers. A few cars, including Fredrik’s parents’ Volvos, had small stickers on the back windshield, but they were small and subtle. No stickers suggesting who to vote for, or proclaiming a religious view, or saying something witty. Nothing. And speaking of cars, the large vehicles that an American is used to seeing exist in Sweden. You won’t find any Ford F-150s or Hummers or Escalades. Also no mini vans. And the semi trucks are even smaller. Mostly Volvos, Saabs, Citroëns, and even sedan-sized Fords. Because big cars don’t exist, big parking spaces also aren’t found. The Volvo seemed to be almost too big to fit in some parking ramps.
Did you know that the way we pronounce IKEA is even anglicized? The “i” in Swedish is actually pronounced as a long “e” as in “ear.” And I would try to define how the “e” is pronounced, but that would take up more space here than you’d care to read. Did you know that the letters of the company are actually an acronym for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd? The first two are the first and last name of the founder. And the last two are the farm where he grew up and the nearby village, respectively. Fredrik’s dad informed me that Swedes are responsible for inventing the mouse, the ball bearing, the Tetra Pak, and number of other very useful things.
In Sweden, you’ll see the combination of the letters “AB” a lot. In the business world, it’s the Swedish version of our “LLC.” Although most businesses in the U.S. don’t really display “LLC” with their companies’ names, Swedish businesses do. For example, “Svenska Aeroplan AB” or “SAAB.” Ah-haaaa!
While blogging from across the Atlantic, I had quite the time navigating computer keyboards over there just as I did when in Paris in 2008. The letters å, ä, and ö are included as extra keys, but the difficulty comes in the placement of various grammatical symbols; those are located in different places. Even the question mark is moved. The number keys each share not one but two symbols. Fredrik can attest to the many times I cried out in frustration from trying to type a simple email.
I really got used to and enjoyed the Swedish smörgåsbord for breakfast and lunch. Just go to the fridge and pull anything out that you can make a sandwich with, spread everything out on the counter, and make your meal. What you can’t find here, other than the obvious of pickled herring and caviar, and what I miss are the denser breads and the big wheels and blocks of everyday cheese that you can get at the grocery store. And a Swede can’t be without a typical cheese slicer or some wooden knives (they’re so cute!) used for spreading butter, jams, liver paste, etc on breads.
And now I know that proper nouns like Lundberg or Lindsborg are actually pronounced Lund-By and Linds-Bory. In addition the word “loppet”, such as in the City of Lakes Loppet (a weekend-long x-country ski event here in Minneapolis) isn’t just a random word. It’s Swedish and means “race.”
So that’s just a bit more of what I observed while in Sweden. Don’t you feel smarter now?
Last but not least, and if you made it this far, here again is the link to my photos and videos! Until my next travels, enjoy!
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