The sun’s out! The skies blue! And Swedes are outside! Anywhere and everywhere!
This weekend I made another trip to the countryside! Here’s how the last few days have gone…
Tag archives for travel
Swedes love their Summer! And now I know why!
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When I was a little younger, I used to wake up bright and early on Saturday mornings, rush down the stairs, dash into the lounge, where my Mum and Dad would be sitting enjoying a hot cup of Indian masala chai on our very comfy brown sofas. I would perch myself next to my Dad and a few minutes later we’d be watching “my programmes”. When I say “my programmes” I mean children’s Saturday morning TV! And what fun it was! One of my favourite cartoons was The Little Mermaid! I don’t know exactly what it was about The Little Mermaid, in fact I could certainly watch it now on Saturday morning’s with my own cup of tea! It just let my imagination run free!
Nyhavn in Copenhagen. Hans Christian Andersen author of The Little Mermaid lived in a number of these houses during his lifetime. Photo: Naieya Madhvani.
I’ve been living in Gothenburg for about 8 months now, so hopefully it’s not too late to finally post my Swedish bucket list. At least this way you’ll be able to see what I’ve done so far and what I still have left to accomplish (spoiler alert: a lot!).
Travel
1. Stockholm
2. “The North”: Lappland/Kiruna/Piteå
3. Malmö/Lund
4. Uppsala
5. Neighboring countries of Norway, Denmark, and Finland
Cuisine
6. Meat: Moose, reindeer, meatballs, salmon, herring
7. Pastries: Cinnamon bun, princess cake, Lucia bun, semla, pepparkakor (you can see that I take my desserts seriously)
8. Beverages: Glögg, julmust/påskmust, mead, akvavit/snaps
Important note: I have no desire to try (or smell) surströmming, so don’t even go there!
Activities
9. Visit Gothenburg’s archipelago
A small part of the Gothenburg archipelago. Photo by Brett Seward.
I went home to the US to celebrate Christmas with my family, but I’ll talk about the specifics of that in a later entry. I’m sitting in the airport right now with some time to kill, so today’s entry is focused solely on my non-clothing related tips for traveling efficiently to Sweden. I’m going to leave the clothing discussion for another day.
I’m back in Sweden so this seems appropriate. Photo by Brett Seward.
My itemized list of tips can be seen in full after the jump:
I’m sitting on the bus to Arlanda.
It has been raining for the past few days and the tears are still falling on the window of the bus and on my cheeks.
I have been imagining this moment for so long that it doesn’t seem to be real. I remember myself rolling from side to side in bed, trying to fall asleep, thinking I have only two weeks, one week, four days, three, two… one day left in Stockholm.
And every time I was imagining myself leaving, saying bye, closing the door of my room, taking the metro.
It was there, so close to that moment that I could almost feel the weight of my big suitcases that I would tow…
But then I would open my eyes.
Silhouettes of a chair and a table in the dark. I was surrending to the reality of my dark room.
I was still in Stockholm.
