Sweden and Swedish
I got a great opportunity to shortly live, study and work in Sweden - I spent quite some time in Swedish cities, towns and villages.
Few things I noticed:
- Swedish cemeteries are so lovely. It is in total contrast to fearsome and creepy ones every child have nightmares about and what I am used to. Their cemeteries are beautiful parks full of life, people have there picnics and jog around. I consider this as a proper celebration of someone's life.
- It is not that easy life for a tourist. Once you pull out a map out of your pocket Swedish automatically reckons you are lost and is so eager to help you. Really :). I am of course ironic here; it is very pleasant that people in this country are so welcoming and accomodating. Although they can be silent as well.
- Sweden is bloody expensive. Even when one only crosses sea by Oressund bridge from Copenhagen to Malmo it feels all of the sudden inaffordable.
- It is a great place to live. Particularly in summer when everyone is happy, just expect very empty streets from October to March.
- There are not really big pulls for city tourists. At first. Although cities are neat and "in harmony" with quiet unique architecture, it is rather minimalistic and modest comparing to southern cities. Stockholm virtually blooms during summer when it is very lively, yet outside that season I found it very dark and quite. Other thing is that Sweden is so huge and sparsly populated so you must travel far to see other places besides just a capital.
- The nature there is amazing. That's why I am going to return to Scandinavia again and again.