Sweden Overview
We were fortunate enough to fly and explore Sweden for 3 weeks during May and June 2023, in their Spring time. Now you’re thinking, how are people able to be on vacation for so long? It’s not vacation, it’s work-ation. We worked our normal 8 hours during the day, and then explored during the evenings and the weekend. We easily had 18 hours of daylight, whereby the sunset at 22:30 and rose up again around 04:30. The weather was lovely and varied between 14°c and 22°c during the day. 15’c in South Africa would be considered a winter’s day, for these locals, it’s summer! The trees wear their fresh light green leaves and the flowers are blooming in different colours all around the city and parks.
Everything in Sweden just works. The public transport is on time, there is an app for everything, there’s internet everywhere, QR codes are placed everywhere for self-help around town and restaurants, the locals adhere to rules and regulations, disabled people are catered for in terms of transport, you can see their efforts in being more environmentally friendly and recycling. It’s a delight to experience what a country that is well maintained, educated and cared for can look like.
Sweden has made a huge effort to go cashless. During our trip, we did not use a Swedish coin or note and managed to do everything by tapping using NFC on our phones. That was pretty impressive. After our first week, we were comfortable with leaving our wallets at home. During our stay, 1 SEK (Swedish Krona) was worth R0.80. So to make it easy, we multiplied the SEK amount by 2 to get the Rand value.
Sweden is very self-help orientated. When we went to restaurants, there’s a QR card that we scan to view the menu, order and pay. A waiter then serves you what you’ve ordered. You get up and leave when you want to. There’s no dedicated waiter, you don’t sit and wait for a menu to be handed to you, nor do you have your meal and drinks and then pay. We could clearly see the difference between a first world country and a country with a high unemployment rate.
The Swedish locals don’t make much eye contact when you pass them. There’s a Swedish saying “A Swedish introvert will walk starring at their shoe. A Swedish extravert will walk starring at other people’s shoes.” So you won’t easily make eye contact with the locals, nor exchange a smile, never mind speak to them. Majority of the locals also wear air-pods. I did find it quite sad at times, that people would rather talk to people far from them, than make an effort to speak to people around them. They stick to themselves, and they’re very happy in their own way. It was weird feeling so isolated, but surrounded by so many people around me. A funny story, there was actually one moment where we were crossing a bridge in a park in Stockholm and we were stopped by somebody. I thought it was going to snow! Turned out to be another South African visiting Sweden who recognized the K-Way brand on our clothing and stopped to say hello.
Sweden also loves to play with their pear flavoured products. I tasted pear ciders, pear ice cream, pear cooldrink, pear juice and pear desserts. They know what they’re doing with it. So if the opportunity presents itself and it’s something pear flavoured, made by Sweden, give it a try. You’ll be impressed.
Read more about our trip as we explored Gothenburg and Stockholm.
