Visit Stockholm and you’ve got to go to Skeppsholmen island. Great views, interesting museums, one of Stockholm’s best islands.
Note: I will be taking a break from blogging for a while as I begin to do some work for Swedish Radio. Thanks for now.
Alcohol, bonfires and choirs
Valborg, or Walpurgis night in English, is a festival that celebrates the coming of the spring. (Although it’s rarely warm in Sweden when people celebrate it on April 30. We all froze this year.)
In Sweden, people celebrate by setting large bonfires and singing songs. I asked a bunch of people what the holiday was for, and they all say it’s some sort of pagan thing, but they didn’t really know more than that.
In practice, people get together and party, especially teenagers.
For those of us with kids, we had a little pot-luck and then headed down to the local bonfire.
More about Valborg.
Peeing on the flowers at Stockholm airport
I found Swedish summer at the Stockholm Airport last week.
Here’s what happened: I had to go urinate and when I got to the bathroom I found that the wall behind the urinals was covered with flowers and tall grass so that it felt like I was peeing into a lovely field on a Swedish summer day.
Swedes, and Stockholmers in particular, have been called conformists and reserved — and in some ways they are. But every once in a while, Sweden surprises me.
Why should bathrooms be serious? They shouldn’t and I give kudos to Stockholm Arlanda airport for having fun with one of man’s most mundane activities — peeing at a urinal.
It’s the little things in life that matter and the illusion that I was peeing in a Swedish field made a big difference for me that day.
Sweden continues to expand nuclear energy production
The Forsmark nuclear power plant on the east coast of Sweden, taken by Arenamontanus
The Swedish government is showing no signs of reversing its plans to expand nuclear energy in the aftermath of the ongoing catastrophe at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan.
According to figures from the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, Sweden will boost nuclear power output by over 12 percent at eight of the country’s ten nuclear power plants.
A renewed nuclear debate
Less than nine months ago, Sweden’s center-right minority government narrowly passed historic legislation that lifted a 30-year ban on building new nuclear reactors.
Now opposition parties are once again questioning the government’s strategy. Some nuclear experts are expressing safety concerns with particular aspects of the program. And a new poll shows 64 percent of Swedes opposing the construction of new nuclear power plants.
“The government chose nuclear power over renewable energy,” says Anders Lindgren, op-ed columnist at Aftonbladet, a newspaper whose editorial pages are affiliated with the Social Democrats. “The current situation in Japan is an uncomfortable reminder of how badly thought out that policy was.”
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt defended his government’s position on television last week. He said that the world needed to learn from what had happened in Japan. But he emphasized that all energy production had an impact on the environment. Read More
Make Swedish meatballs and speak Swedish
“They’re just called meatballs in Swedish,” my wife told me, after I asked her how to say Swedish meatballs in Swedish.
That was just one of the thousands of dumb American moments I’ve had since living abroad. I think my wife still loves me though, otherwise she would never continue to make this classic Swedish comfort food for me. I also think she thinks it’s cute when I speak Swedish (My accent is brutal).
At the risk of getting on the bad side of my mother, I have to admit that she also made Swedish meatballs when we were growing up. She, however, covered the meatballs with Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup. Don’t get me wrong, they were good, but they weren’t Swedish meatballs.
The video and recipe that follows is the real deal, plus you’ll get to learn Swedish.
Gay soccer players and cardamon buns
Elite soccer player says he's gay and reminds me that I live in Sweden.
I’ve been living in Sweden for over five years now, yet every day I still see little aspects — I call them life in Sweden moments – that remind me I’m not in Kansas anymore.
Five things happened recently that reminded me: I’m far away from home.
1. I saw a business man walking down the street the other day. He was wearing green pants – bright, fluorescent green.
2. Anton Hysén became the first elite Swedish soccer player to come out of the closet.
3. My colleagues were watching the Biathlon World Championships on live, online TV. And they were super excited.
4. On facebook, I made fun of semlor, the beloved cardamon buns eaten this time of year, and my Swedish friends went absolutely crazy.
5. A colleague of mind asked his boss if he could move two hours away, work from home four days a week, and come in on Wednesdays. His boss said yes.
If you’re living in Sweden, tell us some moments you’ve had recently.
Related links:
Check out Lost in Stockholm’s A to Z guide on Dating Swedish Men
Football’s first open gay player
Swedish winter sports make em go crazy
A semlor recipe
Workers have rights in Sweden
Sweden darkest on maternity leave map
Swedish parental leave is the most generous in the world
One of the first things you’ll notice if you visit Sweden are the mothers with their babies. Then you’ll notice the fathers with the babies. Finally, you’ll start to see babies everywhere.
You wouldn’t be imagining it. Sweden is in the midst of a baby boom. The country has one of the highest fertility rates in the European Union. There are many reasons for it, but one that has been cited many times is Sweden’s generous paid parental leave benefits to parents.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Sweden’s progressive paid parental leave is a key reason for rapid procreation in this country. I think parents have less stress in Sweden. They don’t have to put their kids in daycare when they’re 6-weeks-old. They don’t have to stress out about missing work if their kids get sick or spending thousands of dollars on daycare every month.
Less stress equals more sex. There’s nothing more to say on the matter.
If you weren’t convinced that Swedish parental leave rocks, this Save the Children report is more proof. Sweden was ranked fourth in 2010 on a list of the best places to be a mother, behind Norway, Australia, and Iceland.
5 essential Swedish words
The following five Swedish words will teach you about Swedish culture and help you learn Swedish.
Jantelagen – the literal translation is Jante law. If you follow the rules of Jantelagen, you are never supposed think you’re anything special. Don’t stick out in a crowd. The concept is similar to small poppy syndrome. How do you embarass a Swede? Tell them they’re good at something. Nine times out of ten they’ll blush and say, “Nejjjjj!” That’s janteglagen.
Lagom means just the right amount. Excess is frowned upon in traditional Swedish culture. In a way, lagom is related to Jantelagen. Here’s an example: My inlaws dislike Sweden’s best soccer play, Zlatan Ibrahamovic because he is “too flashy” and generally just too much, too good, too loud, and too cocky. There’s a typical Swedish phrase that describes this mentality perfectly — “Lagom is best.” Read More
Is Swedish ice skating for you?
People practice the normal sports in Sweden — soccer, basketball, running, swimming — but there are a few Swedish sports you may have never heard of. I’m guessing that tour skating is one of them.
Tour skating was once one of the most popular sports in Sweden, and I hear it’s now making somewhat of a comeback. It’s done on natural ice with long ice skates attached to boots. Many people also use poles. Imagine a blend of cross-country skiing and ice skating.
This winter in Sweden the temperature has practically been below freezing since December. The tour skating afficionados say the ice conditions are superb.
Every year I promise myself that I’ll try tour skating, and every year I bail out. This year is no different, but I thought if I made the promise to do it here that it would give me extra motivation. I recently went out with my family to Lake Mälaren just outside of Stockholm to check out the scene. (As of publishing, I still haven’t tried it myself.)
Lake Mälaren is a beast of a lake. It’s Sweden’s third largest lake that stretches from the middle of the country out east into the Baltic Sea.
For beginners, there are a number of good tour guides that will take you out and teach you this fun and challenging winter sport:
My truth about tax in Sweden
The Swedish krona is strong
Sweden’s GDP will hit roughly 7% in the first quarter of 2011 despite something we are all supposed to fear – high Swedish taxes.
But I love Swedish taxes. Yup I said it. Sure we pay a lot of taxes in Sweden. This includes a 25% sales tax, income tax, and a super progressive tax.
Personally, I’m sick and tired of hearing people complain about higher taxes.
Rich Swedes pay a ton of taxes, up to 65% for the richest. Isn’t that great? In the United States, the rich pay somewhere between 40 and 48%. You may have noticed the American economy isn’t doing so well right now. When the tax code in America was more progressive, the country was doing much better than it is today.
Call me a crazy socialist, an old-fashioned European. But you know what, Sweden still has a thriving middle class. The same can’t be said for many other countries, such as the United States, where the middle class is under serious threat.
According to a recent OECD report, Sweden spends more of its GDP on social services such as free education and health care than any other country in the world. Who can argue with that?
And it works. Even Bill Clinton says the Swedish model is back in fashion.
So, tonight, I will go out and have a few drinks, happy to buy a beer, and pay extra for it, knowing that the money is funding something great like free education or public transportation.
Those of you with opinions on taxes, tell us which system you think works best and why.
