Thoughts about Sweden...

Cool things about Sweden:

• It's light in Summer from 3:30am- 10:30pm
• Everyone worships the sun and lines up chairs facing the sun to get as much of it as they can at any spare moment
• People catch up more at house parties and dinner parties instead of always going out
• The dogs all understand Swedish
• Willy's (cheap supermarket) with good things for cheap prices
• The smell of the laundry detergent
• People of all shapes and sizes letting it all hang out on the beaches- people don't seem as hung up on 'body image' as in Australia
• Gorgeous white blond kids everywhere sounding very cute talking in Swedish
• People generally look very fit and healthy (maybe it's all the bike riding everywhere)
• When you go out for a walk along the beach you can see Denmark just across the water
• The closeness of other European cities is pretty cool (people go to Germany for the day to buy cheap alcohol)
• The amazing variety of wines available from all over Europe
• Buses are specially designed for prams or people in wheelchairs
• Lots of great bike paths and cars are more conscious of people riding bikes

Not so cool things about Sweden:

• Not often understanding what people around me are saying (but hopefully Swedish lessons will help this)
• Don't own a car here so it can take awhile to get around on buses and bike and is hard in the rain
• Fitted sheets are few and far between (although Ikea has just started stocking them!)
• No Milo, crumpets, BBQ Shapes or Snakata Rice Crackers.... mmm... yum...
• My favourite Garnier, Olay, and Pantene products aren't stocked here
• Malmö is quite small so there's not much choice of clothes or shoes when shopping
• Shop assistants can appear quite rude as the belief here that 'no one is better than anyone else' even goes when you're paying for a service- a bit different to 'the customer is always right'
• You have to pack your own supermarket bags at the check out (check out chick only scans the items and pushes them down the shute)
• If you try on clothes in a department store, you have to put them back out yourself (not like Target etc when they take them from you in the change room afterwards and hang them back up for you)
• It's very expensive to go out for dinner at restaurants or drink at a bar
• DVD's are expensive to rent ($8 for one new release)