It's only rocks 'n' trolls but I like it
We are in the middle of a mini heatwave here in Sweden. It went from grey, windy and drizzly to a Mediterranean-style scorcher, literally overnight, and we are currently on day two of cloudless sunshine. We are enjoying Sweden a lot more now!
We visited Vimmerby yesterday which is the home of Astrid Lindgren who wrote Pippi Longstocking. They even had "Astrid Lindgren's World" which I guess is like Swed
en's equivalent of Disneyland. Being a heterosexual male, Pippi Longstocking has never really cropped up on my literary radar. So instead I went and got a haircut from a charming Yugoslavian chap called Denis. Denis speaks eight languages, cuts your hair using his own patented method involving two pairs of scissors at the same time (see pic) and then gives you a massage when he's finished. Nice.
Sweden is an odd country with some odd ways (haircuts aside). It is one of those countries where it is the law to have your headlights on in the day. This is in a country that for about 3 months of the year doesn't even have a night. More often than not, I forget to put them on and spend an hour or so wondering why other motorists are flashing me. Then when we arrive somewhere I forg
et to turn them off so that the battery gets a good draining while we're sauntering around the latest point of interest.
Alcohol is another weird one. The government controls all the alcohol, so it is famously very expensive and can only be bought at government controlled stores. In bars they send inspectors round to make sure they're selling the right type of booze at the correct rate of extortion. You can buy some beers at supermarkets BUT all the alcohol is capped at 3.5% ABV! So even well known brands like Guinness, Murphy's, Heineken Export or even English ales, such as Spitfire, are all sold in "watered down" 3.5% versions. It's heartbreaking to see!
But weirdest of all is their attitude to sharing. We were having a lovely meal in a lakeside restaurant (our first night of not having baked beans or soup) and next to us was a table of maybe 10 women, all out for one of their birthdays. When they'd finished the meal they all got up and queued at the till and paid for their own meal and drinks individually. We asked the restaurateur (a very nice Israeli guy) what all that was about. He said, "I know. It's strange but this is the Swedish way." He went on to say that it is traditional for each person to pay for just what they had. They didn't even pay for the birthday girl! He said that even if a husband and wife go out for dinner it is usual that the husband will pay for his and then the wife will pay for hers! He said that when he first went to a house party in Sweden he saw people drinking alcohol but couldn't actually see any alcohol anywhere. Eventually someone asked him where his booze was – it turned out that they had all brought their own individual bottle of whatever and were topping themselves up, then putting it away again. When he asked one of the guys for a beer, the guy asked him for 10SK in return!!
We are now at Tranås, next to another lovely lake, basking in the sunshine. We cycled through the forest this morning to see Troll Stone, another of Sweden's rock-based attractions. Troll S
tone is a large boulder balanced on three small rocks that in turn are on another boulder which, legend has it, the Troll King put there. Not sure about that, but the ride was much nicer than the previous foray into Copenhagen. We were hoping to see a moose or two in the forest but instead we just saw mosquitoes and a snake, neither of which were on our wish list. When we got back I thought it might be nice to swim in the lake. I don't know what I was thinking. It was so cold I lasted about seven seconds. Just enough time for everything I hold dear to shrivel up and disappear.
We visited Vimmerby yesterday which is the home of Astrid Lindgren who wrote Pippi Longstocking. They even had "Astrid Lindgren's World" which I guess is like Swed
en's equivalent of Disneyland. Being a heterosexual male, Pippi Longstocking has never really cropped up on my literary radar. So instead I went and got a haircut from a charming Yugoslavian chap called Denis. Denis speaks eight languages, cuts your hair using his own patented method involving two pairs of scissors at the same time (see pic) and then gives you a massage when he's finished. Nice. Sweden is an odd country with some odd ways (haircuts aside). It is one of those countries where it is the law to have your headlights on in the day. This is in a country that for about 3 months of the year doesn't even have a night. More often than not, I forget to put them on and spend an hour or so wondering why other motorists are flashing me. Then when we arrive somewhere I forg
et to turn them off so that the battery gets a good draining while we're sauntering around the latest point of interest. Alcohol is another weird one. The government controls all the alcohol, so it is famously very expensive and can only be bought at government controlled stores. In bars they send inspectors round to make sure they're selling the right type of booze at the correct rate of extortion. You can buy some beers at supermarkets BUT all the alcohol is capped at 3.5% ABV! So even well known brands like Guinness, Murphy's, Heineken Export or even English ales, such as Spitfire, are all sold in "watered down" 3.5% versions. It's heartbreaking to see!
But weirdest of all is their attitude to sharing. We were having a lovely meal in a lakeside restaurant (our first night of not having baked beans or soup) and next to us was a table of maybe 10 women, all out for one of their birthdays. When they'd finished the meal they all got up and queued at the till and paid for their own meal and drinks individually. We asked the restaurateur (a very nice Israeli guy) what all that was about. He said, "I know. It's strange but this is the Swedish way." He went on to say that it is traditional for each person to pay for just what they had. They didn't even pay for the birthday girl! He said that even if a husband and wife go out for dinner it is usual that the husband will pay for his and then the wife will pay for hers! He said that when he first went to a house party in Sweden he saw people drinking alcohol but couldn't actually see any alcohol anywhere. Eventually someone asked him where his booze was – it turned out that they had all brought their own individual bottle of whatever and were topping themselves up, then putting it away again. When he asked one of the guys for a beer, the guy asked him for 10SK in return!!
We are now at Tranås, next to another lovely lake, basking in the sunshine. We cycled through the forest this morning to see Troll Stone, another of Sweden's rock-based attractions. Troll S
tone is a large boulder balanced on three small rocks that in turn are on another boulder which, legend has it, the Troll King put there. Not sure about that, but the ride was much nicer than the previous foray into Copenhagen. We were hoping to see a moose or two in the forest but instead we just saw mosquitoes and a snake, neither of which were on our wish list. When we got back I thought it might be nice to swim in the lake. I don't know what I was thinking. It was so cold I lasted about seven seconds. Just enough time for everything I hold dear to shrivel up and disappear.
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