So, after all my trips to Romania, a relatively poor country even by Balkan standards, I get an infinitely better trip, this one to Sweden, in a much improved neighborhood.
Unfortunately the smoke monster, coming from the frozen barren wasteland of Iceland continued to spew smoke out at an alarming rate, ruining anyone's air travel. Even mine was ruined. Instead of taking a direct flight to Stockholm, or a transfer through Helsinski, I ended up transferring over London.
JFK could not have been more chaotic. I met so many people who kept on saying "Quick, can I cut you, I have 25 minutes to catch my flight". Seeing the airline people work their non-magical also must have been painful. To be stranded in another country for days on end no doubt must have been troublesome. A book kept me company as small snippets of conversation came into my ears. One piece, directed at me, asked if I had a smaller suitcase, which was easily the dumbest request I'd ever heard. When I said no, they shook their head and said I'd pay for such a large item. A whole $50, oh my, what a worry.
The bigger problem happened when I got on the plane. Some people say that you need to enjoy both the trip and the destination. As someone who has been on enough international flights, I can tell you how true that is. And American Airlines has to be one of the absolute worst airlines ever. Now it doesn't even have to do with it being an American plane, I flew on Delta before and was perfectly content. But American, your movies are terrible (Invictus, Lovely Bones, really?) and your charges for alcohol ($8 for wine!), completely out of whack. Plus, your frugality with the space, duly noted. I just ordered water, no need to see if I get charged for a soda, you evil wretched people.
Stockholm rules. I can't begin to describe the sheer, wonderful joy of the country. Everything is so clean that when I told my coworker how clean it was, he replied "Hm, that always seems to be the first thing people mention to us." Their politeness took me aback, being from New York. Like, think of those people in Fargo who were polite almost to a fault. That's basically their mentality. People spoke English better than most of my (well-educated) friends, and treated foreigners wonderfully. Plus, they have these delightful little race car gummy candy called Bilar which absolutely knock my socks off.
Driving around, you get the feeling that everything sprawls, which is true. Land doesn't seem to be a commodity they are concerned about. Even within Stockholm city limits, you get people with lawns, nature trails, etc. I know a certain amount of this exists in the boroughs (like Staten Island, Bronx, etc) but within the very small islands, it is a real joy. Beers there taste like actual beer, the lamb there tastes much different from what I'm used to (I usually have it spicy) and I even got introduced to a "Cuban Tea" drink which tasted great. I'd recommend it to anyone, really just a solid drink.
That was only the night, of wandering around with my colleagues there drinking. Daylight came early, and I woke up as soon as I saw the first rays of sunshine. Colors looked great in the early dawn, and the cobblestone could not have been more even. Waterways within the city are so clean that during the summer, people can actually swim in them. Compare that to New York water which might possibly give you new forms of cancer, and you might be able to gauge my delight.
Ikea started here, and looking at the homes, I knew why. Every space looked as if they designed it to be admired from every angle, not just to overwhelm the skyline. The skyline negotiated with the surroundings and came to an agreement, where natural development took place.
Most of it is very pedestrian and biker friendly. In fact, they have two lanes for bikers, which are heavily used. That part freaked me out a bit, since it is pretty cold most of the year. Yet not one person ever complained about the cold, or anything really. Finns seemed to get some sort of derision, basically the Swedes called them "Pussies" at any given opportunity. So if you're very pro-Finn, you might want to avoid that topic. Also, meat was everywhere. I have no idea how vegetarians can exist there, but even for a salad, I needed at least two types of meat placed on it before the server felt satisfied.
As for work, work felt kinder. For my office, they apparently stay after work on Fridays, drink beer at work and play Grand Theft Auto. None of those things happen at my job and it makes me stay up late at night crying. Public transportation could not have been better either, anyone who tells you about our great subway system in New York probably hasn't traveled a lot.
This brings me towards the end of my discussion on Sweden. Basically, they don't worry about taxes the way we do because they seem to get something out of it. Perfect, clean everything, manufacturing all done locally, and paying considerably more for it. Sure, we might pay less for a lot of our basic consumer goods, but we suffer for it. Most of our manufacturing, the locally-made kind, is done on the cheap so much that it is annoying. They seem perfectly happy with how things are, and they also get the joy of great social mobility than we currently enjoy (thank you Economist for that article, I forget the issue number). Just sometimes I wish that we could meet the potential I know we have, and learn a thing or two from these countries we mindlessly bash.
Sweden, I really want to visit it again. Easily one of my favorite places to visit, right up there with Malaysia. My only complaint would be the cold, but I guess anyone would get used to it. And, as an added bonus, the British Airways flight had virtually every movie I had intended to see (A Serious Man, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Dark Knight). Yes, I know how far behind I am in movies.
