There are many interesting places in Sweden that you can visit. For instance we have Kaknästornet, the Royal Palace and Globen which is all in Stockholm. However Stockholm is not they only place worth visiting, the odd landscape called “alvar” on Öland is really interesting too. That is if you are into green rather than urban environment. Are you a mountain climber? Then maybe you would like to climb mount Kebnekaise. It’s height is nothing compared to mount Everest but 2106 metres above sea level is a real challenge. Since Kebnekaise is in the northern parts of Sweden you might as well visit the ice hotel in Jukkasjärvi. Now that is something really neat, a hotel made purely of ice and snow.

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Most of the swedish food is, for the lack of better word, “imported”. The majority of food actually comes from another country. Although it may come from another country it is “remade” and is now unique for Sweden. Pizza in Italy is not the same thing as the pizza you would normally eat in Sweden and it is not very usual to find as many pizza restaurants in another country as you would here. Many families enjoy eating rice or noodles with any kind of meat or vegetables, the rice/noodles is mainly from China and or other asian countries. It is the same thing with spaghetti and meat sauce or pizza from Italy. How about kebab from Turkey or hamburgers from Germany. You get the point. Traditional cooking is very old but still a very usual thing in Sweden. I mean traditional cooking as translated into husmanskost. Husmanskost was the only food the needy farmers could make or afford. It was not the most luxury food, but it did contain a large amount of vitamins and other materials the body needs. Nowadays husmanskost is usually referred to as typical Swedish food, such as potatoes, meatballs, gravy and lingonberry jam.

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Sweden is a monarchy but the king, Carl Gustav XVI, is not in charge. He is more of a tourist attraction and a symbol for our country. Sweden is in fact a democracy lead by people chosen parties. The biggest parties are the social democrats and conservatives which are kind of the opposites of each other. The are smaller parties such as the green party, christian democrats, the left hand party, the liberal party, the centre party and the Sweden democrats. The social democrats have been winning but the conservatives won since two elections back with the social democrats right on their heels. The Sweden democrats are new to the parliament and many believe and accuse them of being racists. That keeps the other parties from cooperating with them since it might give them a bad reputation. This means not much is happening in the parliament right now and it might stay like that until next election in four years.

Source:Picture

Source: Picture

The Swedish schools and education have changed a lot since the last century. When the old people were young they had black and white books without pictures. Back then the students had to write with their left hand. If they did not the teachers would whip them until they learned to use their left hand to write beautifully. They had different grades than us. We have thin computers and high-speed wireless internet. We can use any hand we want and write uglier than anything as long as anyone can read it. The grades back then was a scale from 1 to 5 where a high number is good and a low number is bad. Number 2 or below and you will not pass, 3 is good, 4 is very good and 5 is excellent. Nowadays we only have 4 grades. They are fail, pass, pass with distinction and pass with special distinction.

Children often start pre-school when they are 7 years old. It is not mandatory but many parents want their child to be prepared for the real school. The mandatory school starts at age 8 with first class and ends at the age of 16 with ninth class. That is the primary school, which is divided into 3 parts. First is Junior level, followed up by intermediate level and finally upper level. After primary school awaits optional upper secondary school. Although it is optional almost everyone says yes. Unlike many other countries, Sweden has two terms and two main holidays. The autumn term is first ended by a the christmas holiday. After that is the spring term which is followed by the summer break.

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There are a few big traditions around the year in Sweden. First of all we’ve got christmas which is not a Swedish tradition but a christian tradition. People used to celebrate christmas for religious reasons. But nowadays it is more to get together with family, friends or relatives and exchange gifts. Almost everyone has forgotten why we really celebrated christmas.

Midsummer Day is a Swedish tradition which is only celebrated in Sweden and in some cases Finland. This is because Midsummer Day is a very old tradition and parts of Finland once belonged to Sweden. The tradition is celebrated during the closest weekend to the 24th of June. Friends and family get together and have dinner outside when the most common food is herring and potatoes. Many people enjoy playing the outdoor game “kub” afterwards. Midsummer Day is as said a Swedish tradition, but other countries have similar traditions. America celebrates thanksgiving every summer where they kind of do the same thing, except they eat turkey instead of herring and potatoes.

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Sweden lies in the sub-tropical and polar-zone on the north side of the equator. The climate varies a lot depending on where you are in Sweden. Sweden is a very elongated country and if you would find yourself in the northern parts it is going to be very cold and if you are in the southern parts it is likely a lot warmer. An interesting thing about the the northern parts is the sun. During the summer it does not set for about 30 days and during the winter it does not rise for about a month. That might be a problem for muslims who live up north when they celebrate Ramadan. They are not allowed to eat before the sun sets and if the sun does not set for a whole month they have to break that “rule” and eat anyway. A lot of people would say or think that Sweden is quite a cold snowy country, but I disagree. It is not the Caribbean, but neither is it Antarctica and I would say Sweden is a bit between a cold and a warm country. After all Sweden is mostly in the sub-tropical zone. The temperature can rise up to 30° Celsius during the summer which is nothing compared to the warmer countries around the world. In the winter it never goes below -20° and that is nowhere close to the coldest countries around the globe. But all this might change in the future. You have heard what “the global warming” is and how it affects our environment. Polar bears are almost face to face with extinction when the ice is melting while Netherlands is threatened by the rising water level. However there is no direct threat against Sweden other than the changing temperature.

As said before, Sweden is an elongated country and the environment varies across the land. There are mountains, big forests, lakes, islands etc. The tallest mountain is called “Kebnekaise” and the top is 2106m above sea level which is nothing compared to Mount Everest with 8848m above sea level. The two biggest islands are “Gotland” and “Öland” while the two biggest lakes are “Vänern” and “Vättern”. Gotland and Öland lies a bit east from the southern parts of the mainland.

Sources: Wikipedia and Picture