From Sverige

Back into BLOggIng!

2011-09-29T07:33:00.000+02:00

Hey all, it has been almost a year since my last blog post..... once me and Jennie moved back to Australia things have been very hectic! Just setting ourselves up back home in Australia I kind of lost my inspiration to write. Anyway I have decided to kick it back off to the small little audience that I had when I was writing back in Sweden... I would love to hear how everyone is going.

Tim.

Home coming

2010-12-02T04:46:00.000+01:00

Well, I have not posed for quite a while now! I think it has been over a month.... god talk about slack!
A lot has happened since my last post, Jennie and I decided to head back to Australia for the summer, it was a little bit of a quick decision but definitely for the best. At the moment we are living in beautiful Byron Bay with my mother, not a bad little place to stay for the Summer. I have put up some pictures just to show what type of a place it is, such a contrast to Sweden, but they both have their moments.

It would have been great to see a Swedish winter but the choice was made and I am happy either way. Not sure when we will be back in Sweden maybe for next summer? Not a bad way to live, hopping from Australia to Sweden just chasing the summer, I have not really seen a winter for 2 years now? Sorry to rub it in.... =D

Well please follow my now Australian adventures ill try to be a little more consistent with my writing!

Hope everyone is doing well back in Sweden, please keep in touch!

Timbo.....

Tallows Beach Byron Bay

Lennox Head Look Out

A night at the movies

2010-10-27T05:15:00.001+02:00

I went to the movies last night to see that buried movie, which by the way is a real disappointment. It sure did keep to the name of the film he certainly was buried, the whole movie was of just him in a box! No other scenes, nothing! This is beside the point of my post, now I know I have been going on about Sweden and the lack of customer service that is present here but there are so many things that just spring up on a daily basis. Never have I been to the movies and had to fill up me own coke and put my own salt on my popcorn?

I think that Sweden would be the easiest place to work, all you have to do it take the money and nothing else, they can't even strain themselves to lift and finger and do something else ! Now I mean filling up your own drink it not too bad. but when you get into the movie and start to eat your popcorn and it tastes like dry shit, then you have a problem! I turned to my girlfriend and asked where the salt was, I thought that she was going to say they don't do that in Sweden but it made it even worse when she said that you have to put your own salt on.... So i get up and have to bump through all these people to get outside, I start to walk around and around trying to find this stupid salt, finally I find it and proceed to shake the salt onto the popcorn. This just did not work all the salt just collected on the top layer and did not even touch the bottom, it was useless.

Just keep that in mind next time you head to the movies, the only good thing to come out of this is if you arrive early and have purchased your drink you can just drink and drink getting more free refills while you wait. I am sure this is not the rules but I find it my duty to strike back at the system and have a little win every now and then for the inconvenience of placing salt on my own popcorn!

Tim.

Sad Stories..

2010-10-15T12:15:00.006+02:00

Even in a country, which is deemed to be very safe, events can unfold that make you question your own personal safety. When people talk about Sweden the first impression is of a very safe country, I know myself that before entering Sweden I also had this perception, but like any other country in the world, sometimes events can take place that do shock society.

A few weeks ago a nineteen-year-old boy was reported missing here in Göteborg, the boy had been attending a crayfish party with some work colleagues in a suburb called Backa in the Hisingen area of the city (which is an area that is known for crime and violence). During the night he had been separated from his workmates, a chilling call was placed to the boy’s sister during the night in which he proceeded to tell her that he was being chased by a group of individuals. To her horror the phone call cut off and that was the last that was ever heard of 19-year-old Rasmus Johansson.

Rasmus Johansson's body was found late last week in Gothenburg Harbor, he was thought to have disappeared near an industrial area on the Göta River. Initial examination of the boy’s body did not reveal foul play, but the investigation is still ongoing. Whether he was murdered or died from an alcohol related accident it brings out an uneasy feeling in society and the hearts of many parents.

Crime on a daily basis in Sweden is just like anywhere else in the world. Certain areas are just deemed to be more risky than others. The area of Backaplan, which is just outside the city of Gothenburg, is in my opinion very unsafe after dark. During the day it is not really a pleasant site as it attracts many drunks and those who have chosen a life devoted to drugs, but it still is a vital transportation connection for many trams and buses. The type of place you would like to avoid but sometimes have no other option. At the end of last month the body of Elin Krantz a 27 year old girl was recovered in the same Hisingen area of the city, she disappeared after getting on a tram in the early hours of Sunday morning on her way home from a night out. Her body was found just meters from the tram stop, hidden in some bushland. A man in relation to this murder has been taken into custody.

If you are travelling into an different country or city, it is vital to understand places that you should avoid at night, many people think that these types of things will never happen to them, as I am sure these victims felt. Do not rely on guidebooks to give you these answers, because some are far too brief and do in fact give you the wrong type of information. The best way to find out useful information is to talk to the local people, those who have been living in the city for a long time are the best sources of information.

The leaves are starting to change.....

2010-10-13T11:05:00.000+02:00

Funny Stuff!

2010-10-09T11:33:00.002+02:00

A good read... Everyone's fantasy, about a guy who got locked inside a pub for the night here in Gothenburg. I wonder why he was so concerned about being let out? You would just embellish the moment!

http://www.thelocal.se/29504/20101008/

A little intro...

2010-10-07T16:25:00.010+02:00

Ever traveled or lived overseas? Had feelings of alienation or frustrations about the way things are run in a different society? Well welcome to my world.

Travel is a very enjoyable experience, meeting new people, experiencing new cultures, but it also can bring out some national superiority deep down in the subconscious. How many times have you thought to yourself, "Back home things are not like this" or "God why can't I just find this type of food", "Do these people really hate me because I speak English?".

This is what I am experiencing on a weekly basis, it is very hard to be subjective and go with the flow when you are used to different ways of getting things done.

Swedish society loves to run on procedure there is always a strict rigid way of doing things, if you are not willing to play by the rules and follow the system I can guarantee that you will not get very far. Dealing with this bureaucracy can at times be a pain, but that is life.

Sweden does have many advantages and is a remarkably stunning country. Scandinavia is a place that many people do miss when they travel to Europe. It may be quite expensive to travel around here, but its landscape and beautiful natural scenery are second to none. Sweden's vast coastlines are filled with jaw dropping islands and pristine waters. Summer is without a doubt the best time to travel here, if you want to take full advantage of the weather and environment June and July are the two best months. Plus most of the Swedes are on holidays at this point and are really a lot more pleasant that in the cold Winter months.

Sillvik, the ocean in Göteborg near where I am living

Smögen an Island on the West Coast of Sweden. Has a reputation as a party Island in the summer months

Hunnebostrand, another stunning island on Sweden's West Coast

Travel once you are in Sweden is very easy and affordable. You can either rent a car or take the bus or train all over the county, the great advantage is that you can also explore most of Scandinavia with easy access to Denmark, Norway and Finland.

Big Brother?

2010-10-05T20:18:00.000+02:00

Now this idea of personal privacy is something that many people have different opinions about. I am one of those people that likes to keep pretty private from time to time and not allow too much information to be put on display for the public to view (even though I am writing a blog)

It came to my attention the other day that in Sweden you can pretty much find out any information about anyone at any time all you have to do it go into www.hitta.se type the name of the person you are trying to find and walla up comes the phone number, current address, birth date, detailed map to the address and oh last but not lease the option of sending flowers to the residential address!

Now does this not just sound a little messed up? There are plenty of screwed up people out there and allowing them access to personal information about people they do not even know is just going way to far. But how does this site get access to all this information? It probably has something to do with this personal number system they have in Sweden, everyone is allocated an individual personal number, kind of like a bar code, why not just stamp it on your forehead?

Speaking of this personal number stuff, I had my first encounter with it the other day that kind of stuck a nerve. I was purchasing some antibiotics for my girlfriend from Apoteket (which is pretty much just a Swedish pharmacy) I showed her the script for the medication and then proceeded to tell her my girlfriends name, the women replied "not the name just give me the number!" Okay we are down to an identification number now, a personal name is irrelevant! I bet Aldous Huxley is laughing in his grave right about now, his Brave New World is becoming a reality!

A spitting society.

2010-10-04T13:27:00.001+02:00

Spitting is one thing that I really despise, there is never really anytime when I think it is okay to spit in public. In Sweden I have noticed that so many people here just spit all over the place just for the sake of it? You see spit when you are walking down the street, you see spit when you are waiting at a bus stop, you see spit when you are waiting at a tram stop, you see an attractive girl and then you see her spit (No so attractive anymore).

What purpose does spitting serve? There is really no need for it, maybe if you are running a marathon and you have a build up of Flem in your throat, that is one thing. But just spitting sitting at a bus stop or spitting walking down the street is pretty foul.

Sweden through my eyes...

2010-10-01T22:29:00.004+02:00

Stockholm by night

Göteborg by night

Stockholm Gamla Stan

Göteborg

Göteborg Poseidon Kunsportsplatsen

Kungsportsplatsen Göteborg

Viking Göteborg

Poseidon Göteborg

Järntorget Göteborg

Kungsportsplatsen

Kungsportsplatsen, Göta Kanal

Tram Göteborg

Slottskogen, Göteborg

Saltholmen, Göteborg

Marstrand

Nordön

Torslanda, suburb in Gothenburg

Marstrand, island on the West Coast


Stockholm by night

McNugget Rage

2010-09-29T15:15:00.004+02:00

This is not related to my blog but just thought that I would share it... talk about stepping over the line! She must have been really piss that they forgot the sweet and sour sauce!

AUSSIE GREAT WHITE CHARDONNAY!

2010-09-29T15:04:00.003+02:00

I stumbled upon this just sitting on a bench when I was taking my girlfriends dog for a walk the other day. Haha quality find! Seems that our products do make it over in Sweden, even if it is goon sack wine! AUSSIE GREAT WHITE CHARDONNAY!

Has anyone seen this brand back home?

Why Sweden?

2010-09-28T14:28:00.007+02:00

Sweden was a country that I never really thought of visiting in the past. Apart from its reputation for clean living and extremely attractive women, Scandinavia is an area that many people do miss when traveling in Europe.

My adventures started when I underwent university exchange in 2009. Not knowing much at all about Scandinavia I took it upon myself to apply for a semester abroad. Things took an unexpected turn when I landed in the country, never have I experienced so much interest from others about the Australian way of life and the culture in general. It was like being the center of attention, most places you went people would realize you were from Australia and would instantly strike up a conversation.

Before starting off in my host University in Jönkoping (a small town around 2 hours from Göteborg) I had already been traveling for 2 months. It was extremely difficult to manage settling down after this time on the road. Things were a little difficult all round from the start, I had previously met a girl in Göteborg that I was wanting to continue to see and really the last thing I was wanting to do was undertake another full time semester at university (even if it was over the other side of the world)

So I took a risk, withdrew from the exchange program and headed back to Göteborg, it took a good year of dedication and several trips back and forth from Australia and Sweden, but my relationship just seemed to get stronger. Now here I am living abroad and still wonder if things would have ever been like this if I had not made that decision and took a gamble. This topic of Sweden is a showcase of my learning process living away from home, some good and some bad. Trying to understand and fit into a society in which my girlfriend has spent most of her life.

Autumn is here...

2010-09-26T13:06:00.005+02:00

And they say we have poisonous animals in Australia, in Sweden you have to watch out for the POISONOUS MUSHROOMS!! These little babies have been known to cause some damage, as many of the Swedes love to venture out and pick mushrooms, not quite sure why you would want to take the risk, i would rather head down to the local ICA Maxi and pick up a bag?

Pretty cute little sign I found while doing some walking one day, not sure what type of creature this is?

This was the start of a very long walk. Now I know why people in Sweden love their gummistövlar (gumboots) 10 mins into the walk my girlfriend was stomping through massive amounts of water and I was left with extremely wet feet for hours. I might have to purchase a pair soon.

One very wet dog after a long walk in the woods!

No wonder everything is so green in Sweden, it never stops raining. Very beautiful though.

I love these rock walls, bring back the viking days :@

A Quality Find!

2010-09-24T14:02:00.001+02:00

We all love a good buffet, it is a real find especially when you are in the mood to do nothing but stuff your face! I found this one on my travels in Germany... I was extremely hungover and I had not eaten for a good 15 hours, it was as if we had struck gold.

The aim: Basically stuff as much as you can on one plate, starting with the rice and noodles nicely layered on the bottom, with the rest of the good stuff dumped on top! There is no such thing as extorting a 5 Euro Chinese buffet (even if we did take it too far), QUALITY!

Tattoo In Sweden

2010-09-23T15:38:00.002+02:00

I just recently got a new tattoo done here in Sweden, this is not my first piece of ink that has been done here, but all in all they did a great job. I was wanting it to look quite old school and represent the original crest. This is only around 2 days old so it is still quite tender.

Artwork done in Hedi Hay Tattoos Göteborg: Art work by Peter D.

Bastu!

2010-09-19T17:05:00.005+02:00

Bastu or Sauna in English is loved by many in Scandinavia. There really is something about these things, you just feel so fresh when you get out of one. I have been swimming at the local indoor pool here for some exercise of late and the bastu after is the final touch on a great exercise regime. The only thing that is a little disturbing is the fact that no one wears clothes. Hitting the Bastu for the first time was kind of like an initiation, coming from Australia there is not as much emphasis on nakedness in the change room.

People over here love stripping off and sitting down with there naked mates. There is a whole range of people from young to the very very old. Now call me conservative but i find it a little uncomfortable with sitting in a room with 35 naked sweating men, some of which will start performing stretches and in one case yoga in front of you, which leaves nothing to the imagination and stains you with a really shocking picture of the human anatomy.

I still have not jumped into the depths of the naked bastu, I usually just wear a towel around myself and keep my gaze focused at the floor, usually I am the odd one out in the crowd and people probably think that I am the weird one, each to their own I guess.

This exposay does not stop once you are out of the bastu, usually people are showering naked which is not too uncommon, until you see a really old fat guy sitting in the change room, just outside from the entrance to the room sitting on a chair reading the paper, legs spread and genitals exposed? That is just stepping over the line, especially when he has probably scared most of the women walking into the next change room.

DETOUR: Deutschland

2010-09-16T15:36:00.006+02:00

Taking a little detour from my Swedish adventures and swing my focus onto Germany. My uncle commented on my pictures the other day and said that I really should be a beer representative, traveling and sampling all the finest beers the world has to offer. Not sure if that would ever happen but it gave me the idea for a blog post anyways.

This trip was undertaken with my brother a few months ago, the best part about living in Europe is that fact that everything is so close, if you want to just hop on a plane for the weekend and go to Germany then that is possible.

So Germany they land of beers eh? We this is true, after living in Sweden for a while (and you all know how expensive it is to drink here) Germany was a nice change. Beer was available everywhere and not to mention its really, really cheap! So enjoy as I take you on a Tim's beer tour of Deutschland!

FRANKFURT:

BINDING! Now this was a beer that I was not familiar with, there are so many beers who I am kidding I did not know wtf was what. Anyways after getting to the departure lounge in Gothenburg "City" Airport, emphasis on city airport, of course flying with Ryanair you have to go to the worst airports to get anywhere, well anyway the city airport is really only like a shack out where I am actually living in Torslanda a Suburb in Gothenburg. I arrived at the terminal 2 hours before time, so i went to the bar, met some dude working there who has lived in Oz for 8 years... to cut a long story short he gave me free shots of jaga before it was time to fly, plus let me smuggle some booze onto the Ryainair flight... nice guy!

By the time I arrived in Frankfurt I was well and truly intoxicated and had small cuts all over my fingers from trying to open my smuggled booze with a house key on the plane. I was meeting my brother there who had flown over from Australia to see me. Binding was the first on the list of many, many drinks that night. Can't really remember the taste, all i know is that it was 70cents, this thing was like 750ml and was 7.9% so yes I was in love at this point. I am pretty sure that it is the local brew in Frankfurt, strange name "Binding" sounds like it should belong in Asia.

More binding on tap, this picture does explain a lot, things are well and truly starting to heat up at this point. I spent 140 euro this night, i woke up in the morning with a splitting headache and my wallet was empty. Lliam had only spent 40 euro which did not seem right to me. Either I was doing the majority of the buying that night, or either I was wandering off for sneaky tequilas at the bar, still to this day I do not remember.

From the looks of things from this image, I think the sneaky tequilas were probably the outcome for having spent all the money in my wallet, not to worry it was the first night in Germany and I had not seen my brother for a while so I had an excuse.

So this is basically how I woke up the following morning, pretty stuffed. Me and Lliam had crammed into a single room at the hotel, we are both pretty tall and it was not a nice sight to see two grown men crushed into a single bed, not to mention the smell in the room the next day, it was literally like a brewery. I don't think you can see it from this picture, but I had pizza sauce stains all over my white shirt, the result of walking out of the hotel at 5.30am and wondering the streets to find the nearest pizza joint... I have not idea how I found any pizza places open at that time of the morning, but it did leave me with nasty cuts and burns on the roof of my mouth that stung like hell.

I managed to crawl into the shower and try to knock some sense back into myself, but I was still very seedy! So what are you going to do in this position? Good old hair of the dog that will sort me right out, may as well not stop now, a few more and I will be back to where I started from right? We went out to try and explore Frankfurt before flying out to Berlin, "trying" is the key word here..... I was fine with the hair of the dog well and truly in my system, not to sure what Lliam was thinking at this point, but I was getting looks of disgust!

Well I was enjoying myself, all Lliam needed was a bratwurst and a bottle of water, good as gold! So we manage to find a sausage vendor which is not very hard for those who know Germany. Lliam is the type of person that will really try to use the native language when ordering things, which is a good trait. He went up to the angriest looking sausage vendor you have ever seen and asked for a bratwurst. This guy was massive he was like 195cm and built, he had this large ponytail and was just generally aggressive in nature. Lliam: "Eins Bratwurst danke", the dude gives him the worst look of disgust! "Vhah! BRATWURST!! HUH!?" Lliam was just like wtf? Speechless he nodded and got a sausage thrown into his hands. Nice bloke that one, I wonder if he left any nice strands of his hair in that over sized bratwurst?

Meanwhile I was having customer service issues of my own, I hit up a beer stall that was just across from angry bratwurst man, the price that was advertised was 3.00 Euro for a beer. I order a beer and gave the man the money, I was talking English at this point because of the previous experience. So anyway I give him the money and out of nowhere he shakes his head and says "one more one more", I am like "what?" "It says 3 Euro!?" "One more, one more" shaking his head? I was over it at this point, so I just handed over another Euro, I guess he was charging me for the inconvenience of me speaking English? Nice little day out in Frankfurt, getting extorted and yelled at by our fellow Germans.

TRANSFER MADNESS!

Once again, because of how cheap Ryanair flights are you always get the worst flight times and hardest airports to get to. Our fight left at 6am, and we were flying out of Hahn Airport which is around 1.5 hours from the center of the city. This meant that we had to be on the transfer bus at 2.30am which is pretty painful in itself. The worrying thing was the fact that you could not buy tickets before hand, it said that you needed to buy them when you got on the bus? Lliam was a little concerned about this because if for some reason the bus was to sell out or we missed it, we were pretty much screwed trying to make our flight.

We managed to get some sleep but wanted to get to the bus station a bit early and I am glad we did, we turned up to find the transfer bus waiting at the stop. The doors were not open at this point but we managed to get to the front of the line. More and more people started to turn up as the departure time was getting closer, the bus driver was this big fat man who looked like had eaten a little too much bratwurst in his time, he opened the doors and we jumped on the bus to pay him for two tickets. We got our seat and waited, little did we know of the chaos that was going to unfold. It was clear that there were way, way too many people wanting to get this bus, all probably had the same flight times and the next bus was not coming for another few hours, so if you had an early flight things were going to get messy!

Time passed and the bus filled up, the people that were left outside were getting pretty stressed out and shitted off, with good reason. Just as the bus driver is trying to tell everyone that the bus is full, he somehow manages to hit the button which opens the side door to the coach! Everyone left outside just storms the bus, it was chaos. Once these people had flooded the bus, the driver knew that he had some problems. All of a sudden he jumps to his feet and starts screaming "NEIN! NEIN! NEIN! NEEEIIINNNN!", meaning no in German. By this stage the sweat under his arms had really started to run, it was the largest sweat patch I had ever seen. But I will give him some credit, he managed to squeeze his way into the middle of the group of people and start to push them off the bus, it was very impressive. I could not contain my laughter at this point, it is not everyday you see a fat sweaty German man pushing a bunch of people off a bus, classic.

We finally arrived at the airport, very tired and still feeling the effects from a large first night and lack of sleep. The next stop was Berlin and I was looking forward to exploring the city, but really needing to get some rest.

BERLIN:euro trunks & Marilyn Monroe!

It was time to relax, after the busy last few days of travel. What better way to achieve that? Buy a 10 Euro pair of board shorts from H&M, in the worst possible style find a man made beach in the center of the city and park your backside in the sand. I felt like I was really styling here, but it turns out that I was put to shame in the euro trunk department, I found way shorter and even more tight!

In Germany you can purchase beer pretty much anywhere, even at McDonald's you can get a meal and replace the coke with a beer, seriously... The cheapest beer would have to be those that are sold in shops or supermarkets. They are not too expensive at the pub, but still for value for money buying beer at a store is far cheaper. I found this little baby, which was called happy birthday beer, the label has a picture of Marylin Monroe, the bottle looked far better than the beer actually tasted. Some places will let you consumer the beer in the store, or if they don't hold a license they will just tell you to drink on the street. As you can see here, this particular shop did not allow me to consumer the bottle in the store, so I had to hang out with all my mates on the side of the road....

Probably one of the greatest finds in the world came when I was doing some shopping in a supermarket. I walked over to the cold food section and there I saw crates and crates full of DUFF BEER! I could not believe it, this was a great find for me because I am a total Simpson's nut!

I think they tried to introduce this into Australia at one point, Carlton made some but it got shot down because of copyright, I am not sure why they can have it in Germany but all in all it was awesome!

Well that is all for now, hope you enjoyed my little beer tour of Germany, this post was getting just a tad long so I think this is a good enough point to say goodbye.

From Sverige Timbo!

Take a look!

2010-09-15T08:41:00.003+02:00

Great video by Where The Hell Is Matt? Simple yet effective idea, sums up travel in a short little video, very inspiring.

Great artical about alcohol in Sweden

2010-09-15T07:45:00.001+02:00

This is a great article that highlights some of the points I was talking about in my previous entries

http://www.cafebabel.co.uk/article/30957/sweden-alcohol-systemet-abstention-vodka-society.html

Enjoy!

Swedish Elections

2010-09-15T07:28:00.005+02:00

Sweden is undergoing government elections at the moment, not that I know anything about Swedish politics or the different parties here, but the amount of advertising each of these parties produces is staggering. There is not one bus stop or even telegraph pole that does not have some local member to vote for.

Now we are guilty of this in Australia also, and there are points where we cannot even turn on the television without seeing a really cheesy political advertisement. It seems I was able to escape the controversy from the Australian election but not the Swedish one. Even my girlfriend has no idea what half of the advertising means, it seems that each party has a token slogan "keep Gothenburg united"?

I went to see the American at the movies the other day and I still could not escape the election campaign, I was barraged with different adverts from these parties for 20 minutes before the movie started. Walking down the street, it is as if people are fighting to hand out political fliers, every street you turn, there is no escaping.

Funny thing I saw the other day, seems that some people here do not take this very seriously either, as I was driving down the highway I noticed that a persons house was completely covered by different pieces of advertising, all over the lawn and windows. The place was covered, either this was a local member and people were playing a joke on him or it was just some poor person caught in the middle of someones prank.

Voting is not compulsory is Sweden, which I think creates more of a problem for this mass advertising campaign. Why not just force people to vote, then the emphasis on advertising will be far less and a lot of money will be saved in the process. I can't imagine how much money is wasted by each parties advertising and promotion of policy, fair enough if your party is elected then it would seem that it was put to good use, but if you loose so much money and time has been wasted in the process?

Here is a good article that explains Sweden's politics a little more than I can, if you are interested...

More updated standing:

http://www.thelocal.se/29110/20100919/

http://stockholm.cafebabel.com/en/post/2009/01/01/Will-Swedens-presidency-be-successful

Going Shopping

2010-09-08T09:06:00.007+02:00

If you are someone like myself grocery shopping is never a very fun experience. This gets even more painful when you are trying to navigate your way around a shopping center in another country. From desperately trying to figure out which type of meat is which and constantly examining food packages for some type of explanation or description about the product, the long list of unpleasant factors does outweigh the positives.

Now most of the time you can find what you are looking for, but there does come a point in time when you do crave a classic food item from back home that is just impossible to get. Vegemite has never been something that I have liked so there is no problem there, although I do know a place that does sell it in Göteborg (just leave a comment if you want more information). As for meat pies, now this is something that I have been craving now for months and months. I never really thought I would crave a pie so much, I would take anything at this point, even your dodgy heat up frozen pies would do the trick. A couple of hundred party pies maybe? I am getting hungry just thinking about it, my mouth is starting to water... Maybe Sweden could replaces their obsession with Ost (cheese) and throw a couple of pies into the picture every now and then.

The Swedes love their Ost (cheese), for breakfast most mornings people will pull out the big block of cheese and slap it down on the table. The cheese will usually be accompanied by some bread, meat of some sort like ham or salami, boiled eggs and the final touch of both tomato and cucumber. I kind of like this type of food for breakfast so I was pretty stoked when I found out that this was the norm. The same applies in hotels here, if you book into any hotel in Sweden breakfast is usually included in the overall price. I have stayed in heaps of hotels here and have sampled all of the breakfasts that they have to offer. The standard line up is breads, cheese, eggs (boiled), sausages, bacon, some fish like herring, yogurt, meats like ham and salami, tomato, cucumber and capsicum. Why they have these three vegetables is unknown to me, but without fail they are on offer in every hotel in Sweden. Same applies for the rest, it gets kind of boring after a while because it is exactly the same everywhere you go.

I am getting off track again! So the Swedes love for ost brings me to another event that happened one day when I was grocery shopping. God help us we ran out of ost, so I went down to the shops to get another block. Now the pricing system here is all by per kilo, once again they have to make it very hard to understand what the hell is going on. So I turn up to the shops and walk into the ost section, which is absolutely massive, there is every type of cheese. I manage to just match up the cheese from the packaging we had back home, but what I can't understand it why some HUGE blocks of ost are so much less expensive that these little blocks? I had not known about this per kilo crap at this point, all I thought was that if they are advertising that price for the piece of cheese, then that is the final price right?

Again I had to learn the hard way. So I manage to take a huge block of cheese, all it said, well all I could make out was 65 SEK which is only around 9 dollars not too bad yeah? This thing could have killed someone if you had dropped it on their head, it was very heavy! So I grab some other stuff and then proceed to the counter. I place the cheese and the rest of my items down, forgetting to place that little wooden block behind me so the next person could offload their shopping. Well it was as if I had committed the ultimate sin, this old man behind me gave me the worst look of all time and shook his head? Sorry old timer I did not know that it was such a big inconvenience to place your own f*#king block down? This had already gotten me into a twist, but things were going to get worse. I go through the checkout and the girl scans all my items and then just throws them down counter, nothing was bagged and half of my items by this point were probably destroyed. I give her a strange look as she tells me the price which I could not understand. So I just swipe my card and she hands me the receipt with a very blank unimpressed look on her face, nice girl?

I get down to the end of the counter where my food has been thrown and there are no bags to put any of my stuff in? I was like so wtf am I going to do? Just shove all this stuff into my pockets? The cheese alone would have pulled my pants straight off if I had attempted to do that? So I ask her "where are the bags?" Mind you I kind of cut in front of my new friend behind me as he was trying to pay for his food. This was strike two in his book. She tells me that the bags are down underneath the counter. Okay so I grab three bags and proceed to walk off, SLUTA! SLUTA! (or stop, stop in English) You have to pay for those! Oh yeah that would be right, pay for the plastic bags, so I handed over 3 SEK. By this point I had committed strike 3 according to my old friend, and I am sure I looked like a complete criminal in the eyes of the Swedish people watching, or maybe just an American tourist?

So I pack all my stuff up and start to walk out to the car. I put all my bags down and realize I am still holding the receipt in my hand. I unfold the piece of paper and see that for a few measly grocery's I had been charged over 300 SEK! (60 dollars). I look at the price of the bloody cheese and see that they have charged me yep, per kilo!

200 SEK for a block of cheese! 40 dollars for cheese, I was not going to give her the satisfaction and take it back, looking like a total fool. My old mate friend was probably still there bagging me out to the rest of the line. So I had to suck it up and keep on driving, but from that moment on ost was on the menu every meal of the day. My cholesterol from consuming that block of cheese has probably cut some years off my life!

Pride can be a terrible thing, but still to this day I think they thought I was American so not to worry!

Peace Timbo.

Almost consumed the entire block! There is not much left now....

Sweden the capital of Converse?

2010-09-07T12:58:00.007+02:00

So Sweden is totally obsessed with the old school Chuck Taylor All Stars, you know the ones that I am talking about they were around in the 70's and 80's. They were the old basketball shoes, they are made from a canvas material. Don't get me wrong they are a nice shoe, they were when not every person in the face of the country is wearing them.

I know this sounds a little crazy but it is like that here and I am sure in a lot of other places around the world. Once someone famous is seen wearing something it is like a mass consensus that that piece of clothing is cool and everyone should be wearing it. They are a unisex shoes and that is fine, Vans are also a nice style of shoe, the old 70's style canvas, kind of like the Converse, they can also be worn by both men and women (but you don't see everyone wearing these?). The one thing that gets me a little annoyed about this whole shoe issue is the fact that it is not like people are wearing all the hundreds of different types of converse shoes that are out there, that particular style of Chuck Taylor comes in like seriously 100,000 styles. I don't think converse is ever going to stop making these, and with good reason, just from Sweden the profit alone would be funding these lucky ducks for the rest of their days.

Okay so where was I? Yeah so the one thing that kind of gets on my nerves is the fact that every single second person here is wearing WHITE Chuck Taylor's. It is crazy, I once counted when I went into the city one night, I was out for about 3 hours and I saw around 250 people wearing these shoes (may be a little exaggerated), just in the COLOR WHITE!? Not only was this starting to get me pissed, but the fact that a couple (guy and girl) are walking down the street wearing exactly the same pair of shoes in exactly the same color? This just starts to cross the line for me. "So honey what are you going to wear out tonight, well I am thinking of wearing my Converse?" "Yeah I am going to wear mine too so we can match". Like it's not really something that you would like to both be seen wearing at exactly the same time, or maybe you do?

You may be asking why I care and why it bothers me so much, and that is a good question because I don't really know myself. I kind of don't like the fact of seeing them everywhere I go, that fact of a lack of individuality. Maybe people out their can understand my point of view? If so please drop me a line and comment, maybe there are other things out there that get on your nerves too? I would love to know.

But where did this craze come from? Why this particular style of shoe? I am determined to find out.... What is interesting about these particular style of shoe is that there is no age limit. People from the age of 7 to 60 are wearing these shoes. I was discussing this with my girlfriend the other day, and she brought up the fact that she finds it a little strange when she sees a 6o year old lady pumping out a brand spanking, spiffy new untouched pair of white converse. What do you think? Are they just trying to hold onto their teenage years? I think it has come down to the fact that they now are recognized as a style of shoes that has no age limit or boundaries, they seem to be warn for causal and business dress, even mixing it up with the formal ware from time to time.

So I was thinking of doing an experiment one day, and just stop people and take pictures of these shoes, see how many I can actually get. I think I would be amazed and so would my audience of how many pictures would be taken. There is no way that people back home in OZ are this crazy about converse. Anyway I will save this for another day.

Thanks for putting up with my ranting and keep posted for more of my results.

From Sverige, Timbo!

Recycling gone wrong!

2010-09-03T12:00:00.002+02:00

Recycling is something that the Swedish people take very, very seriously. Now I am not one to say that this is a bad thing, but there comes a point when even something like recycling can just go way over the top. Once again it has come back to the Swedish people to take a simple idea and turn it into such an elaborate complicated mess!

As we all know recycling is something that does benefit the environment. In Australia we do separate our plastics, paper, cans and bottles most of the time. We usually have two separate bins one for the garbage and the other which is usually green or yellow for all the recycling. This is not much of a hassle, you just stuff all the recycling into one bin and the rest of the garbage into the other right, sounds pretty simple? Well in Sweden recycling is like a built up gym junkie on steroids, it is what I call recycling gone wrong. Take the normal Swedish household, I am currently living with my girlfriend and her parents in what would be classified in Australia as the suburbs, around 20mins drive from the center of the city. It is a Nice neighborhood that is a new development, like a housing estate. In this estate there are two separate large rooms for both the garbage (oh and not to forget the compost), and another room which is even bigger for the recycling.

Okay so now for the process, each type of material has to be sorted into a different group, in the house hold I am living in glass, plastic, aluminum and paper are all separated, these are usually put into paper bags and then transferred to the recycling area. The recycling area is pretty much like a fortress, you have to use a key to get inside and once you are inside the room there are around 10 large bins for every type of different material. The first time I went into this room, was like starting an exam in high school that I had not studied for, talk about complicated! Each bin has a laminated poster of what goes where, here that laminated? All nice and professionally done, someone spent a lot of time and effort doing that! Anyway back to the recycling, so once you realize what has to go into each bin, and you see that you have mixed the materials in your own bags, you then have to start to scavenge around through your own rubbish and sort it out accordingly. But things get worse, sometimes you will come to a material and have know idea what is is made of, which leads you to the next problem of not wanting to mix up the materials because knowing Sweden they would have allocated a special community representative in the estate to spy on the others or film them messing up the recycling. Then you will probably be condemned in the community and be seen as the person that F#*KED with the system.

So what to do with these materials that do not fit in? Well in my case I work nice and sly and just bury them deeper into some other material so that no one else will see. Do you see how crazy this sounds? Not only have I already been sifting through all my own rubbish like some starving raccoon trying to sort out the appropriate materials, but now I am elbow deep into the main recycling bin trying to hide evidence of some material that I have never seen before? And why can't the recycling people just sort this shit out to begin with? That would be typical Sweden, "oh no sorry we just collect the rubbish we don't sort it out, that is not out job?!".

But no this recycling dilemma does not stop once you are outside of the household, say you are in a shopping center and you are wanting to throw away a piece of rubbish? Well there are 4 separate bins that are connected to each other. The signs for each bin letting you know what goes where are so small that you can barely make out one word, and having it all in Swedish makes the matters even worse. Most of the time I just go for luck and put it in whatever one, still conscious and alert not to attract attention to myself, because you may just get an evil eye or a hash mouthful if someone sees you not obeying the rules! I have even stopped and looked at the bin, standing there like some homeless dude assessing the bin to see wtf I am suppose to do? What about if I just want to through away a piece of chewing gum? You never know there may be a lift out manual inside the bin that clarifies what I am to do? It is Sweden after all....

Trying to escape this recycling monster is like trying to get away from an angry mother with a wooden spoon in her hand. I am sitting down a McDonalds or Burger King, still there is no escape. Each material of your rubbish has to be sorted, there is a different bin for your drink, a different bin for the plastic hamburger rapper, a different bin for the paper bag, oh and finally my favorite a separate area to put your left over ice? God damn! I still have not mastered the art of rubbish removal from these places, less of a hassle is just to leave all your crap on the table, people will look at you less if you are leaving mess as apposed to stuffing up the recycling.

This issue of recycling is not only effecting the way people see me in society, is has had an effect on my relationship too. One day me and my girlfriend were driving back from her parents boat, and we had to stop over and get her dog from her grandmothers place. I had eaten a quick meal from McDonalds (to go of course!) and I still had the empty drink in my hand. I had already been holding onto this thing for around 15mins. We arrive at her grandmothers house and I tell her I need to through this thing away, I just walk over to someones bin out the front of there house and proceed to throw it away. But no I can't do that, my girlfriend is looking at me like I am from Mars? "That is not the right bin for that, we will have to throw it away when we get home?". I am like "what?". I let it slide for a while we go in see her grandmother, say hello to the dog, and all along I still have this f*#king cup in my hand! We leave the house say goodbye to everyone put the dog in the car and start to drive off. I am driving the car, which is full with stuff, bags, the dog and still this stupid empty drink container. I had to do it, I had to break the rules, so sick of doing everything by some procedure! I stop the car, get out and slam the drink into a neighbors bin, not knowing if it was recycling or rubbish I could not care, I finally had got back at the system one step at a time!....

The Ticket System

2010-09-02T09:25:00.003+02:00

Those of you who have been to Sweden have probably come across The Ticket System. In Sweden people love to have order, things have to run smoothly and efficiently, but this sometimes create more chaos and trouble. In every shop you enter in Sweden, it does not matter if it is an electrical store to a jewelry store you have to take a ticket before you are going to be served. Just like in the local RTA you have to press a button and get a ticket that prints out. Kind of ironic that Sweden is crazy about the environment and the amount of paper that these things waste? But never mind, knowing Sweden it is probably some organic type of paper that has been specially designed to be instantly recycled and reused. So anyway this ticket system is something that can catch you off guard when you first arrive into the country.

My first experience with this was when I was in a bussen (bus) terminal in Stockholm. I was trying to organize to catch a bus from Stockholm to Göteborg that day, I was kind of in a rush because I was not sure how long it would take to get there or when the last bus was actually going to leave. The first counter that I walked up to no one was being served there were only people standing towards the outside some distance away from the person that was dealing with the tickets. I walk up to the man at the counter thinking that everything is okay, but this was not the case. Now the Swedish people are not ones to get hostile and they usually try and avoid any type of confrontation but man if you fuck with there ticket system its WWIII! One dude starting yelling something in Swedish while the rest joined in on this barrage of abuse! I had know idea wtf was going on so finally the man at the counter told me that I had to take a ticket from the machine that was over the other side of the room and wait until my number came up on the screen. So finally I managed to find out what was going on, the number that was called was 413 and i was 430, so I just sat down and waited. After waiting for 15mins my number was finally called and it was now okay for me to approach the counter. "I would like to book one ticket to Göteborg please", I said. The man replied "sorry this is not the right counter, you will have to go over to the other counter and book it through them". Fuck sake, this could have been solved if I was allowed to approach the counter and ask a question before the 10 crazy Swedes unleashed there abuse upon me. So I picked up my bag and walk over to the other counter, same deal here although there was no one waiting at this counter, I looked over, around, up and down, no one was there no need to take a ticket right? I walk up to the counter and ask the same question again, the man replies "Sorry you have to take a ticket!". I was like what the hell is this no one is even here, but again I went with the flow pressed the stupid button for the ticket, stood there, the guy pressed his little button, "bing!" and then he called my number and I was allowed to approach the counter? Talk about control, no rules or regulations can be broken, especially when it comes down to the ticket system!

I should probably give you a little information about getting around in Sweden. Coaches are usually the cheapest way to travel all throughout Sweden, and even Scandinavia. Swebus is a coach line that travels all over Sweden and also to Denmark and Norway. You will be paying half as much for these bus rides than say the train. But be warned if you do not like having to sit on a bus for 8-10 hours in some cases, then I would not recommend this way of travel. In my experience most of the time Swebus has been really good, they even have free wifi on the coaches so you can just hook into the Internet. They also come with your own power plug, saves you trying to conserve battery. Just a little piece of advice, sit near the front or the middle of the bus, don't make the mistake of sitting around the back, because on a 8 hour trip to Copenhagen from Stockholm they last thing you want to smell is the wafting stench of someone's urine for the whole journey.

If you are wanting to get around quicker then SJ is the train system you should take. Takes half the time compared to the bus but you will be paying around double for the train, to avoid high fees try and book ahead of time, you will get quite a discount in price. Click the links provided to fine out more about the prices and destinations.

What is interesting though is this whole idea about conditioning, when you live in a place for a while you start to just go with what other people are doing and conform to the rules and regulations of the country. Now Sweden is very controlled there is policy and system for everything. But there was one instance when I really shocked myself and I knew that I had been in this country for far too long! Same deal applies as before, I was waiting in a tourist information center a few weeks ago to find out where I could find a travel agent in the shopping center. I had done the right thing and taken a ticket and was just casually waiting around for my number to be called. Just before my number was going to be called some dude comes out of nowhere are starts to walk over to the counter, I was like WHAT! HE DOES NOT HAVE A FU*$ING TICKET! HE CAN'T TAKE MY POSITION! HE CAN'T CUT IN LINE! I starting walking over to give him a piece of my mind when the lady at the counter just called out my number and ignored the man, I bumped him aside and proceeded with my question. Afterward it hit me that I had turned into one of those crazy swedes, I was getting abusive over the ticket system...? I knew from that moment on I had been in Sweden for far too long!