So Sweden is the magical land where many things hip, dorky, healthy, unhealthy, old and new collide and mix into one polite and well-dressed world, called Sweden (or as I like to say, Sueden, because suede shoes are a neat thing there).
These were my preconceptions of Sweden (those proved reasonably to completely true have been denoted with a checkmark - ✔)
1) ✔ Volvos are everywhere
2) ✔ Everyone is exceedingly beautiful/handsome
3) ✔ Everyone is exceedingly fashionable in one way or another
4) ✔ English is spoken well by all, but they still sound silly (pron. Seel-ie)
5) Everyone wears suede (sadly, only on their shoes)
Also, Swedish is a silly language. See for yourself
Part 1 - Gothenburg
My first stop in Sweden was Gothenburg, on the West coast of the country just across from Denmark, was my first destination after flying out of Edinburgh. Being my first taste of Swedish culture, I had my eyes wide open to the neat and cool things that the country has to offer including: Scandinavia's largest Amusement Park, cobblestone roads and an entirely different kind of people than the Irish or Scottish that I was used to in Europe. From what I gathered it was kind of a touristy summer city that people go do to do neat things that are neat. 
Sweden isn't so fast to throw something away just because it's getting long in the tooth. In fact, Gothenburg uses a number of streetcars (or trollies/trams) from the 1980's, 1960's and even 1920's). One inconvenience is you can only pay with a credit card, which I did not have... so I... rode for free... (but I payed the hostel a butt-ton of money to stay there so I think that balances it out, right?)
This beetle is not only a convertible, but it's from the 1950's when Beetles still weren't that popular outside of postwar Germany. A beetle from before they were cool. NEAT EH?
This is what a Swedish street looks like. Very clean, almost empty and containing nothing less than 30 years old.This courtyard has copper statues and a ship. HOW NEAT IS THAT?!
Swedish parks are much the same way. Only a few people, keeping to themselves, all very quiet and polite, enjoying a modest, clean and traditional park.This is a Swedish alley. SAME SAME RIGHT?!
No endless swaths of tourists. No loud noises, no garbage (not even cigarette butts or gum stuck to the sidewalk). This is the inside of a Swedish church. More of the same kind of feel. 
Ohhhhh boy, here we go. The VOLVO MUSEEEEUUUMMM. I was going to say "For those of you who don't know me, I'm a car nut", but then I realized, if I don't know you, WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU READING MY BLOG?! I know I'm an incredibly interesting person who writes like Hemingway and has the dashing but adorable good looks of Dr Wilson from House, but you should identify yourself. Or at least send me large sums of money so I can overlook the fact. 
To the left is the prototype for the famous Volvo 240 (look it up people), the dorky car that made Volvo very famous in hipster culture and also made them a pretty penny because of reasons. 
To the right is a prototype of something that never made it past that stage. Look back to the left and see the gigantic backup camera that the car is eqiupped with. VOLVO DID IT IN THE EARLY SEVENTIES BEFORE YOUR MINIVAN WAS EVEN THOUGHT OF
They were on the leading edge of a lot of ideas, and subtly worked them into their cars designs (unlike some of the cutting edge features of Mercedes' cars, which were the center point of their 'German engineering' self-praising advertisements). Volvo was cool and kind of humble like that (and it didn't really pay off for them, so you can be the judge of that)
Yes, I also am into the history of the automotive industry. I don't know why I don't just get paid loads of money to make this blog. 
< This is the first sportscar that Volvo ever made. Since it was before Volvo came to North America, and Europeans were still poor because of the 
To the right is my all-time favourite car, the Volvo P1800. It was their second venture into sports cars, and this time they hit off a great idea by getting the P1800 in a British T.V. series called 'The Saint' with Roger Moore. This propelled this little-known car from an obscure Swedish company into a hip (and generally better) alternative to the Italian and British sports cars on the market. In other words, the P1800 was FRESH TO DEEAAAATH. 
See that word SPORT? It's in red letters. You know what that means? It means that volvo probably painted some extra lines and put on an extra part to make the puttery little engine go just a bit faster with a tad more growl. Like a puppy dog with a lil extra bit of spunk. 
Volvo then proceeded to enter dork mode as fast as possible by making completely functional and safe cars at the expense of... well... nothing really. It worked for them and they sold really well in North America when people were starting to be more conscious about safety, reliability and practicality. 
Some European models that never made it across the pond>
Beautifully ugly, aren't they? Volvo would do well as a niche European brand that put safety ahead of most other things, and became known for just that. Then when the Japanese brands started making luxury brands (think Acura, Lexus & Infinity), they offered European-level engineering & reliability for next-to American prices. Since then Volvo (and many of the other European brands) has had some tough competition, and the other Swedish marque, Saab, has already gone belly up. So we'll see what happens with the company in the future.
That was kind of the feel of the museum. It was a very Swedish (polite, clean, quiet and kind-of-empty) museum. Despite some interesting content, it was a bit dry and lacking any sort of excitement or enthusiasm. I feel like that might be a bit synonymous with the attitude of the company, and is almost reflected in their cars today. They're not quite as NEAT, more just upscale, sleek and functional. 
A few prototypes that never made it past the first model.
TL;DR: Volvo made a few cars in Sweden, then made a neat car that was hip, then made dorky cars that were popular. Now Volvo is know as... um.... well I don't know really. They're kind of an unknown company outside of their neat history of boxy wagons and bunker-like safety.
Part 2: Katrineholm
How we met: I play video games in my spare time, and one of the communities I am part of is a group of gamers that uses the same program called 'teamspeak'. It's like a big group skype thing without the video, useful for talking to players and communicating during games without typing & whatnot. We've known each other from playing 'Company of Heroes' for about 4 years, and they are called the 'Swede-stack' because they are all quite good at the game, so when they team up together, the team is thought of as 'stacked', or just really tough to beat. Funnily enough, I have another friend from this same group who lives in Hong Kong, he's into board games and has been a really great person to have around on the other side of the world. ISN'T THAT HANDY!?)
The 5 days spent in Katrineholm began with a spectacular cottage BBQ & party that consisted of food, all kinds of Swedish drinks & candies, and neat Swedish things that I'll list below.
I should note that during this party, using my cinematographic skills, I put together a fantastic video that I may or may not be able to show due to my current line of work. While I'm not worried about students/staff getting a hold of it, I'm just going to keep it within the realm of What'sApp. I can send it your way upon request.
We did the following Swedish things:
- Played Brenne-bol (burn ball) which is like a self-pitched version of baseball. I was surprisingly decent at it
- Played... um... something like lawn darts but consisted of throwing sticks underhand at pegs
- Played FUTBOL (soccer) while I was in... a less than athletic and lucid state. I scored the only goal for our team, entirely by accident
- Played floorball, which is like real hockey but with little baby sticks and no ice and a ball and really small nets (like you could maybe stuff a 7 year old into the net if you pushed them in with a healthy amount of elbow grease). I was NOT very good, but the friends were supportive nonetheless
And the following Canadian things:
- Made poutine for dinner (well, as close as I could get with chunks of mozzarella, swedish brown sauce (brun-sos) and french fries. But it turned out pretty good and everyone liked it despite the fact we couldn't move after eating
- Made beaver tails (also as close as I could get, but actually pretty damn close). Topped with brown sugar/nutella/cinnamon/butter, we also had trouble moving after eating dessert
Katrineholm was 10/10 fun, I feel really lucky to have friends as good as them even though we've only 'hung out' for a week. I will be back as soon as I can, and I hope they don't grow up too much between now and then.
Part 3 - Stockholm
My pal Victoria Courtney had just arrived in the city in her hip new Swedish apartment. We did fun and chill things around the city, but I didn't take too many pictures of Stockholm as I was sick for the first two days of the trip, so I'll leave you the pictures to do the talking.
Yup
Neat
Handsome
The Vasa was a big ship that sunk because the Swedish King said "IT'S MY SHIP AND I WANT IT NOW" so they put too many things on it and it fell over in the water and sunk. The Swedes, being as cool as they are, found the ship, all the pieces and put it ALL BACK TOGETHER! HOW NEAT IS THAT?! The ship is just over 95% original (save for the ropes and a few things)
of COURSE they have this.....
This is from Victoria's apartment. LOOK AT HOW SHEEK AND WHITE IT IS. Don't mind my things, most of them will be stolen by the end of the week.
So handsome
A quick visit to the aquarium because why not
No pour mangia
Here's a video of that old tram I rode on, with some pictures below
Before we parted ways, I had Toria try some of my Scotch, and I was surprised how well she took to it. She was an awfully good host and a real pal to have around while we talked about times not-so-long ago. Our final stop was a cafe where we had some tasty Swedish cafe food and watched some of the locals do their thing with their slicked/shaved/styled hair and Scandinavian attitudes.
Overall Sweden was pretty neat. I'll do a review on the trip in general at the end to sum things up. Thanks for checking in.
Overall Sweden was pretty neat. I'll do a review on the trip in general at the end to sum things up. Thanks for checking in.
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