24 Reasons Sweden Is The Most Delightful Country On Earth
Advertisement
I just got back from eight days in Stockholm.
Advertisement
More than the high price of beer, depth of the history, and beauty of the buildings (and people), one trait stood out like lingonberries on a stack of pancakes - the Swedes, with their famously high standard of living, really know how to live.
Wonderfully so.
Here are two dozen reasons why Sweden is the most delightful country on Earth.
1. Because everybody has 'fika' - the ritual of drinking coffee and eating a pastry - at least twice a day.
Drake Baer/BI
Advertisement
2. Because you can go swimming in the middle of Stockholm, since the water's not all unbearably toxic.
Drake Baer/BI
3. Because there are 20 hours of daylight in the summer.
Drake Baer/BI
4. Because the summer solstice is celebrated with Midsommar, a maypole-dancing holiday where the usually reserved Swedes go insane while wearing festive flower crowns, such as this one.
5. Because there are raves in forests.
Drake Baer/BI
6. Because of common Swedish idioms, like "he shat in the blue cupboard." This comes from back in the days before plumbing. People kept their bedpans in one cupboard and their fine china in a blue cupboard. It was a horrendous mistake, then, to put your crap in with your china.
Advertisement
7. Because any restaurant or bar with outside seating also has blankets. How considerate!
8. Because the government paid for a doge ad on the subway for the Stockholm equivalent of a Metrocard. So travel!
9. Because every subway station in Stockholm is like an art installation.
Drake Baer/BI
10. Because Sweden is the world's third-largest exporter of music, after the States and the UK. Artists include the Knife, Robyn, Ace of Base, and, most legendarily, ABBA.
11. Because Princess Estelle is ridiculously awesome and also rather cute.
Advertisement
12. Because Pippi Longstocking was Swedish.
13. Because reindeer exist.
14. Because almost everybody has a little garden cottage to hang out in during their five weeks of vacation.
Drake Baer/BI
15. Because they eat lingonberries with everything, not just pancakes.
16. Because Swedes have kicked ass at carpentry for a very, very long time.
Drake Baer/BI
Advertisement
17. Because downtown Stockholm is absurdly beautiful.
Drake Baer/BI
18. Because Vikings. This is a rune stone, a particularly endearing form of viking art.
Drake Baer/BI
19. Because the king's former hunting grounds are now a totally chill public park.
Drake Baer/BI
20. Because there are enchanted woods.
Drake Baer/BI
21. Because they paint their construction equipment, like this handsome giraffe-spotted crane.
Drake Baer/BI
Advertisement
22. Because nightclubs turn into flea markets during the day.
Drake Baer/BI
23. Because everybody heads out to Stockholm's 30,000-island archipelago on the weekend.
Drake Baer/BI
24. Because the meatballs are for real.
Drake Baer/BI
Advertisement
- CEO says he tried to hire an AI researcher from Meta, and was told to 'come back to me when you have 10,000 H100 GPUs'
- We bought a house in Japan for $30,000. We'll have more land than we could afford in the US, and our kids will be more independent.
- Rumors Prince William is having an affair with Rose Hanbury are flooding social media again after Stephen Colbert waded into 'Katespiracy'
- COVID-19 vaccine can slash risk of post-infection heart failure by half, study finds
- Stock markets close higher in volatile trade ahead of key Fed policy meeting
- 10 Must do activities in Kodaikanal on your next trip
- Harnessing the benefits of weekly fasting: transforming your health inside out
- Citroen to supply 4,000 units of EV e-C3 to BluSmart Mobility in 12 months