I think there are a lot of similarities between life in Sweden and Canada, which was pleasantly surprising. Before this trip, I had imagined a modern utopia for Sweden, based on observations that we don't see a lot of people who move away from Sweden. It wasn't much to go on, but in hindsight, the lack of information we have as Canadians about the Nordic countries invites us to think good things about them based on what little we see in the media - the Sedins, IKEA, Volvo, Olympic performance. What we've now seen a bit of is that Sweden has its share of issues (no society is perfect) but that my initial assumptions that Swedes would hesitate to move away were correct.
Gothenburg is a smaller city - quieter, with less aggression than a bigger metropolis. Cyclists, pedestrians, and vehicles all seem to share the road without conflict. (Note that most cyclists seemed to be dressed normally - no helmet, no spandex.) Food and merchandise are reasonably priced, when compared with Canadian prices - you wouldn't be taken aback after looking at any receipts/bills (tax and tip are included!) unless you were buying alcohol. (As a country, Sweden is stricter on alcohol sales/licensing.) Though, if you did want a night out, November probably isn't the right time to visit since people/businesses tend to shut down earlier.
We were tempted to eat a lot of shrimp since Gothenburg is on the west coast - but found that shrimp is typically boiled in heavily salted water. Other seafood was better to sample (e.g. cod), but restaurants did tend to err on the salty side. Thankfully, we could balance the salt with fruits from the grocery store or pastries from the bakery.
A few surprises we learned in Gothenburg: Sweden is very cashless - we would have been perfectly fine not bringing any cash and ended up needing to get rid of it before leaving (which we did by using it to pay for our hotel). There are washrooms in every restaurant, but some public places (e.g. shopping malls, train stations) charge a nominal fee - when we found ourselves needing a bathroom, the easiest solution was to find a hotel. I already mentioned this in a previous post, but there are no laundromats - which explains why visitors have giant suitcases.
We didn't get a chance to meet any locals in any meaningful way in Gothenburg, but that obviously changed once we got to Stockholm. I think those conversations made our visit worthwhile. It was from talking to them that we learned more about Swedish life.
Education is similar - Swedish children attend 13 years of primary and secondary school before going to university. They do have private schools, but both public and private schools are government-funded, except the most elite schools which are only attended by the wealthy. There are no gifted programs because the Swedish norm is that no one is better than anyone else - everyone is treated the same and given the same opportunities. Teachers will be responsible for ensuring everyone is challenged, but they won't split up classes. Vacations happen more often throughout the year - which poses challenges for parents who don't have the same amount of vacation days. One big difference - every child is given a hot meal for lunch, which is free.
Working life is similar - people typically work 40 hours per week, but they get at least 5 weeks of vacation. Some get more - but it's interesting that most people take vacation at the same time. In Stockholm, most people have summer cottages in the surrounding islands - these have been passed down through generations, otherwise it is very expensive to buy one today. So every July, people will flock to their summer homes with their families, then return after a few weeks.
Speaking of families, the societal norm is to have a family - this is evident everywhere, from signs of pedestrians (parent with child) to the government programs. Parents get 18 months of leave off work to care for the baby. We saw signs in multiple places that suggest pregnant mothers or young mothers will receive extra support, if they need it. Community programs which provide extracurricular activities for children are heavily subsidized. It is normal for young people to be single and live with other singles, but being single and older is abnormal - though it does happen. There are communities that are now growing to support individuals who wish to remain single, yet live with other like-minded people.
Healthcare is also publicly funded - but for most services, the first few visits require people to pay a nominal fee, until they reach a certain amount, after which they will receive subsequent services for free. We also discovered that a majority of their health services/records are online in a central system, which increases the efficiency tremendously. For example, if you needed a prescription, any doctor can approve that prescription for you in the system, then any pharmacy will be able to access that prescription. No more paper. No more lost prescriptions. No transfers needed. And you can also access your information anytime, or your child's information in case you needed to pick up a prescription for them.
As a whole, Sweden embraces technology - taxes are online, medical records are online, the transportation systems we saw in Stockholm were all tracked on screens with updates for important information (e.g. on a bus, the screen would show upcoming stops), even government services are available as mobile apps. It's impressive, and it shows that Canada still has to play catch up.
Stockholm as a city is huge - we could tell from their metro map that the area covered by transit is larger than Vancouver. As a bigger city, things do cost a bit more, and there is more urgency to the people/businesses - you can tell from the pace of how they walk and interact with each other. We also saw more people begging for money, on the streets, and in the commuter trains. Bike paths were everywhere and we saw bike racks weren't empty - there were people cycling no matter the weather. Dinner reservations were helpful - more people means popular restaurants get very crowded during peak hours.
Hotel rooms were smaller in Stockholm since there's less space - beware of hotels in older buildings! They may not have renovated everything (e.g. pipes, amenities). We also discovered why they put 2 single beds together to make a double bed - it's so the hotel has the flexibility to sell that room to couples and non-couples. So, if you're worried about the beds sliding apart in the middle of the night, you can bring straps to tie them together.
We didn't realize this until we were at the airport for our departing flight, but there are 2 companies that process tax refunds: Global Blue and Planet. Luckily, both had counters in terminal 5 before baggage drop, so we didn't have to run around too much. Just for future reference, it's good to know for budgeting time in case you need to line up in 2 queues instead of 1.
Another thing to keep in mind for air travel in Nordic countries is that they like to do general boarding for flights - this ends up being a free-for-all in the case of overhead bin usage. Since we had carry-on bags, we always tried to get to the gate early so we'd have a better chance of finding space for our stuff. For full flights, it always means that some people will have to check in their carry-ons, which becomes a hassle once they've already boarded - resulting in flight delays.
Just a side note - in the Stockholm airport, we were looking for a quick bite to eat, and went to Max, Sweden's own fast food burger chain competing with McDonald's. I have to say that the basic burger (with cheese and bacon) was pretty good, and definitely better than the McDonald's equivalent.
Obviously, from our interactions in Stockholm, we found that people were friendly - they seem to be fairly open-minded, educated enough to appreciate learning about life outside of Sweden. They aren't boastful, and seem to carry disdain for people who are - which I'd like to think is similar to Canadians. The two families we met were very hospitable - willing to share their Sweden with us, and happy to answer any questions we had about anything.
With all that in mind, would I move to Sweden? It's possible. But life in Canada would have to be a lot worse to motivate me to make the effort. Swedes have it pretty good - I hope we'll be able to close the gap!
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