Currency: Swedish krona
Cool facts about Sweden:
- Sweden is so good at recycling that it has run out of rubbish and imports 80,000 tons a year from Norway.
- After Norway banned Life of Brian for blasphemy, it was marketed in Sweden as “The film that is so funny that it was banned in Norway!”
- Stockholm, Sweden tested a “Speed Camera Lottery” where speed-limit-abiding drivers were automatically entered into a drawing to win a prize pool funded out of fines paid by speeders.
- North Korea owes Sweden €300m for around 1,000 Stolen Volvos and every 6 months Sweden sends them reminders.
- Homosexuality was still classified as an illness in Sweden in 1979. Swedes protested by calling in sick to work, claiming they “felt gay”.
- The people of Sweden love Donald Duck so much, they had to make voting for him illegal.
- In a remote valley in Sweden, people still speak an ancient dialect of Old Norse, the language of the Vikings. It’s called Elfdalian and they still used runes up until the 1900s.
- Sweden has instituted a country-wide program where citizens can enroll to receive an SMS when there is a heart attack victim nearby, allowing them to reach them faster than an ambulance and provide CPR. In 40% of the cases, SMS life savers arrived before ambulances and started providing CPR
- Blood donors in Sweden are sent a text message every time their blood is used to save a life.
- Researchers in Sweden developed a blood test that accurately detects cancer 96 percent of the time and classifies the type of cancer correctly 71 percent of the time.
- There is a residential area in Stockholm, Sweden just north of the Stockholm University that has a tradition whereby at 10 PM every Tuesday the residents open their windows and scream for several minutes to relieve stress caused by university exams.
- In Sweden, you may pitch your tent for a night or two in the countryside as long as you don’t disturb the landowner or cause damage to nature.
- Sweden pays high school students $187 per month to attend school.
- Sweden stopped classing BDSM as a mental disorder in 2008.
- Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, is built on 14 islands, and the city center is “virtually situated on the water
- Sweden’s tourist association has created a “Call a Swede” phone number which is assigned to random de facto ‘ambassadors’ with no training or expectations. The goal is to provide an unfiltered view of Swedish life.
- “Fika” is a concept in Swedish culture that means “to have coffee, cake, and a chit-chat”. It’s a big part of the culture and most companies have two daily fika breaks at 9 am and at 3 pm.
- Sweden and Finland are the only countries in the world that have earned a medal at every Olympic game since 1908.
- The official Twitter account of Sweden is given to a random citizen every week to manage.
- Ore trains in Sweden traveling down to the coast generate five times the amount of electricity they use, powering nearby towns and the return trip for other trains.
- After French soldier Jean Bernadotte showed kindness to a few Swedish soldiers, he became so popular in Sweden that the Swedes decided to make him their King when a vacancy came up, despite him never having set foot in Sweden before. The House of Bernadotte rules Sweden to this day.
- The only stuffed blue whale in the world is at the Natural History Museum in Sweden. The public was allowed to enter it up until a couple was found having sex inside it; now its jaws are opened only for special occasions like Swedish election days.
- In 2011, a man was arrested in Sweden for splitting an atom in his kitchen.
- Swedish Navy detected underwater sounds suspected to be hostile Russian submarines in the 80s. The suspicion escalated to a diplomatic conflict between Sweden and Russia. It turned out later that these sounds came from fish farts, a discovery which led to the Ig Nobel Prize.
- There is a “moose test” in Sweden, which requires all cars to be able to evade a moose without flipping, should one suddenly appear on the road.
- Sweden created “condom ambulances” to deliver condoms to people in “promising situations” to combat rising rates of Chlamydia.
- In 1967 Sweden switched from left-hand driving to right-hand driving. All vehicles had to come to a complete stop at 04:50, then carefully change to the right-hand side of the road and stop again before being allowed to proceed at 05:00.
- Sweden offers 480 days of paid maternity (and paternity) leave.
- Sweden warrantlessly wiretaps all telephone and internet traffic that cross its border.
For dinner we had Swedish meatballs with lignon berry sauce, pressed cucumbers and a delicious chocolate torte thing. Good stuff.
