18 Features of Life in Sweden That Might Surprise Even the Most Seasoned Traveler

Many tourists often change their concept of a “normal standard of living” after visiting Sweden. All the country’s inhabitants can count on free education, medical care, and relatively high subsidies for children and the unemployed. But that is not all. Recently people have started to implant chips under the skin so that all the necessary information is stored in one place — on the finger.

O awesome.club gathered some characteristics of the life of the Swedes, and realized that the whole world should fight for the same standard of living. Check out!

Winter doesn’t seem to be Big Deal for the Swedes; when the thermometer reads 0 °C or a little less, the following image can be seen: workers going to lunch in thin coats, men riding bicycles with little protection against the cold, and small children without a cap or being carried by their parents wearing thin coats appropriate for the temperature.

Even among inhabitants of cold countries there are disagreements about how to deal with the cold. A Russian tourist shared her observations on this matter on the Russian website Pikabu: “I noticed a very neglectful attitude towards children and proper protection from the cold. They don’t cover their faces, and many don’t zip it all the way down with the excuse of ‘letting the child breathe’. Strange, another mentality”. If there are already disagreements among them, imagine for us, Brazilians, having to deal with temperatures below 5ºC? There would certainly be no shortage of caps, gloves, scarves and warm coats for any Brazilian tourist in Sweden.

When locals go to the supermarket, they bring their own bag so they don’t use environmentally harmful plastic bags. And if, for example, news comes out that a certain brand or manufacturer pollutes the air, water or mistreats animals, the Swedes promote a strong boycott policy and stop buying the products of that brand.

When paying for purchases, Swedes spread out the goods in the basket with the bar code facing up, so that it is more convenient for the cashier🇧🇷 This considerably speeds up the service process. In addition, to make it easier for the customer, each cart has a map of the supermarket with the location of all products.

Most people don’t use difficult words like “objectively”, “subjectively” or “congruence” in everyday life. Often, they don’t even know their meaning. Therefore, to sound like a learned person, just learn some complex Swedish and insert it occasionally into speech. By the way, Leo Tolstoy’s novels “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina” were also translated into simple and complex Swedish.

Parental leave in Sweden lasts for 480 days, of which 90 days must be used by the father. And no exception is made for those workaholics. The authorities believe that the father must be involved in the child’s upbringing process from the first days of life🇧🇷 Therefore, it is very common to see men walking their babies through the streets.

In all the cities of the country there is a lot of vegetation. Parks and squares are inhabited by birds, rabbits and even porcupines. And all this flora and fauna must be respected🇧🇷 There is a known case of a man who killed a sparrow with an air pistol and was seen by a witness. The offender spent a few months in prison and received a fine.

The country has a law on universal access to natural resources. According to this law, people can swim, set up tents, pick fruit, ride a bicycle, even on private land. Sport fishing can be practiced in lakes and rivers, as long as the fish are released immediately. Many wild animals live near large cities, so they are often seen on country roads. Many people are lucky enough to find really rare species.

Usual situation in the country: you are having a conversation with the manager of some company, for example, a bank, travel agency or post office. AND, at 18:00, he will say the following “the business day is over, we’ll continue tomorrow” or “we’ll talk on Monday”. Residents explain this as respect for time and personal life.

And if the company has a 45-minute lunch break, Swedes will spend exactly 45 minutes at lunch. After all, rules are there to be followed. By the way, in the offices, they are not only concerned about mental well-being, but also the physical comfort of employees.

Swedes use the Swish system to pay for any of their purchases; the system links the phone number and a bank account. In September 2018, the payment service already had 6.5 million users🇧🇷 It is so popular that it has become a verb that designates the act of paying or transferring money. Even at the street fair it is possible to pay the seller using this system instead of using cash — and everyone is happy.

All dispute or disagreement situations are resolved with the help of third parties. If a neighbor turns on loud music at night, the Swede will file a complaint with the landlord. If the boss at work does not allow taking a vacation, the employee will contact the union. In case of family problems, a conversation with the family therapist will certainly take place. No matter what the problem is, ifthere will always be a third person who will try to help restore order🇧🇷

Often the police can be involved in conflict resolution. An example of this was when a Russian immigrant accidentally confused his parking space with his neighbour’s. And the neighbor, instead of speaking directly to the Russian, went to a police station. The offender received a fine.

The emergence of the tradition of eating candy on Saturdays, curiously, has somewhat sinister roots: in the 1940s, together with several candy manufacturers, the government carried out tests on patients in a psychiatric hospital. to discover the danger of consuming sweets.

When it was determined that eating too much sweets could damage teeth, the tradition of lordagsgodis: Swedish citizens could eat as many goodies as they wanted, but they had to limit consumption to just one day. As a result, an average-sized family consumes an average of 1.2 kg of candy on a Saturday.

Everyone has the chance to become the administrator of account Swedish government official and publish tweets. The objective is simple, show the country through the eyes of its inhabitants. To become a weekly administrator, it is only necessary to live in the country, no matter what citizenship. You can also nominate someone who, in your opinion, is worthy of the post.

A mother who moved to the country and placed her child in the local kindergarten shared her impressions on Pikabu: “The afternoon nap issue is different in Sweden; children who want to sleep, they do it on mattresses, and those who don’t, are not forced. In another kindergarten, the methodology was different, babies are dressed and taken to the porch in strollers, wrapped to sleep, even those who don’t want to, even in winter. Probably some local custom. In general, Swedes have a very subjective view of what is right and wrong.”

In the country, children can be enrolled in kindergarten from one year of age, and no requirements are made: the child may not even speak, still bottle-feed, and certainly many at that age are still learning. to walk. The employees are mostly women, but it is not uncommon to find a man working in this position.

One user posted the above photo on Reddit and wrote: “What is the purpose of these mirrors? I found them in Sweden. They are in almost every home.” And he was told that this mirror is an old invention, which is usually hung in the kitchen window, next to the table, where people can gossip about what is going on in the street while having a coffee. They also wrote in the publication that they are necessary to look down the street or see who’s knocking on the door without having to get up from the couch🇧🇷

This means that for Swedes it is very easy to travel the world: they do not need a visa or provide any information about themselves in case of travel. Swedes are very proud of be able to enter 170 countries in the world without a visa🇧🇷 The United Arab Emirates is in first place in the ranking, while Brazil occupies the twelfth place.

Swedes crowd home improvement stores every day of the week. They don’t skimp when it comes to comfort and decoration. A Pikabu user shared his surprise at this fact: “True marketing geniuses work in Sweden! Instead of discarding old vegetable boxes, marketers create a modern and resell each box for 10 euros🇧🇷 My aunt took four pieces to decorate my cousin’s room.”

3 million swedes are officially enrolled in bodybuilding academies. Winter sports are very popular in the country, but Swedes do everything else: football, basketball, swimming, running, and of course, cycling. Cycling is so valued in the country that at intersections, there are special posts with footrests for cyclists to relax.

Stockholm Metro is famous for the unusual design of the central stations. The city is on rocky terrain, so the tunnels are literally cut stones🇧🇷 The walls and ceilings of the stations are not aligned, and create a unique design for each station. Apart from that, art exhibitions are often held at the stations, mainly for children. Tourists often visit the local subway as a tourist attraction.

The Swedes started implanting the microchips even…