Hej from Sweden!

T has decided that Sydney is simply getting too sunny and warm, so we are off to visit these people:

Yaaaaaaayyyyyy!!!!
Now, as Chris and Michelle well know, getting to Sweden from Australia is not particularly easy. We flew from Sydney > Singapore > Helskinki > Copenahgen, and then took a quick train ride to Lund. But we had a great flights and our travel time clocked in at just around 25 hours. Not so bad!

Getting to Chris and Michelle's house from the airport was easy. Easy, of course, if you know which tickets to buy, which train line to catch, which train stop to look for, how to get to the bus stop from the train station, which color bus your ticket works on, and finally, which field to request a stop at. Needless to say, we were grateful they came to pick us up at the airport! And it made me think that we had a relatively easy time getting to know our transport system: even if it doesn't have the Swedish promptness, at least it's in English!

I am only half-way joking when I say that you get off the bus at a field. That was my view from the bus, but reassuringly, I could see a little neighborhood on the other side of the road once we were off.

View from a walk in the field

But more on that later! We did enough in our first day to fill an entire post on its own, so I want to capture a few things about Sweden while they're still fresh.

One is the weather: it seems that Chris and Michelle are just pulling our leg about it being gray and cold all the time. Because it was lovely!

More from the field

I'm kidding, because the forecast is set to become much more Swedish in the next few days. But Saturday was truly perfect: it was breezy and sunny, probably in the 60s? We just needed light jackets for our outdoor adventures.

Another thing we noticed: people are not so friendly. They aren't outright hostile, but "polite" is marked on a different place on the scale here. For an easy example, when we were getting off the plane in Copenhagen, you know how usually people exit row by row? You might stand up in the aisle and get your luggage ready, but you allow the people in the row ahead of you the opportunity to leave before you start walking. Not so here! The moment the seatbelt sign was off, people were literally leaping into the aisle and running up as far to the front as they could manage! It was truly startling. T and I thought our polite Southern souls might be the very last ones to deplane, but someone took pity on us and we were fifth to last.

View from the train from the airport to Lund

The non-friendliness extends beyond planes. People don't say "excuse me." Proper procedure is to shoulder your way through with a disapproving look. Passing someone on a sidewalk? You might certainly make eye contact, but there is no reason to smile or nod your head. It's really very strange, and honestly it was a little off-putting. But Chris and Michelle warned us that it's normal behavior and that they got used to it. I guess it's all about resetting your social norms, and knowing that a stony stare from a little old lady as she knocks you to the ground isn't done out of malice.

View from the train as we crossed the Öresund Bridge

On a happier note, Chris and Michelle's house is beautiful and Swedish in all the right ways: it has tons of windows and natural light, and they've done an amazing job of making it feel modern and homey at the same time.

The cute little house!

This is the "fika room," where we are supposed to drink coffee and play games

There are remote controls for everything: all the different cool lights, the awnings outside, and maybe the heaters outside too. Toby loves it.

One important element of the house is this shoe rack by the door. Swedes never wear their shoes inside!

We are staying in a little upstairs alcove. It's a big room with its own bathroom (complete with heated floor); it stays nice and warm because it gets lots of sun. And bonus, there were chocolates on our pillows!

The Swedish style of making up a bed is very unique: there's a fitted sheet on the mattress as usual. There's no flat sheet: just two duvets folded up in half longways. So you each sleep under a duvet only, but you have complete control over it! There's no tugging or shoving to take back some cover in the middle of the night. I read about it online and it's also common to have two separate mattresses that are pushed together so each person can have their own choice of mattress. I think it's completely odd but brilliant and we might bring the trend back with us.

And the best thing about the house? This guy is in it!

Day 1 activities blog coming up soon!

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