Jag älskar Sverige! And who wouldn’t? I'm a little biased, since my wife, Susanne, is Swedish. But really, Sweden’s an easy place to love.
Yes, the winters are long, cold and dark. Stockholm gets five or six hours of daylight in winter. Above the Arctic Circle, it's frigid total darkness for a month or more. How do Swedes survive? Well, I assume some actually like winter, but I haven't met them yet. The rest seem to go into a walking hibernation mode between October and May. In between brutal winters, summer brings perfect temperatures, brilliant flowers and 20 hours of daylight. In the far north, the summer sun never sets at all!
I've yet to see Sweden during these glorious months. I enjoy visiting during winter, as the cold and snow are a nice change from swampy Houston. But I look forward to experiencing the Sweden that Susanne loves best. She tells me stories of festive summer gatherings, lush green meadows, and warm days during which soft golden sunlight lingers long into night. I can imagine spending lazy hours outside with her family and friends, eating crayfish and drinking cold beer, while the sun warms Lake Vänern and the Stockholm archipelago. Maybe by then, I'll know more than ten words of Swedish. . .
When I met Susanne's family, of course, I wanted to make a good impression. I thought, "I'll wow them by saying something clever in their language." Trouble is, I didn't know how to say anything in their language, other than "hello, no thanks." Unable to offer a coherent contribution when conversations turned Swedish, I resorted to smiling and nodding, smiling and nodding, smiling and nodding. I must have looked like a bobble-head doll. Occasionally, I'd casually interject "ja, ja" in a lame attempt to suggest that I may have understood a word that someone had just said. (I don't think I fooled anyone.)
Fortunately, Susanne's family is very understanding. They didn't ask me to eat herring (a favor for which I shall be forever grateful), and they didn't expect or need me to speak Swedish, as most of them speak excellent English. In fact, most Swedes under 55 are at least reasonably fluent, and none that I've met have that "hoo-dee, loo-dee, hoo-dee" accent made famous by the Swedish chef on The Muppet Show.
It's difficult for me not to boast about my "second home." But Sweden doesn't need my endorsement. It's a civil, peaceful, highly educated country that enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the world. It's modern (yet full of history), clean, scenic, mostly empty (about nine million people in an area the size of California), and home to a lot of excellent beers you've never tried (I especially like the one with a bumblebee on the label). Plus, it's just plain cool to have Viking ancestors.
Swedes are pretty reserved, so you won't encounter any fake hospitality there. But once you've made contact, you'll find the locals extremely friendly, welcoming and sincere. And if a bottle of snaps (Swedish schnapps) happens to appear, you're sure to learn some of their famous drinking songs in no time. I promise, you won't care that you have no idea what you're singing. Skål, Sverige!
