I’m planning to start my own thread about this, but I’ll ask here anyway if you don’t mind:
If an American couple had 3 weeks to spend in Sweden (he’s an urban-planning geek and she loves beautiful natural scenery), what would you recommend they see and do?
You just described Detroit for several months of the year, ya know? 
What time of the year are we talking about? The northern parts are great for hiking and scenery-watching, but I wouldn’t recommend it outside of summer unless you’re pretty hardcore. The Stockholm archipelago is beautiful in summer too if you’re into boating. There are short cruises you can take if you don’t want to do the boating yourself. Bohuslän on the west coast is very pretty; maybe you could take one of the summer cruises into Norway and back.
I’m not sure what urban-planning geeks are into, specifically, but both Stockholm and Gothenburg are beautiful cities in their places. If you like old buildings and history, you can easily find things twice the age of anything you’d see in the States.
One place I cannot recommend enough is the Wasa Museum in Stockholm. The Wasa was a huge warship that sunk on its maiden voyage in 1628. 300 years later they dredged it up, polished it up a bit, and put it in a museum. It tends to leave visitors breathless when they first see it.
I’ll see what else I can come up with. It’s hard thinking of your own tiny country in this way.
Too bad, I played a match* in Malmö stadium in 1979. You might have seen me. 
No real questions at this time. So long, and thanks for all the fish!
It was a youth exhibition before a regular club match between my team from Florida and one of the Malmö youth sides. Couldn’t tell you what level. Back then the Swedes kicked are arses. Nowadays it would probably end differently.
Hope you don’t mind another catecrasher in your thread Priceguy (nice to see you btw!).
Having lived a few years in Karlskrona I would recommend it as somewhere of interest to a city planner and a nature enthusiast. The city is on the Unesco world heritage list, and its street-layout has been unchanged since it was founded. The surrounding archipellago is really pretty and very accessible.
Nice to see you too. Welcome back.
This is a specific Priceguy question, not an **Ask the Swedish Guy **question. Did you ever end up coloring your hair? Inquiring minds want to know!
Not that time, no. The box is still in my bathroom awaiting an impulse.
How did you come across the Dope, and what made you join? The column mostly appears in local American rags.
This question could go out to any Non-Americans, actually.
Heh. You Southerners are funny.
I’m a Terry Pratchett fan, Cecil’s books were mentioned on LSpace, I ordered two books, found this place, lurked for a while and eventually signed up when I thought of a question I wanted to ask.
I’m not sure how well known this “perception” is, but being a fan of metal, it’s certainly one with which I’m familiar. To put it simply, Scandanavia is quite well known in the metal scene as being generally more accepting of metal as a whole. I remember seeing a video of a black metal band performing at either the Swedish or Norwegian Grammy Awards. I’ve also heard that some of these bands even get radio play.
So, how much more noticeable, if any, is the metal scene? Do you actually flip through TV and see some extreme metal videos on at any time not during a special “metal video” show? Do you ever tune through the radio and here death metal? Does listening to that sort of music still have a tendency to social stigmatize someone? How would you compare it’s popularity to other forms of music?
It’s certainly big. A lot bigger in Norway than in Sweden though, especially the black metal/death metal stuff (I’m not up on the terminology; I mean the guys who think they’re Satan, sing about eating babies and burn down churches in their spare time).
We don’t see metal videos on TV, mainly because there are not that many Swedish TV shows showing music videos at all, and the ones that do exist stick to tried-and-true, mainstream things. That’s my perception, anyway, but I’m not exactly a big TV watcher or a big music video consumer. As for radio, I’m sorry but I have no clue, not having listened to radio for years. I’m sure there are channels and programs playing metal.
I often see people dressed in typical metal attire - everything is ragged and tattered denim or leather, metal spikes everywhere, names of bands across the back, things like that. It’s still niche though, not what you would call mainstream.
I have a friend who is an unabashed metalhead if you want me to ask him specific questions about this.
Thanks for the ideas. We would probably be going in May or June unless there’s a good reason to go at some other time. And this will be a couple of years from now, assuming the exchange rate isn’t at 1 EUR = 1 wheelbarrow full of US dollars.
Urban planning geeks love old buildings and history, but also like to observe well-run cities – lots of transit, mixed-use neighborhoods, pedestrian malls and such. For all I know this is so common in Sweden that no one even notices, but it’s still rare in the US so I look for it when I travel.
Cheers,
E.
Priceguy, I hope you don’t mind yet another Swede muscling in on your turf.
In addition to what’s already been mentioned, I have to recommend the west coast, from Gothenburg up to Strömstad. Amazing scenery, with little fishing towns all along the coast. Quite touristy, but still very much worth a visit.
Because Sweden is a relatively small country, it is possible to see and do a lot in three weeks. Say one week Stockholm and surroundings (Uppsala is another nice city, IMO), one week Gothenburg to Strömstad and the last week Halland, Småland, Skåne and Blekinge. Depending on how much you want to travel, of course.
I could go on, but perhaps it’s better suited for your own thread.
Bored.com had a link to this place in the year 2000 (8 years ago? wow…).
Used to live in Berlin, but would take the train/ferry up to Malmo very often.
I remember going into a bookstore and being shocked that almost half of the books were in English! Is it safe to assume English is mandatory in schools there?
Your tax structure is quite odd if I recall (and I might be confusing this with Denmark) but someone told me taxes could be as high as 80% of your gross income, but it was factored in - thus if you ask someone what they earn in gross pay, you will think they are rich, but after taxes, it is probably the same pay as most Germans or Americans.
Every time we went to Sweden, we couldn’t help notice how gorgeous the people were - old and young. One friend of mine came up with a theory - perhaps you can prove or disprove it: Is it true Swedes kill ugly babies at birth?
Indeed it is, from age ten onwards.
I know that you could reach those heights once upon a time. I just spent a bit of time on the website of the Swedish IRS trying to figure this out, and near as I can tell the maximum tax is 25% plus the municipal tax which hovers somewhere between 25 and 35, depending on where you live.
Yes. We used to shoot them, but during the war rationing necessitated a switch to simple skullcrushing via heavy boot. When rationing ended, cobbler lobbyists prevented a return to the old methods.
:smack:Obviously, it’s only funny in Norway.
Lutefisk - Yea? or Nay?