Travrel in Scandinavia

Uppsala's a nice college town. I've wandered much of it afoot & enjoyed it. I'd recommend asking a local about furniture once you get there. Swedes don't have a lot of yard sales, but maybe there are second-hand furniture stores around.

Sweden is ahead of America on the technological front. They are as high-tech crazy as the Japanese. You name it, they'll buy a gadget to do it for them.

They generally ask you to enter a PIN when you use a credit card. In the rest of the world, I slide my card, or they slide it, I sign and I'm done. In Sweden they'll often have you enter your PIN as if it's a debit card.

They use a different video format from us, so American DVDs & video tapes may not play there, and there's the difference in voltage to contend with. You probably know all this already.

Sweden is an easy place to live, with more things the same than different. I do, however, hope your daughter likes fish. A few years ago I was at a Swedish home for Christmas and they served fish-flavored beets, fish-flavored eggs, fish-flavored bread, and fish-flavored mayonnaise. After lunch they pulled out a big round can, like a tuna can only much larger, wrapped it in a towel, and took it out in the yard to open it. The towel was to keep it from spewing on them, as it was under a lot of pressure. Turns out it was rotten raw fish, a traditional Swedish delicacy. Later I noticed their dog rolling in the grass where the can spewed!

Sweden is one of the few places in the world where I'm not wild about the food. I love the meatballs, and buttered hard bread and cheese. I could do without most of the other traditional Swedish foods.

But, perhaps due to their Viking roots, Swedes are very good at finding good food in their travels and introducing it at home. For example, everywhere in Sweden has great Italian-style pizza, gyros, and kebabs. Swedes love to vacation in Thailand (it's cheap there) and there are lots of good Thai restaurants around the country as a result.

Thank you for your suggestions. Meridee

Actually, IKEA probably is the best place to buy furniture for a student. When I lived in Sweden, I bought a lot of things at Ikea. However, avoid going to Ikea the weekend following the 25th of the month. Virtually everyone in Sweden is paid on the 25th and the stores are jam packed the weekend after payday. The bars and restaurants are also busy the weekend after payday.

When you enter someone's house or apartment, you take off your shoes. There will be a shoe rack by the door just after you enter. When you go to a party, there can be 50 pairs of shoes in the hallway while everyone stands around in their stocking feet. It seems quite normal after you have been there a while.

The laundry system (and machines) are a little different. Not sure how it works in a university, but in most apartment buildings, there is a board in the laundry room where you reserve a timeslot to do your laundry. When that time comes, you have exclusive use of the machines that you have reserved. She should ask one of her fellow students how this works.

Good shoes are helpful in the winter. They sprinkle sand and small rocks on the walkways in the winter when they ice up. I wore lightweight hiking boots a lot in the winter.

If you want a bag in a grocery store, you usually pay extra for it. The clerk will generally ask, but sometimes you need to tell the clerk.

There are so many other little cultural things that she will learn after she gets there. That is part of the fun.

I'm sure that she will have a wonderful time. Sweden is a terrific place to live (despite the fact that it is very dark in the winter).

Thank you for your helpful suggestion, which along with the suggestions from Patrick, will go along way to making my daughter's stay a good one. Meridee Faber