I walked behind a bus, waited until the engine roar and inhaled a deep breath. I turned to Jarda and said: “Honey, you’re right. It doesn’t smell at all.” My boyfriend told me how Sweden was environment-friendly. Their vehicles didn’t produce the stuff which turned the sky black and your face red coughing everything out. Buses’ emission didn’t pollute the environment as confirmed by my mini experiment. But come all the way to Sweden and smell the bus? Well, Whenever I visited Scandinavia, I somehow got bored and did strange things.
It took some walking moment to adjust to the discovery. I came from the country where people turned into Ninja of various kinds for covering up their faces while driving on the street, where I used to eat coagulated pig’s blood routinely to cleanse my lungs from smog. Don’t go there. I know what you’re thinking. Before saying ‘ew’ and passing down judgment, read this: “Coagulated pig blood is an ideal food to eliminate toxins, clean intestines, nourish blood and beautify skin. The plasma protein contained in coagulated pig blood can be decomposed by the gastric acid in the body to produce a special resolvent which can remove toxins from the human body. What’s more, eating coagulated pig blood can effectively alleviate anemia for people.” [source].
Sweden is one of the elites among the world’s riches. Like their neighbors Norway, Finland and Denmark, it ranks high on everything, yet you often hear people associate Sweden with suicide. (I’m not sure why since Sweden didn’t top the world suicide rate in the past few years.) It’s a cliche, but many claim it on the shitty weather which I have to agree. Thus don’t expect to buy booze here whenever your heart desires. I learned a hard lesson after frantically searching for booze for my host at a supermarket. In a very liberal country, you can not find alcohol after a certain hour in the evening. I came from the Czech Republic, so this was difficult to take in. This is an attempt to stop less-cheerful people from drinking way too much and end up throwing themselves in front of the trains.
Sweden has much more to offer than smog-free vehicles and suicides. If you visit Copenhagen, consider taking a 20-minute train ride to Malmo, a city in the south of Sweden, enjoy similar culture for a portion of the prices. Malmo belongs to one of the poorest regions in Sweden while Copenhagen is the capital of a very expensive country. Danes must really love Swedes otherwise, how can you explain that they let Swedes operate both old and new nuclear reactors in Malmo, just 50 km away from its capital. One misdeed and Copenhagen turned to dust.
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I'm a motivation explorer, personality type hacker, behavioral investigator and storyteller. I help startup founders, entrepreneurs, and corporate managers to understand themselves, the people they manage and how to get the best of their people. Specialty is in psychological personality types and brain-based methods. When I don't do the above, I hop around planet Earth with TravelJo.com to learn the Art and Science of people from everywhere and to give you all the free travel and tips and advice in many cool destinations.
My name is Cindy, also rhymes with travel junkie. A friend said I was probably a gipsy in my previous life. One of my many secret missions in life is to convert you to run off every once in awhile.
