Lifecruiser

“Swedes take the whole summer off work. They have five weeks paid leave which they usually take in July. Once a Swede was told that he only had 5 weeks to live. I’ll hope it’s in July, he said”.

“Sweden The Secret Files” by Colin Moon

So now I’ve ordered our ferry tickets to our beloved island Fårö, Gotland, outside Swedens east coast, for the summer vacation. The islands is so popular that you have to order it months in advance to get tickets.

When? In July of course!

We’ve now uploaded photos from earlier summers:

Lifecruisers Fårö Summer 2004
Lifecruisers Fårö Summer 2005

The moose is called the King of the Forest here in Sweden, but I don’t know if agree with that…

Sweden has the highest population of moose in the world, 300 000. A third of these are killed during the annual hunt. Then on the other hand, the reproduction is the fastest on the planet and the same amount of moose stalk the forests by the following autumn. Most of them (and the biggest ones) can be found in the northern Sweden, some of them with as much as 26 tynes in their crowns.

Formerly an economic necessity, the moose hunt is now more a matter of lifestyle and keeping an old tradition alive. About 250 000 of our 9 million inhabitants now have a moosehunting license and may be able to provide friends and relations with a big, juicy moose steak.

“Things Swedish” by Mari Hemming

I have eaten moose steak, but not so often. It’s good, if you forget about adding the juniper berries and stuff that makes it taste so wild.

I’ve mostly seen them on the sides of the roads, but I’ve grow up and lived all my life around Stockholm which is a city so….

When I was a teenager and was in the stables of the nearest riding school, I got really close to one female moose once. It was in the forest just at the side of the stable and I thought it was a horse that had came loose, so I went forward to catch it. She was standing there eating some leafs from a bush, partly hidden. Then she raised her head when I came closer and I saw what it was! Need I say that I backed away quickly from there…?

We have a lot of moose warning signs at the side of the roads around Sweden, despite the fact that we even have high fences to protect the car drivers from hitting any moose with their cars. That have decreased the amount of accidents.

The only problem is that the signs have become very popular among certain tourists, so they suddenly disappear mysterious….

Secret whisper: There is some questionable rumours saying that moose poo in cans is sold to tourists with great success!

OK, we have a lot of special things here in Sweden and one of them are our letters ÅÄÖ. How did we begin with these strange letters?

One official theory is that it was somehow hastily writing that caused it. From the beginning the latin script words were spelled with ae for the ä and aa for the å and oe for the ö. Then they started to write hastily a’ instead of ae and they were later evolved to the å, ä, ö.

Personally I think it all started with some one that sneezed over some scripts or maybe coughed with some nice food stuff in the mouth that landed like dots over some words and they covered it up with this story. Maybe it would have been very interesting languages all over the world if we didn’t have had typewriters or computers?

Example of some words with å, ä, ö:

Å = River, creek
Åksjuka = Motion sickness
(that’s what I always get on a boat)

Åtråvärd = Desirable
Åtfölja = Accompany
Åtlöje = Ridicule

Äcklig = Disgusting
Älskling = Darling
(Don’t confuse them with each other!)

Öl = Beer (Probably from the english Ale)
En stor stark = A big strong beer

Örfil = A smack on the ear (That’s what you get if you drink to much beer and say bad things to a swedish girl)

Öde = Deserted
Ö = Island
(Thats were you wished you were after you’ve got smacked)

Skräcködla = Translated exactly to english it says something like Horror lizard, but as an expression it’s used in Sweden to describe a really horrifying ugly woman.

If I use some bad words below, its only because I’m nice enough to give you a lesson in the swedish language, not that I use these words. I’m only doing it for you. I’m not to be hold responsible for anything I write from this point.

Our language is influenced a lot from the english and german, sometimes the exact words are used, sometimes it’s a bit changed, but still does sound or spells similar. Some examples: Man = Man, Dum = Dumb, Blond = Blond, Party = Party, Drink = Drink, Skit = Shit, Bomb = Bomb. You see, we’re a lot like you.

Then we have the english word Whore that is pronounced like the swedish word Hår, which actually means Hair. Another words that can cause some misunderstandings if they’re mixed up are the swedish word Prick which means Dot if you should translate it to english… The english word Prick translated to swedish would be Snopp.

If you hear some one talking about Bra, they’re not saying what you think they are. The swedish word Bra actually means Good. It always good with a bra anyway… Swedish people like to say things with fewer words, so we’ve shortened Bra to BH instead, BystHållare = BreastHolder.

I don’t know if I recall this story the right way, but I’ll try. An old friend of mine once were abroad and wanted to buy a new bag. She was in the store examinating the bags. They weren’t any to her satisfaction, so she wanted some help from the store staff. So she said: “This is a nice bag, but I want a lot of fack in it”. The man looked and smiled a strange smile to her and didn’t seem to understand so she repeated it. Several times. And he just smiled that disgusting smile. Then it strucked her what he must have thought that she said. F*ck. The swedish word Fack means compartment, but it sounds really bad doesn’t it…?

Did you know that The Police sometimes have “fart kontroll” here in Sweden? We have words exactly like english words, but they sometimes mean something completey different. The swedish word Fart translated to english means Speed and not Fart…

Oh, you want to know what the swedish words for fart is? No?

Well, we’re going to tell you anyway: Fis, prutt, mök, gas, rökare (which even can be smoker) and skit.

You never know when it can come in handy that you know these swedish words!

There isn’t any.

Source:
“SwedenThe Secret Files” by Colin Moon

This post is dedicated to Mr Haney at Ramblin On, because he seems to love cars so very much.

In the Thirties as many as 90% of all cars in Sweden were imported from USA. They were more suited to the rough roads here than Swedens first own car, the Volvo, launched in 1927.

Classic American cars from the Fifties and Sixties have a peculiar status in Sweden today. Throughout the long winter fanatical owners work on classic Chevrolets and Buicks with the sole aim of showing them off at summer rallies. They have become cult symbols and can be worth almost as much as a new car.

The favoured models are from 1955 to 199, preferebly a Thunderbird or a Cadillac, but even a Chevy Impala 59 with side wings appeals to the real Classic Car enthusiast. Towns now compete to organise the rallies in which thousands of old cars cruise around.

Surprisingly, Sweden is said to have the world’s largest number of well-preserved American cars!

The Swedish King maintains a great interest in motor sport: at the vintage car rally on the island of Öland The King likes to drive an old Volvo PV 60 that he received as a present on his 50th birthday. Even his uncle Prince Bertil was very interested in cars and participated in many rallys during his lifetime.

Last year we went out to watch the event called Gärdesloppet , now changed to Prince Bertil Memorial Day, in Stockholm, which has been held every year since 1922. There is a long, very, long parade with veteran cars (50 years and older) and mopeds (30 years and older) driving through town. It really is like being drawn back in time. We just love old cars and the suitable old clothes they are wearing.

Then there is a lot of other activities too out on the Djurgården. There is old racercars competing against each other in a little rally, veteran airplanes flying over, a lot of shows off and handing out prizes to the participants with the veteran cars. You can be there for many hours, there are so many stunningly beatiful cars. Even for some one not interested in cars!

This year it’s going to be held the 28th of May and we do hope that we can go there then, to take some better photos. It’s worth seing once again!

You can see our photos from last year in our Flickr folder Veteran cars 2005 .

Sources:
“Things Swedish” by Mari Hemming
royalcourt.se
gardesloppet.com

Despite the fact that Sweden is a very small country and don’t have so many inhabitants, we’ve had a lot of creative inventors. Maybe it’s the dark, cold winter that keeps us indoors thinking a lot….

Examples of Swedish creativity:

- The ship propeller (John Ericsson)
Probably to take us away from this horrible winter

- The refrigerator (Carl Munter & Baltzar von Platen)
To keep the hungry monsters like me calm

- The medicine Losec/Prilosec (AstraZeneca)
To keep hungry monsters stomach calm

- The Zip fastener (Gideon Sundbäck)
Hm…Need I say anything…?

- Scale for measuring temperature (Anders Celsius)
To measure the hungry monsters degrees before explosion

- Grouping plants with latin names (Carl Von Linné)
We do like when things is in order

- Self-aligning ball bearing (Sven Winquist)
Oooops, didn’t know they had to be aligned ;-)

- The Tetra Pak milk carton (Ruben Rausing)
We had a lot of cows here, what can I say?

- The graphic color display and the AIS (Håkan Lans)
We want to be able to see other warm places and know how to get there!

- The De Laval nozzle for steam turbines (Gustaf de Laval) Wow, didn’t know we needed more steam power

- The artificial kidney (Holger Crafoord)
Could come in handy after all the Absolut Vodka/Whisky drinking

- The three-point safety belt (Nils Ivar Bohlin)
We’re best on Rally too, yes…?

- The first implantable pacemaker (Rune Elmqvist)
We do have a lot of hearts here

- The 6 x 6 cm single-lens reflex camera (Victor Hasselblad) We like to watch ourselves on picture

- The dynamite & Gelignite (Alfred Bernhard Nobel)
We wanted to blow the whole Sweden in the air????

*Boooooom*

Sources:
“Things Swedish” by Mari Hemming
Wikipedia about Swedish Inventors

We were up late last night - or should I say morning? It was past 3 o’clock in the morning when we got in bed, but just before that, I suddenly remembered that it was the 28th of February. That meant that next day should be the 1st of March. Wasn’t it something we should do at that date?

Ahhh, yes, Mr Lifecruiser have an important doctor’s appointment then, so I reminded him about it. He was playing poker on the internet as usual and I suppose he was distracted by his playing, but he checked his Outlook calendar and yes, he had some note there about a doctor’s appointment at 1 pm. We were both looking at the computers date too and confirmed that it was the 28th of February, so the day after it would be the 1st of March…

So after some really bad sleeping hours, we managed to get there in right time before 1 o’clock, just to discover that they had not any note about him having an appointment at that time. We got to the right nursing ward, but there was no people. We begin to suspect that something really was wrong. Found a nurse that was checking up that he had an appointment the 1st of March alright, but 1.30 and told us that it’s the 28th of February today!

What could we do other from laugh at the situation…? Especially since we’ve needed the extra sleep this morning. You know how “giggly” you can be when you’re tired…

But nothing bad that hasn’t anything good to follow! The nurse suggested that we had to buy us some real Swedish treat at this time of year, that is called Semla. It’s the right day for eating semla today, so at least we would do something on the right day!

It’s a very special kind of cream cake and it demands a very special kind of technique to eat them….

Yummy!

Semla:
During Sweden’s Catholic days, Lent, the period of fasting that covers the 40 days leading up to Easter, was strictly observed. On Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent, when people needed to fill up on their fat reserves they ate semla, a bun filled with almond paste. Since the Twenties semlas are eaten with whipped cream. As innocent as a bun cake can be, this is the one that killed (!) a monarch, when in 1771 King Adolf Fredrik died of a seizure having eaten too many semla after a large meal.
Source: “Things Swedish” by Mari Hemming

Last year we decided to attend an Swedish Opera performance, since I never had been in the Swedish Royal Opera house. I have never been so keen on Opera if i should be honest, so I was a little bit worried that I would be bored or even worse: begin to giggle if they acted too seriously. We did choose one of the most popular, Carmen, to minimaze the risks.

We became interested because of the fact that our favourite Swedish King, Gustav III, was victim of a conspiracy and was assassinated during a masquerade ball held at the opera house in 1792. He was a very cultural King, very fond of Theatre and Art.

Both of us realized at once we got the idea, that we got the perfect outfit for the Opera house - our wedding clothes from the 18th century! Yes, it was a crazy idea, but hey we are crazy aren’t we? So, we put on our wedding clothes, now included wigs with proper 18th century hairfashion. Mr Lifecruiser with a very chic ponytail back and curls above the ears, me with e very high coiffure and some curls hanging down from there. The whole outfit in 18th century manner including the coats. I had to hire my coat though.

It was a little bit difficult to get in and out of the car and even to sit in the car, because my wig is very high and I have to bend down my neck or at the side a bit to fit into the car. A real procedure to come in and out without get stucked with the wig… We noticed that there was a lot of people staring at us during the drive into the city, I guess it’s not so often they see someone dressed like this today!

Then we had to park the car on a street nearby the opera house and walk the last bit. We discovered that we had no change for the parking ticket machine… So, we needed somewhere to change. The only place nearby that was open, was McDonalds. They have very big glass windows and we could see a lot of people in there - staring out on us in disbelief! I understand them, who expect to see 18th century people in the street of Stockholm today and at McDonalds of all places…. I refused to go in there actually, I didn’t want the smell of hamburgers stuck to the clothes, so we skipped it.

We got a lot of attention inside the opera house too. Every one stared at us, to be exact. Some even laughed a little, but over all it was very positive reactions. There were a lot of questions of course and one of them were repeated all the time: Were we doing some advertising for upcoming events? They couldn’t beleive that someone actually could go dressed like this in private, without any other purpose. Well, we could!

I had been a little bit worried that my high hair would be in the way for the ones that happened to sit behind me, but we got lucky, we were placed just in front of the balconys, so they was higher up and didn’t have any problems to see over my head. I didn’t giggle either, but I did have a difficult time trying not to cough! Some times I thought I should be suffocated, phew…

In the pause the staring part was continued, but also a lot of positive remarks. One even said enthusiastic that we made their visit here complete, our clothes fitted so well to this wonderful old building. And it was true, it is from the same time period as our clothes style and it’s a incredible beautiful building. It’s worth going to a performance, just to see the building.

Sorry to say, we didn’t get any good photos from there. It was very diffult with our little digital camera to get the right lights. It’s a lot of gold ornaments in there and everything is shining. We didn’t want to carry anything that was not typical to the 18th century, so the small digital camera was perfekt to hide in my little evening bag.

Will we go to the opera house again? Well, it depends on the performance, maybe if it’s something that involves Gustaf III or the 18th century.

What about the Carmen performance, did we like it? Nah, we think it was too modern…

Ha! Got you there on my subject line, didnt I? Yes, we Swedes may be fast with our zips, but that’s another story which I’m not going to tell you this time.

Since we’ve noticed that people don’t know much about Sweden (except maybe the fact that we just got a gold medal in icehockey in the Olympic Games), we’re now starting with this post and others to follow, to help you to explore some things about Sweden and the Swedes.

Did you know that the zip fastener was discovered by a Swedish man named Gideon Sundbäck in 1913? Then the idea was caught on in a big way when the US army used it to replace uniform buttons and lacing during the First World War.

Since then the zip has gone from strength to strength and is today even used in abdomen surgery on people who need more than one operation. The true zipper, and the design used today, is based on this interlocking teeth, that the Swede patented.

So, next time you’re using your zip, you’re going to think about Swedes, aren’t you…?

Source:
“Things Swedish” by Mari Hemming
Wikipedia about Zipper