Swede dreams: How Sweden is embracing its sleepy side
bbc.com
bbc.com
However what is not mentioned is that "summer homes" are quite common in Sweden, usually a little cabin somewhere further out from the city that a person or family owns.
In my case my girlfriends family shares a house on the coast in Smålland, which even has functioning power and water (rare among these types of vacation homes).
I think being able to get away from the noise of the city makes city living significantly more tolerable, I nearly lost my mind when I lived in London for 4 years because anywhere remotely affordable was just loud, and you always felt like you were under someones feet.
Taking time away from the noise to get a proper uninterrupted nights rest makes a lot of sense, but I think you also need the reprieve of having personal space. Not that any city in Sweden is even remotely close to the noise levels or population density of a city like London, especially in the parts I could afford to live.
This article feels a little bit like lifestyle porn, in that very few people are actually doing this, and it sounds exotic ("just like the scandinavians!") but the reality is actually better than what's depicted and less 1-dimensional.
That's probably because the author of the article just made it up after watching a handful of instagram reels or something.
I had a look at the hotel she mentioned, and found absolutely no trace of cabin rental in the woods on their website..
Company did a company event in the Stockholm archipelago with sauna and dipping into the cold water. Sure it was fun but like, I wouldn't be able to endure it more than one night without a proper toilet and shower.
I can appreciate cozy and isolated places, but lack of power and plumbing is not cozy.
It’s just in the Scandinavian culture.
It might help to consider the ”friendly but anti social” culture that exists in Sweden as it goes hand in hand with it. Swedish people often call the country: ”the country that is not too much or too little” (landet lagom) with pride. It is quite amusing how different the culture is.
But as with all countries, globalism will eat every culture and strip it of identity and replace it with the strive towards owning a jet plane.
I lived in a late 19th century building for 4,5 years as a student, and the sound of the steps in the apartment above me also drove me insane sometimes. Every apartment I rented after that was always on the top floor. Much higher quality of living.
I've never lived in any dwelling that old, but the issues I've noticed is sound traveling through the reinforced concrete walls. I'm hearing my two-floors-up-neighbor's footsteps, and I can hear him relieving himself at night. Since his floor isn't my ceiling, why would that noise only travel down? I can also hear some neighbor's kid speak loudly at times, and we also don't share any wall.
I don't think these noises come through the window, since mine are new and double-paned. Opening or closing a window doesn't change how I perceive these noises.
This is the issue I have with living in cities: there's noise everywhere, and you can't get a break even at home. I know there are new standards for noise insulation, and it is possible to build quiet apartments. But this requires new construction, and we all know how often that happens in the big cities.
People are not globally aware enough to seperate Norway, Denmark and Sweden into seperate societies. So it's easy to confuse/combine the Danish "Hygge" (meaning: Cozy), Norways wealth, and Swedens generous social systems (especially as they relate to summer vacations and parental leave/rights).
As such, Scandinavia (where Sweden is for some reason the most popular stand-in name for Scandinavia - probably because it used to dominate the region) is seen as a mythical place where everyone is happy, wealthy and that the lifestyles are cozy.
Yes, there's some marketing in that, just like there's marketing in the idea that the US is free when it's ranks pretty poorly in freedom globally, or that the UK is a world power, when in reality it's about as globally important at this point as South Korea or South Africa (which, is not an insult as they are medium powers on the world stage and not insignificant).
Remember, companies operating globally from any given country will lean in to what they think that country is known for. You can see it a lot with "Swiss-Made" products, especially privacy products, when in reality there aren't any decent privacy laws in Switzerland- people just remember the banking sector permitting numbered accounts because they saw it in media. -- so these things get reinforced over time, by products marketing themselves as "Scandinavian" and then presenting a lifestyle in advertising.
If you're a (non-wealthy) student from the US, it's easy to see how you'd get that impression based on what its like to be that person in both countries.
In Sweden, you study full time, live decently and optionally have one job that you do spare time to reduce your future debt that most likely won't be a problem given that it's a (compared the US) small amount of money and you're able to pay it back relatively easily.
What I've heard from a total of 3 students from different parts of that states are some variation of: "Outside of my (full time) studies I juggle 2-3 part time jobs, barely making rent and the mountain of debt that awaits me is giving me crippling anxiety".
Of course living here is not without its struggles. We, just like the rest of the world, struggle with insane housing costs, stagnant wages for working class people, our food prices are several times higher than in the US despite us making way less etc.
If there's one thing I and other Scandinavians always seem to agree on, it's that Scandinavia sucks less for just living your everyday life in, compared to most other countries. Especially true with typical vacation destinations such as the ones in your examples.
And the truth it's the Southern Spain and the islands are full of Brits and Germans.
Per capita there are a lot of Nordics in southern Spain and Canarias.
And this carries over to almost everything, healthcare, education, job opportunities, entrepreneurism. Not quite the best at anything, but somehow average to very good at everything.
If this "complaining" attitude wasn't a thing you wouldn't be seeing right-leaning political parties rising here. Maybe it is this attitude that keeps the services and institutions working well? I don't know.
I remember a former coworker who complained so much about everything Swedish (from culture, to weather, to people, to institutions, to government). He travelled quite a lot but only ever stayed in the big centers or touristy places. He got enamored with China and thought things were so much better there in every respect compared to Sweden, he took a few months off to live there (considering moving permanently) and came back completely disillusioned. Classic case of only seeing the good parts of other places.
One thing that he actually complained about that quite surprised me was that the trains in China were overcrowded and people were rude in public transport. That was like the one thing I thought China was better than Sweden (because of their overbuilt infrastructure).
Another one that happens a lot when I tell stories about my home country ends up with me saying "what trains? There are no trains!"
Seeking out solitude is an ancient style of holidaying coming back into vogue. From an economic perspective, I'd argue it's better bang for one's buck than many resort-style options. (I'll also readily admit that one of the bigger pay-offs of summer backpacking is falling asleep under the stars.)
Exactly. I'm on holiday to relax, enjoy myself, and, if so inclined, discover something new. I'm not there to tick off a check-list at breathtaking speed, to add more stress to my system..
Swedes in FTE are entitled to 25 days holiday. https://www.government.se/contentassets/eaf3467d4f484c9fb727...
Buy not only that, you are entitled to 4 consecutive weeks during the summer months.
Having 4 (or more) weeks off during summer is the norm in Sweden.
So the question is rarely about if you're gonna be off, but rather how you're going to spend that time.
Usually around June/July there's very few people working at most places, some restaurants are closed, etc. At one employer it'd be around 10-15% of us around during summer.
I actually prefer to work during this time, much slower pace, time to get into projects that couldn't be planned for. At max I like taking a week off and saving the rest of my vacation days for end of September when the weather starts to get cold.
I don't really understand why some prefer to travel outside of Sweden in June/July/August since those are the best months to be around (and it's high tourism season anywhere else in Europe).
I live in a part of Canada where the summer months are the best months to be here. I used to spend lots of the summer here and travel mostly during less pleasant parts of the year until I had kids. Now they’re out of school for the summer so that’s when we travel… especially to see aunts and uncles who have kids, who are also not in school and thus available to spend time with us when wee visit.
With most office jobs it is pretty free. But when it comes to factories or mandatory services the employer can absolutely ensure that there is enough workers.
Lots of restaurants in that mainly cater to lunch guests close for at least a few weeks during those months, since 90+% of their customer base are away and they get very few tourists.
The article reminds me of those you read about Japan. You take some random Japanese word like "bisekatahori" and make it into a thing: Here is why the Japanese love bisekatahori. Everyone in the West should do bisekatahori too. Studies have found bisekatahori good for you.
See, and I do not consider doing "normal" tourist things, spending days on the beach or whatever a lot of people consider a great experience. Vacation for me is usually action (bike rides, hiking e.g.) or relaxing and doing as few things as possible, possibly in a quiet environment
I bought a house in Nyland [1] a few years ago and now I'm turning it into a place to retreat to for focus time / being close to nature.
If someone is interested in sharing the space over a longer period of time (as I'm not living in Sweden), hit me up (email on my profile)
/ Swedish Person
Wherever you are living, you usually don't have to go very far to rent a house or cabin in a quiet place.
A colleague worked in Sweden as a software engineer for few years. He said they all had pillows on their desks. They could freely take a nap on those pillows on their desks.
Is that also common in Sweden?
We do however have a law that workplaces must have some kind of resting area. In my former workplace we had a room with sofas, which sometimes people were napping in.
Also, if you're gonna mention the only city in Sweden which has a distinct name in English, please spell Gothenburg [1] correctly. Since the article already used Swedish national characters, Göteborg would have worked too I guess.
See comment above explaining more.
Add to that the stress of travelling itself (airports, reservations and whatnot), this seems like a self-defeating idea to me.