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Aside living abroad I also like short visits. Many of my trips have been made without a camera, but a few places can receive visual praise, with a little written detail too.
I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Sweden in March 2008. Not the best planned of trips, but one that allowed me to take in a few of the major towns, including the capital, Stockholm.
What strikes you about Sweden is the orderliness. The way that everything runs on time, a contrast I found even more stark having gone there from Egypt. It’s clean and respectful, well organised and basically pretty friendly. But it’s so expensive, face it, an Egyptian salary doesn’t got very far in most places so certainly not in Sweden, where things seemed to be about twice the price you’d pay in London. A few things were cheaper, let’s not forget British prices earned us a reputation of rip-off Britain once-upon-a-time, perhaps deserved at the time but well outdated now. Sweden might well not want to inherit the title, but it’d have a job to convince me otherwise.
 

Somewhere in Stockholm


 

Norkoping


 

Near Linkoping


In between scraping pennies together to pay for meagre sustinence, I managed to get to a few places which demonstrated how careful planning and hard work result in a neat infrastructure, clean streets and well-behaved people (from what I saw). I was told you could be fined for crossing the street against a red man. I suppose technically in England it’s illegal too but there common sense comes into play. The police in Sweden were described to me as being a bit over-zealous at times. I can’t say, I didn’t meet any.
 

Stockholm


 

Near Linkoping


Having travelled to Sweden from Egypt I was amazed by the contrast. I suppose this sounds disprespectful to Egypt, but in some ways it isn’t. I think a little disorder and chaos can add character to a place. Sweden has a lot going for it, but perhaps excitement is not one of them. Respect where it’s due though, I’d probably live there, for a few months, given the chance.
 

Near Stockholm


 

A shop in Stockholm sells crystals this big!


 

I think this is Norkoping