Reflections: A Month in Sweden

Passed it has, a month in Sweden.

From being a lazy blob of fat, to now doing almost everything by myself, is quite a drastic change I never expected. But yes, life always has its own set of perks coming at a cost.

Meeting varied people from across borders, coming from various educational and cultural backgrounds, is one of the most unique experiences of the past month. A more serious aspect of this I hope to take up in another post.

Food:

One of the biggest changes since coming here is the food. Food here is bland and lacks the various spices I am used to back in India. Though a foodie, I never tried cooking back home — here, I have no choice but to cook.

Over the month, Raghu and I have gotten much better at cooking (at least non-veg). It did take a while to find different spices and vegetables here. The best part about being a foodie and not experienced in cooking is the various combinations you get to try instead of settling for the same old menu.

Culture:

The weather here is quite different from most parts of the world. Summers have longer days, and it’s the other way round in winter — also a lot colder. I believe this to be one of the most important factors for Swedish society to have evolved such a culture. The importance given to nature is one of those things I admire here.

Importance is given not only to a job, but also equally to personal activities. I had heard of this work culture while working at Nokia Siemens, but now to experience it first hand is a totally different feeling.

Talking about culture, there is one activity that has to be mentioned: almost every year, in the months of August and September, a fair is organized over weekends. People from across the city come to sell old goods at a low price.

It wasn’t the low prices that made me like this, it was the sense everyone had about recycling stuff. If he/she did not find use for an article, instead of throwing it away they sell it to someone who finds the article useful. There was no discrimination in the people who came. Most of them came in cars :D

Travels within the city

Traveling is something I have always loved. Travels within the city have mainly been on foot. Taking a new path to college every day has made us discover more of the city than we could by looking it up on the internet and then visiting the place.

Slottsskogen: one of the biggest parks in the city, it seems to cover about 147 hectares. The park has a zoo housing birds, land, and water animals — the moose, seals, and Gotland ponies, to name a few animals unique to this part of the world, are housed here. The park is located on a hilly region, giving a complete panoramic view of the city from the top.

The park serves as a cultural meeting point. It’s at a 10-minute walk from where I live, and happens to be en route to the university.

Situated on the top is a structure that resembles a castle tower, and after a long time we finally found the route to this place. Though it is a peak, it does not provide a complete view of the city because of the tree cover along the slopes.

Botanical garden: maintained by the University of Gothenburg, the garden has a wide variety of plants and flowers, well maintained and open to all.

These were the two big named places visited — apart from this we have walked through various parts of the city, exploring and, as usual, hunting for food.

Travels on the outskirts and intercity

Outside the main Gothenburg city, we traveled to the archipelago, not very far. The ferry rides, the sea breeze, was again a totally new experience, as I come from a landlocked region in India.

So far we have visited 4 islands in the archipelago. The trip to the farthest island stays most memorable. A bigger island than the others, but it houses very few people compared to the other islands. It houses a beautiful nature reserve. As usual we explored the island on foot, hopping over boulders, crossing smaller islands connected by a line of boulders.

Far from the city, I had been to Stockholm for two days to meet relatives. Stockholm too is a very beautiful city. Though it is said to be around 500 years old, the infrastructure is brilliant. Almost the whole city is connected by rail and the service comes at a very affordable price. But as the capital, it is quite crowded.

From my experience, if Stockholm is the Mumbai of Sweden, then Gothenburg is definitely the Bangalore of Sweden.

Travels across borders

On one of our exploratory walks around this place, we happened to see a cruise ship. On some googling it turned out that this ship goes to Frederikshavn, a small port in Denmark. It was a 3-hour journey. So we set out on a one-day trip to Denmark on board a ship. It was quite a unique experience, and one I shall not forget.

Overall, this first month here was quite adventurous and fun. Did start learning quite a number of new things. Yes, there are a few things you miss out on — like today being Software Freedom Day, and if I was there, I would be giving a talk to a bunch of enthusiastic students about free software and hardware. Or the crazy work I would have done on impulse late in the night ;)