Confession
During the past few weeks I’ve had numerous conversations in which I’ve informed people that I’m “thinking about” moving to Sweden. In truth I should have said “planning to move” rather than “thinking about moving.” I’ve held back a little on announcing this to the world as I needed space to figure it out.

Mark is such a great cook. This afternoon he russled us up a veggie roast dinner with fairtrade Chocolate and Cherry Cheesecake for desert. mmmmmmmm.

The guide book warned us that swedes are reserved and polite but nothing prepared us for the law abiding citizens we were to meet. They wait at the traffic lights until the green man appears (or sounds his ‘tack, tack, tack, tack…’- perhaps thanking them for their patience), they don’t cycle on pavements (at least not since a recent law on the topic was introduced), and they don’t litter. Our theory was that the police there actually enforce those ‘minor’ laws that the police in the UK don’t seem to have time to enforce.

Sweden
Well I’ve finally managed to sit still in front of this little computer for long enough to tell the stories of our trip to Sveringe. It began with a journey on the Megabus, a night in Stansted Airport and a Swedish stamp in my passport (I had to ask for it).

Malmö is lovely. It’s a city in which I felt immediately at home. From the falafel shops on every street to the parks, or the bike-culture that is so much part of the city.

We took day trips to Helsinborg and Halmstad, two towns on the west coast of Sweden and on the Sunday visited Copenhagen Vineyard.

Clubbing in Sweden
There is a new law in Sweden that prohibits smoking in clubs. My first instinct towards this was, “Yes! Finally I can go clubbing and be able to breathe.” Interestingly one of the side effects of the club no longer being filled with smoke is that the body odour of those on the dance floor becomes much more apparent. I hope they figure out how to change that soon…

Falafel
Not only is there a cycling culture in Malmö, there’s also a culture of falafel which has a lot to do with the great ethnic diversity of the place. Falafels, for those of you who don’t know, are deep fried balls of chickpea served in a flat bread wrap with salad and tzatziki or feta cheese. They are delicious and cost just 15kr (£1.10).

Fika
Fika is a word for the act of eating cake and drinking coffee. We did lots of this. Jag gillar att fika.

Liquorice
I love the fact that you can go into any grocery store and get liquorice. My favourite discoveries of this trip are salty liquorice chewing gum and liquorice flavour ice cream. Delicious.

I met Martin yesterday. Martin is the International Director of Starbucks. He is responsible for all Starbucks outside the USA. I decided to ask him about graduate opportunities within Starbucks. Apparently the standard way of progressing is to start as a Barista and to work your way up…