Sharon's
Personal Pages
Sweden
http://www.stoinfo.se/ http://www.sunet/se.map.sweden.html
Contents
* Introduction * Places *Churches * Shops * Videos * TV *
* Books * Music * Food * Misc*
Introduction
Our Year in Sweden - Året
i Sverige
Hej! Vi har nyss kommit hem till
England efter att ha bott i Stockholm, Sverige, ett år
We have just recently returned to
England from living in Stockholm, Sweden for just over
a year as part of my BA in Scandinavian Studies at UCL, London.
The following represent some of the
things we most enjoyed about living there and which hopefully
might give you a taste for Sweden and all things Swedish!
I'm sorry there aren't many links so
far, but I hope to add links to all of the items listed!
Back to Contents
PLACES
- Gothenburg
- We originally went by ferry as we decided to take our
car, and we stayed at a lovely hotel here called...?
- Stockholm
- This is where we were for the most part.
- Hjorthagen
- This is the part of Stockholm where we lived. It's on
an island called Norra Djurgarden just above Ostermalm
- Lidingo
- We spent a lot of time here because it was the
next island along from Norra Djurgarden, and there was a
lovely shopping centre with a fantastic library:
- Lidingo
library (bibliotek) One of my favourite things -
this is the only library I know of which has a coffee
shop in it! Also, you could book an hour on the internet
for free, believe it or not!
- Karlaplan
- there is a lovely indoor shopping centre
(mall?) here. (Somebody told me that the Swedish for mall
is galleria, but I don't know...)
- Ostermalms
bibliotek - this is within the Karlaplan
shopping centre. Not as nice as Lidingo, but still a good
library.
- Kista
Centrum - Another shopping centre. This was a
long way from 'home', but Mark's work was here so we
visited a few times.
- Stockholm
University - This was where I was studying, at
the Institutionen for Nordiska Sprak
It's quite a nice campus, but I didn't really get
involved with the social life too much as I had to rush
home to be mum!
- Mora
- I have some friends up here which we visited
in June (and there was still snow!)
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CHURCHES
- Elim
- this is a Baptist Church near Karlaplan in
Stockholm, which is where I ended up going most of the
time. They have a coffee shop and are involved with a
Christian Radio Station, Radio Aqua, I think.
- Vasakaren
- The Salvation Army (Fralsningsarmen) - I went to this
church first as I have Salvation Army contacts. It was
really lovely, and they have a fantastic gospel choir,
but it was a little too far away in
"Vasastaden".
- Svenska
Kyrkan i Hjorthagen - This was actually our
nearest church, but we only went there once: for Lucia
(Tommy dressed as a jultomte!)
- Svenska
Kyrkan i London - This is a great place in
London for meeting Swedes and other people who are
learning Swedish or interested in Sweden. They have all
sorts of events like coffee evenings (mostly not
religious!) They also run a Swedish school, and have a
free newsletter.
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SHOPS
- Myrorna
- This is a Salvation Army Second-hand furniture
charity shop. Our 'student' apartment had no furniture/
curtains/ carpets/ lights (etc.) so we used this place a
lot!
- UFF
- another favourite charity shop!
- Konsum
- This is mainly where we got our food. I can't
say that the food was anything to write home about, but
the staff were really friendly and polite (they don't
serve you until "hello"'s have been exchanged!)
- Prix
Xtra - cheaper food shop
- Åhléns
(pronounced a little like Orleans!) We spent a
lot of money in here. It's a really nice Department
Store. There are others (like Nordiska Komaniet) but this
was our favourite.
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VIDEOS WE BOUGHT...
- Madicken
- This is a really lovely video about two sisters and
their adventures
- Alla
vi barn i Bullerbyn - adventures of the children
in the village where the author grew up
- Pippi
Langstrum pa de sju haven - Pippi is a Swedish
child superhero(ine)! Tommy wants to be
Pippi! (Actually, at nursery, they used to dress all the
children up like Pippi, maybe that's why?!)
- Emil
- This is my favourite. It's about a sweet little boy who
is always getting into terrible scrapes & into
trouble with his father. He escapes into a kind of shed
& locks himself in & carves little men out of
wood! (This happens a lot!)
- Saltkrakan
- This is another lovely one about some families who live
on an island seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
...and some we would like to
buy:
- Star
Wars Trilogy (Stjarnornas Krig) with Swedish
subtitles
- Ogifta
Parr - I never actually made it to the cinema to
see this, but all my friends were raving about it &
it looked really funny in the trailer.
- There is
a whole load of old (70's?) Swedish films with a group of
comedians whose name I can't remember. I know in a couple
of them they're bank-robbers... anybody know what I'm
talking about?
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TV PROGRAMMES
- Boll
i Bompa - This was Channel 1's (SVT1) version of
Children's TV. It has a great catchy theme tune. I wrote
& asked to buy it on tape but they weren't very
helpful...
- Kosmos
och Kattis - This is the other side's (Kanal 4)
Children's TV. Funnily enough, I got the same response
when I asked to buy videos/ tapes/ posters...
- Broderna
Fluff - This was SO funny. You don't need to
understand a word of Swedish. It's kind of like a skit on
the whole 70's thang...Somebody record it for us!!!
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BOOKS/ MAGAZINES
I actually
read loads of books while we were in Sweden (as well as before
& since) but these remain my favourites:
- Rode
Orm by Frans G Bengtsson. This is quite old,
complicated Swedish (which is one of the things I
particularly like about it, and the following book) but
it's a fantastic adventure story. I know that it is
definitely available in English (called "The Long
Ships")
- Jerusalem
by Selma Lagerlof. This is a fantastic tale about a group
of Swedish Christians who follow a kind of cult figure
preacher & move to Jerusalem. It's ever so sad, but
it has a great ending! (My favourite kind!)
- Nils
Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige. A
wonderful tale about a boy who travels round Sweden on
the back of a goose! We would really like to get hold of
a modern illustrated copy of this:-
Har du möjligen ett exemplar på
"Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige"
(helst på svenska)? Vi vill gärna köpa den!
- Broderna
Lejonhjarta by Astrid Lindgren. This is the
first book I read in Swedish. It's actually a children's
story so it's simple enough to read as you learn (it
might be translated into English, I'm not sure), but it's
ever so sad!
- Bamse
- this is a great comic about a kind of Swedish Superted!
It's a bit too advanced for Tommy, but I actually used it
years ago to teach myself Swedish - I'd recommend it!
- Inte
Utan Min Dotter - This is actually (bizarrely)
an American English book translated into Swedish, but I
just happened to read it in Swedish and really enjoyed
it, so...
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MUSIC
- Abba
(of course) If anybody has any Abba in Swedish I'd be
interested! I also like Bjorn Again!
- Black
Ingvars - "Sjung och Var Glad": If you
ever doubted the Swedes had a sense of humour, let this
album change your mind! This is a heavy metal band who
play Swedish nursery rhymes and the like. Obviously, it
really helps if you speak Swedish!
- Hedningarna
- a Swedish/Finnish folk/rock band
- Bergtagen
- If you like Hedningarna, this compilation
album of rocky folk-music is for you!
- Gyllene
Tider - "Halmstads Parlor" - This is a
really classic Swedish pop album from Per Gessle (of
Roxette fame)'s former band.
- Nicholas
Stromstedt - "Om!" This is a sometimes
rocky sometimes mellow pop album which a friend lent me
years ago & which I managed to get hold of while we
were in Sweden.
- Astrids
Basta - Astrid Lindgren is like THE Swedish
children's writer, virtually all her books have been made
into films and they all have these great tunes which have
been virtually adopted as nursery rhymes.
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SWEDISH FOOD
- Clock
- this is the Swedish version of Mc...(shush, you know
who). We think it's much better. They give away cool
toys! Although we can't deny frequenting the other place!
- Sandys
Subs - This is one thing I really miss! Of
course it's based on the American submarine style
sandwich shop model, but there was something particularly
Swedish about it! They did some great free children's
toys too - we were collecting a wooden train set, but
missed the last piece...
- You can
order Swedish food here in England from sverige-shoppen.com
There are also some great (although expensive) Swedish
restaurants around... links to follow
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MISCELLANEOUS
- Ericsson
- Just as my grant money completely ran out, Mark
miraculously managed to get a great job at Ericsson
Components in Kista!
- Hjorthagens
Forskola - This was our local (Swedish-speaking)
nursery. This was probably just about the best thing that
ever happened to us during the whole time in Sweden: our
apartment was right opposite the nursery and we managed
to get a place for Tommy within 2 weeks of arriving in
Sweden. He absolutely loved it, and we made loads of
friends there.
- Vaxholms
Batar - The last month we spent in Sweden, we
rented an apartment on the lovely island of Lidingo and
Mark had to travel in to Kista which is the other side of
Stockholm, but it was really lovely travelling by boat
between the islands!
- I must
also mention Scandinavian Seaways and Ryanair
since we used both to go to and fro several
times, and both companies were really great.
- Vartan
- We were lucky enough to have a third floor apartment
looking out onto a sports ground where the local football
team played. We're not usually football fans, but we did
get into the spirit of it all since we felt they were
truly local! (We even went to a couple of games!)
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littlebears@tesco.net
This page
is under construction
Please be
patient ~ I am looking for links
Recommendations for links to any of these places,
or for good Swedish-themed sites most welcome!
Sharon
Mortemore
Last revised: 03 April, 1999.