Americans' Impressions of SWEDEN! 

Yeah, that was a dumb statement.

took me a while to realize the large amount of Swedish music when i first got into music

A lot of music is, but not "most".

@@flawmore when talking pop, yea its most... atleast on the bill boards. According to a research from 2015 (i think) almost every song on the top ten list over like 5 years were written by only 4 different people... 3 of which were Swedes. Note that theyre not all *preformed* by Swedes but written and produced, Max Martin was topping the list with a fair margin back then, being the writer and composer behind several songs by Katy Perry, Rhianna and Taylor Swift among others and doubt it have shifted much since.

I think you totally could pass for ethnic Swedes by the way you look also, so that is probably a big part why everyone speaks Swedish, i certainly would not knowing where you are from. And also as you noted, there are alot of people living in Sweden of different heritage, so even if you think they may look foreign they may even have been born here in Sweden.

@@thatdiycouple5513 Yes, I work in a café and can tell instantly if you're a tourist or not but I will always greet you in Swedish because if it turns out I was wrong that would have been quite rude of me to assume you're not from here just because you look different

i dont know if you swedish or english. but in the city i live in with has 10K ppl we have 6 pizza chains and we have 1 mcdonalds 1 max 5 gasstations with a store innit. My familly eats home made food everyday. So ppl dont really eat out but there is a lot of fast food resturants.

6 Pizza Chains and 1 mcdonalds aint that much actully for 10k ppl. it kinda sounds like the ammount of fast food options in my "kommun" aswell except no mcdonalds avaible, but instead a Subway resturant, it lives 32 000 people here and maybe 1 more pizza place then you have, and semi close to stockholm 30-40min with car. Last time and the times before I'v visited the states (I'v only visited the north east coast, New York, Pensylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware since thats where I know folks) I was really suprised by the ammount of fast food chains around, in towns with around 10-20k ppl there was still like 20+ big fastfood chains equal to mcdonalds so to say. I'm talking: Mc.Donalds Arbys KFC Pizza Hut Taco bell Wendys Burger King Subway Dominos Sonic Dairy queen Carl's Jr. Dunkin Donut and the list goes on, and I havn't even mentioned stuff like starbucks and convinient stores, Gasstations with stores and so on that are so many more avaible aswell compared to here. ontop of that they still have a few non chain fastfood places too like pizza places and so on just like we do too. Basically it's 2-3 times as many fastfood places avaible there then here compared to residents in an area, and each of those places are alot bigger aswell with their own big parking lots and holding lots of more customers, and usually lots of more people in them then some of the pretty small pizza places around here where I live atleast that has seating for perhaps 15 people at max, and fairly emty most of the time and have a hard time staying in buissnis even with so little competition. What I feel we might even have slightly more off even in the smaller towns are more genuine resturants that aren't Fastfood, we might even have more of those around here in sweden compared to residents per town, BUT it's not still that many. But I have to say I had great times visiting the states and people were very friendly :) Have a good day btw or great even! :)

yes I live in a small Swedish town that is covered with restaurants and i have no clue how they survive while most other stores seems to close down. there's also a fair amount of hairdressers/barbers.

A late comment; if you take lunch on weekdays it is very cheap ( 90-100 SEK)/ 10 USD , the same meal is at least doubled in in price as dinner in the evening

They got ”Swedenized” ❤️

@@thatdiycouple5513 I believe Norman French are more Danes. Wilhelm the conqueror that invaded England 1066 was Norman French with a Danish Viking as a grandfather.

@@thatdiycouple5513 since the Vikings invaded both England and Ireland you might be more Viking than you think.

​@@reineh3477 That's very much true I live 50km from one of the earliest known Viking settlements, in North Ireland. Ah yes, we Irish typical pale skin, medium brown hair with blue eyes and over 350,000 redheads! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse%E2%80%93Gaels#Ireland

No the opposite. Sit next to someone in the bus even if it's plenty of space elsewhere in the bus

The trators In Swedish politics and media says there is no Swedish culture, everything has come from other countries. One of many of them Mona Sahlin, and another Fredrik Reinfeldt (white African roots).

@@Sancto58 what on earth are you on, why do you bring up politicians who are long out of the game, why do you bring up some nonsensical idea of ethnic heritage for them, and why do you reply to three year old comments ?

@@95spades Politicians long out of the game!? What are YOU on!? They, those two I mentioned, might not be in the spotlight anymore, but they are still alive and kicking on THE SWEDISH PEOPLE in one way or the other. And there are THOUSANDS like them, and even more useful idiots like you, if you are Swedish I have also got answers on some old comments, even older than three years "Internet never forgets " You think this nice couple have changed their mind and waken up, I don't believe so, I am sure they are woke, and support BLM, if not by kneeling for them as the "ladies" in the Swedish football team/soccer team and female Swedish police.

The other reason for it is that we don't really have a lot of tourists compared to other countries

För konung och fosterland har någon sagt det eller? jag sa afrikanskt ursprung inte nuvarande afrikan då är man ju uppenbarligen afrikan såvida man inte har multipla medborgarskap.

Thaleya1 En afrikan med ett svenskt medborgarskap får inte europeiska gener helt plöstligt och vit hy.

det är skillnad på att ha europeiska gener och att ha svenskt medborgarskap, inte desto mindre kallar vi en person med t.ex. afrikanskt ursprung som är född och uppvuxen i Sverige för svensk (då denne är svensk i sättet och snarare afrikan till utseendet) och behandlar dem likaså. I exempelvis USA har man anammat ett annat sätt, genom att kalla sig själva för african-american, latin-american osv även om personen i fråga har levt i usa med en familjehistoria på flera generationer bak. Där har man snarare gjort så för att bevara känslan av vart man har sina rötter eftersom de självklart är amerikanare mer än de är afrikanare eller mexikanare.

För konung och fosterland nej självklart inte. Har någon sagt det eller? allvarligt talat skärp dig du skämmer ut dig själv!

diminished Yeah, but with far higher salaries we can afford it...

As Arne said, Norway has higher salaries on average. Also, the Norwegian Krona is about 10% stronger than the Swedish Krona. I'm Swedish and have traveled to Norway before, and it's a lot more expensive compared to here. Sweden does have about a 10% higher Local Purchasing Power Index than Norway, so things are generally more expensive in relation to what you earn in Norway. All of these factors added together makes it pretty damn expensive for us Swedes. Just the exchange rate and decreased purchasing power in Norway adds up to at least a 20% increase in prices compared to what us Swedes are used to. :)

In some places there are shopping centers on the Swedish side of the border, even though there are several kilometers from Swedish settlements. Basically for the Norwegians. Interesting phenomenon.

Stockholm is expensive.... if you go to a smaller city or a town...you should see a different aboug the prices.

I agree with everything Vinyl said. Also want to add that tipping in Sweden is fairly uncommon, or at least it's a lot less than the tipping when in the US. If I eat for 245 kr, I would maybe round that up to 250 kr unless I'm EXTREMELY satisfied and both the service and food was out of this world :)

The prices are higher due to higher salary and tax costs than in the states for the restauranteers. If the restaurants has collective agreements with the trade unions, then their employees has some decent basic rights and insurance. The restaurants, companies and people in general pay high taxes. Which is needed to finance the education, healthcare, infrastructure, pensions and such. Some restaurants and their employees in Stockholm where a lot of tourists from America and the UK, might expect tips as they normally receive that from tourists. But generally it's not that common in Sweden, even though it might be changing. As we have owned restaurants within the family and myself have helped out my parents during my youth sometimes, I do appreciate the work that great staffs provide and I normally tip when eating dinner. Normally never during a lunch as Vinyl mentioned, as it's not expected at the majority of places and becomes like a hassle for employees. At lunch the restaurants want to have an high flow of customers entering the restaurants, eating and leaving as effectively as possible. Often it's self service is some way or form, or waiters coming out with the food to your table. But then you probably had to order yourself at the counter and not been greeted by a server at your table to take your orders.

Thanks, you're welcome. I did enjoy the video, you guys really seem to be lovely couple and hopefully we will see you return during the summer. :) FYI: I added a couple of more sentences at the end of my previous comment. Best regards.

Losing Weight, Ripping Vinyl It depends. Not all people live in huge cities like Stockholm. My parents work in the city and bring a lunch box to work

That DIY Couple When you're a tourist, you can. Otherwise you'd have use different discounts

Except for this summer (2018), 86 to 88 in almost the entire country for two months, and no rain.

Ana Mira,???🤔! I have no idea of what that "Swedish stare" is about. I have lived in the Stockholm area for over 50 years, and in a small town in western Sweden a few years. I have never felt "measured" when entering a restaurant or bus or anything other situation. I think it's a natural thing to give a glance at who /what comes in, but stare? Nordic ice blue intense eyes😂?

That DIY Couple Thank you for an interesting view of us and our country 😊

to be fair 250 isnt really a Fancy restaurant but a mediocre restaurant unless you compare them to cheap lunch buffes or fast food restaurant

Well, thank you for your kind words

That's a *little* tongue in cheek* but yeah, sure :-P Sweden is a lot more urbanized (and cosmopolitan) then we are across the border in Norway.

There's lots of nice places. But honestly if you truly want to explore a country that's all about the nature and that unlike the US actually has freedom to roam: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam I'd suggest something like renting a camping vagon or camping car (is that the right word?) or some such and travel the country on your own with a bit of time to spare. You can buy food fairly cheaply from grocery stores and cook it in your car or vagon, you can bring a tent to go somewhere a bit further from the road etc. Also, if you're going to Norway make sure you do so a year when the sun is approaching solar maximum so you can get the northern lights. If you rent one from a private citizen whose car would just be sitting there unused otherwise you might actually get a pretty decent price on it so that would cover your need for a roof over your head. The prices might be better in Sweden, but here's a website where you might find some private "camping cars": bobilportal.no/ Sorry, it's just in Norwegian, but with google translate you might be able to get by using it. As for places... Hum, you might like small places with old traditional buildings like Kragerø and numerous other places along the coast. If you're interested in the Hansea trade go to Bergen, the second biggest city in Norway and a Hansea city. Preacher's Pulpit is kind of a must for anyone visiting Norway of course, and honestly most of the coastline in that region is just lovely in summer well worth a visit. If you're not going to go camping taking the train from Oslo to Bergen gives you quite a view. You can look up that route on youtube and see pretty much all of it if you want. Other then that you can always just sail along the coastline with ships like "Hurtigruta" ("*the* express route" in Norwegian, of course by modern standards it's not really "express" anymore since it stops all over the coastline) There's a lot of history you might be interested in. We had some concentration camps during the war, Grini is where most of the Norwegian resistance fighters ended up being held, and Falstad is the concentration camp in Norway where the most prisoners where executed and with the worst conditions. There's a number of fortresses around the country. After all, Denmark and Sweden are the two countries in the world who have faught the most wars with eachother of any pair of countries in the world (even more then England and France), and for about 400 years of history including several of those wars Norway was in a union with Denmark, controlled by the same king, and of course took part in all the same wars... Also, some of the earlier wars between Sweden and Denmark was faught on Norwegian soil too, trying to gain power here... So naturally some defenses where needed given that the Swedes where right across the border and where at times considered a mightier military power then Russia and a great power rivaling the ones on the continent. Skiing has quite a history here so you'll find skiing museums. There's museums etc for things like the process of declearing our independence, for our coastal history, for the viking age (for instance there's a nice viking museum named Borg in Lofoten (another place well worth visiting). I live in Trondheim myself, so this place of course got a place in my heart, but of course I'm a *little* bit biased there... i.pinimg.com/originals/01/a5/e1/01a5e1a28540e49836e898508c9ca779.png This is a picture I just stole from Pinterest with the "Fylki" of Norway back in about 850 after Christ. A Fylki is roughly equivalent to a petty kingdom although some where ruled by the equivalent of a "parliament" (both a legistlative, judiciary and executive branch, although of course only the local chieftains and free men could go there and vote on laws and execute them, and the punishment was usually being decleared lawless meaning that *anyone* could kill you, women, children and slaves had no say in these things). Anyway, as you can imagine there where some cultural differences... And while the number of "fylke" has gone down over the years there's still a lot of regional differences in food, traditional clothing, to some degree personality and social norms, and indeed in the way we speak. Also, a lot has happend since back then too influencing various regions differently. For instance we have two different minorities speaking local variations of the language of Finland, one in the south along the border with Sweden, and one in the North. And there's the Sami people who have their own language in the same language family as the language of Finland but in a slightly different branch, both of them have languages in the Uralic language family, a different language family from the Indo-European language family, the one that pretty much all the rest of Europe speak... Anyway, I hope all of that was of some help?

Entire? so Southend Sweden doesnt count in ur eyes? just wondering Since Stockholm is Middle and Kiruna North....Southend Sweden is worth visiting to..;)

:-) I guess I was too quick. However, since I am originally from Medelpad, I have to counter that Stockholm-argument, and stress the fact that _Flataklocken_ is the middle...

well my point is that Stockholm is more Middle Sweden than Southend...;)

That DIY Couple Sadly that restaurant isn't around anymore. He closed down and went for his pension last year. But the gems are still out there for certain. Another one, that at least was around last year, is called Tuppen, and it's located in Skåne, southern most part of Sweden. More or less a very small, what you in the U.S. truck stop like place 80 sek for, what my father said, was the best potato pancake with pork and ligonberries he's ever had beside his mother's. Another dish you could try, if you visit Öland, would be kroppkakor (dumplings). It's a love or hate dish but if you try it, go for those made on Öland and not the mainland, those from the mainland is very "gluey". It's a family-named restaurant on Öland so should be relatively easy to search for online, their name eludes me at the moment. But its around 90 sek for nearly enough for 2 meals unless you are a big eater. Cheers :)

@@thatdiycouple5513 Sure i will check it out tnx;)

Critical Role Highlights, most hospitals and other health-care centers bill you.

A Snapstreak is a completely meaningless game/reward you get for sending pics daily to your snapchat friend. In this case the reward is the awesome pics I look forward to everyday. I send him palm trees and blue sky, he sends me snow and pine trees, but in the summer it is beautiful. I used to think IKEA was making fun of Swedish, but no, thats how the language is. There's a clue, in English, to what the word is inside the Swedish word, with a few consonants thrown in. He went on a vacation, all Swedish people have summer houses, to "Gotland" which is an island. Because this is where they "Got land" lol Now he's in "Gotoborg." They have a big amusement park there, kind of like Magic Mountain built in a forest. I think the Swedish language would make a great word game. I'm reading "The Almost Perfect People." it dovetails into my friend's pics. A very good window into the region. You would be lucky to get a snapstreak friend from Tullinge, Sweden. Life looks pretty good there. The standard of living looks far better than ours. Its hard listening to how "Socialism does not work" after knowing Niklas, and seeing his pics.

@@thatdiycouple5513 no, you should come in may/june:) it's often much warmer and better weather here than in july/august. :)

That DIY Couple any time. I’m not from Gothenburg. I went there as a tourist. I was blown away by the beauty of the city and the people are really friendly too. Luv these videos. Keep up the good work :D

That DIY Couple my pleasure. You got your self a subscriber. Looking forward to your new uploads. Best of wishes

More political correct and indoctrinated than Intelligent. But nice. Being nice fools a lot more people than such as me.

ALOT more expensive.

Except for toilet paper, its really cheap in Norway ^^

Nah, there is a reason why so many norwegians travel to sweden for shopping. tobacco is over half the price, alcohol is cheaper, and most food. Electronics are often cheaper in Norway tho.

Norway is the most expensive country in the world

skurarN It’s going to be more extensive until your oil is gone xd

That DIY Couple thank you for taking time to make videos like this, i never visit my own country and see it with new open eyes.

To further add to this, since I forgot to mention it previously, is that all Swedish banks have developed a common app called Swish, which allows instant transfers of money between people. Linking your bank account takes only a few minutes. Once that's done, you no longer need cash even when transferring privately between people. It's safe, simple and instant, and also completely free. Not sure if such a system is used anywhere else.

I always carry 200 sek bill in case of emergency, so to speak. If there's problems with Internet or something else.

Don't get me wrong *some* things are cheaper in Norway then in Sweden (for instance toothpaste), but that's the exception rather then the rule...

Haha 😂! I like your alias "Luredreier "! I have to translate that into English. That word is Norwegian, in Swedish 'lurendrejare'. 'lura' means 'cheat', 'playing tricks ', 'swindle'. So 'luredreier'/'lurendrejare' is someone who has made cheating a business, maybe not an occupation but close to. I AM NOT, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, SAYING THAT "LUREDREIER" is a lying cheater!! I just thought it was an interesting choice of pseudonym 😁

Iceland sounds nice ! I will definately have a look at your icehotel video !

No, it is a not a mynth. Scandinavians are among the tallest in the world statistics show. But the Dutch are the tallest in average.

Swedes average height of 177 cm and the Netherlands has 180 cm wouldn't call that much different. England 177 cm, Europe as whole 177 cm vs USA 175 cm. So really not so much to call someone taller. Western countries are taller because of food.

A combination of food and genetics. Japanese people are by average shorter even they have in general abundance of food.

Yes they do, but they have a very different diet from the west. Much leaner, generally better for body. But the main problem is the lactose intolerance. The lower calcium makes the bone density lower and makes hard to grow some extra cm.

Raw fish has also been traditionally common among Scandinavians. Southern Europeans are generally shorter than northen Europeans. But my point is that like most matters it is both genes and enviroment, it is rooted in natural selection and migrations. The same Eurasian semi-nomadic stepp people that spread Indo-European languages from the Eurasian stepp between 6000 to 4,500 years ago into Europe, contributed to northen European height. While southern Europeans with a long history of argiculture selected for shorter height. www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1858274/tall-story-why-northern-europeans-tower-over-their-southern-counterparts qz.com/561034/how-europeans-became-tall-and-fair-skinned-8500-years-ago/ That article uses this one as source for more details www.nature.com/articles/nature16152

Kungsleden,Gammelstad Church Village in Luleå, Boda borg and many others here is a clip about Boda borg ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2dFGq2MT7ZA.html

I think the myth of tall Nordic people originates from the vikings, who were taller than average European people. About 1200 years ago... Some myths die hard 😂

That DIY Couple Minnesota! It's not often but it does happen and that year it happened quite suddenly. One of my funniest memories. :D

there is also a strong bond with the us due to many swedes emigrated to the us in the 1850's up to about 1920, and the interest in us politics is most likely due to the fact that American politics effects the whole globe.

Hm, just pointing out that "Black Army" in Sweden has NOTHING to do with races. It's the name of the fan club for a Stockholm soccer, ice hockey e.g. team: AIK! (Allmänna Idrotts Klubben). Go Gnaget! 🐀

Kan säga att SV är dyrare än nästan hela syd America undantag Franska delen. Central america, can du få två tacos för 20 kr.. Central Europa är Polen Tjecken billigare inte för att tala om Rumänien Bulgarien. Spanien är runt 10% billigare samma med Franrike.

It's largely a myth that the US is so much cheaper than Europe and especially northern Europe. Maybe in very unpopular small cities in the US, you can find some good deals on homes and apartments, but pretty much every desirable city has gotten quite pricey. Same for food. When you factor in tax, often not included in displayed costs in the US, and tips, decent food places are about as much as they are for similar places in Sweden/Stockholm. If you're comparing fast food chain prices from the US to the prices of nicer places in Sweden, that's not a fair comparison. US taxes may be lower in many states but that is easily offset by what people end up paying out of pocket for the private version of the equivalent.

In the early eighties almost everything were A LOT cheaper in the US. At least in east Florida, NJ and NY. A while ago, hm...

Bach is a globalist.

lol needless to say thats where i live, theres a lot of vikinga leavings in västerås and in some of its suburbs

The cool thing about Swedish summers is that they have the rare combination of being both very bright and also very green and quite warm at the same time. Midsummer is pretty amazing for example, I sometimes stay up until morning that evening and the sky is blue almost the entire time, lol. In fact I think the sun starts rising just when it has touched the horizon, and that's in the _middle_ of Sweden. The northern parts even have midnight sun around those days, which is a very weird experience.