Motorcycle heaven...

i want in!
this country is going down hill faster than i can get up it!

What area are you in? A little photostory would be great some time if you have time. I was meant to go to Vasteras this year after my Italy trip but it was too far in the heat.

Did you have to learn the language, or does everone readily speak english?

I've turned your thread into an interrogation

I've always thought of Scandinavia as being very 'pure'. No heavy industrialisation, no heavy traffic etc. Just nice and open with clean water, crisp, clean air, that sort of thing. A fair view or a bit naive? Low crime also? Though I think I read crime has been on the up recently, but I could be wrong.

I wasnt in Sweden long, but I spent a while in Norway, which is a similar-ish sort of deal. And, basically... its fantastic.
On more or less all fronts.
Bar one... the winter is extremely dark, and extremely cold. And when I say extremely I mean, I saw -40C out in the winter cabins in the central plateaux. But, then you can get out on your skis, once the sun gets up, and ski all day. And... this is the thing, they do. Doesnt matter if they are ancient, they go out, they use their day. The spend time well there. And, they have a lot of holidays due to them.

Ok, petrol is insanely expensive. There was a sort of awed hush in the car when I volunteered to pay for the fill, all by myself. I understood why when I worked out how much it actually cost. Taxes are high. Drink is really pricey. But, life, for whatever reason, is really good.
Things function. People are respectful, relaxed and open minded.

The only part of Scandinavia that I didnt like... was when we went driving outside of Copenhagen ( I was in Danmark for a bit too ). There was this massive area, of flatness. It wasnt that far from Roskilde (?). The whole area was really scary feeling. Flat, and still. Copenhagen is great. Oslo is great. Bergen is great. The norwegian mountains are amazing. The woman are... emm, lets say, not shy. I really liked it...

But, the winters. Its tough. its hard to explain how dark it is. Almost like you are not quite on the same planet as everyone else at times.

In Danmark, everyone pretty much speaks english. In Norway and Sweden all the young people speak it too. The old people though... either dont, or are a little shy with it, and will only speak when they know you. The Norwegian language is not that hard to get after say a month you can start picking odd words out of sentences. Danish I found to be trickier.

Originally Posted by socommk23

so when we all invited over for a ride out?

Any time, my address:

Sweden House
Sweden Street
Sweden

Alternatively, just ask for the English couple! Everyone within 50 miles of here knows who we are!

Originally Posted by Dr Rich

What area are you in? A little photostory would be great some time if you have time. I was meant to go to Vasteras this year after my Italy trip but it was too far in the heat.

We're in Laxå Kommun, about 300KM south of Vasteras, right between the two huge lakes. I'll take the camera next time we go out in the cage.

BTW, Vasteras is a HELLA long way from Italy!!!

Originally Posted by Jp

Did you have to learn the language, or does everone readily speak english?

Everyone under the age of 50, and many above, speak great English, but I've always considered it rude not to speak your host country language, so we start school next week!! Eek!

Originally Posted by UlsterSV

I've turned your thread into an interrogation

I've always thought of Scandinavia as being very 'pure'. No heavy industrialisation, no heavy traffic etc. Just nice and open with clean water, crisp, clean air, that sort of thing. A fair view or a bit naive? Low crime also? Though I think I read crime has been on the up recently, but I could be wrong.

Sweden is quite industrial in the south, most towns have lots of factories, but it doesn't seem heavy as there's so few people and so much space. As already mentioned, the traffic is light. Swedes get upset if they run into 'rush-hour' and get held up by 5 minutes!
Our water comes from a bore hole in the garden, as do most houses out of town, and you don't get any fresher than that! And the air is really clean too, and could be described as 'crisp' in the winter!

Crime in the big cities is on the rise, but still way less than UK.

Originally Posted by philipMac

I wasnt in Sweden long, but I spent a while in Norway, which is a similar-ish sort of deal. And, basically... its fantastic.
On more or less all fronts.
Bar one... the winter is extremely dark, and extremely cold. And when I say extremely I mean, I saw -40C out in the winter cabins in the central plateaux. But, then you can get out on your skis, once the sun gets up, and ski all day. And... this is the thing, they do. Doesnt matter if they are ancient, they go out, they use their day. The spend time well there. And, they have a lot of holidays due to them.

Ok, petrol is insanely expensive. There was a sort of awed hush in the car when I volunteered to pay for the fill, all by myself. I understood why when I worked out how much it actually cost. Taxes are high. Drink is really pricey. But, life, for whatever reason, is really good.
Things function. People are respectful, relaxed and open minded.

The only part of Scandinavia that I didnt like... was when we went driving outside of Copenhagen ( I was in Danmark for a bit too ). There was this massive area, of flatness. It wasnt that far from Roskilde (?). The whole area was really scary feeling. Flat, and still. Copenhagen is great. Oslo is great. Bergen is great. The norwegian mountains are amazing. The woman are... emm, lets say, not shy. I really liked it...

But, the winters. Its tough. its hard to explain how dark it is. Almost like you are not quite on the same planet as everyone else at times.

In Danmark, everyone pretty much speaks english. In Norway and Sweden all the young people speak it too. The old people though... either dont, or are a little shy with it, and will only speak when they know you. The Norwegian language is not that hard to get after say a month you can start picking odd words out of sentences. Danish I found to be trickier.

We're quite far South here, so the shortest day in winter as about 2 hours shorter than the UK, so not too bad. And totally offset by 22 hours daylight on the summer solstice! Temperature wise, -40 is not unheard of, but rare. But hey, -10, -40, don't make no difference to me! Incidentally, the southern tip of Sweden is on the same lattitude as the northern isles of Scotland.

Petrol here is actually cheaper than UK at the moment, but depending what car you have, you get taxed more, so I reckon it works out about the same. Met a couple of norwegians recently who were saying about the price of things there !!

The language isn't too difficult once you get some of the weird sounds right! Lots of words are very similar to English - I believe Norwegian is more difficult.