First Sweden Observations

Travels to Sweden were successful. We have arrived, without any issues. Our layover at Heathrow was awesome and totally painless, which was surprising considering it was the day after the olympics ended. We had a long layover and spotted a lot of athletes.

On the plane from London to Stockholm we got sandwiches called "coronation chicken." And they were very delicious.

The Stockholm airport is very nice. Customs was a breeze, which was nice. The train is also very nice, although it is not easy to get large amounts of luggage onto the train without being in people's way. Yeah, we are Americans, and we have a lot of luggage. This is why there are stereotypes. In my defense, I think two suitcases (one jumbo, one regular) plus a backpack and a briefcase are rather reasonable when going to a place for a year.

Our travels (from doorstep to hotelstep) took just about 24 hours. The following are observations from the next 24 hours.

People say 'hej hej' as a greeting. Hej sounds like Hey. I've heard them say goodbye as something sounding like hey-lo.

There are a LOT of pregnant ladies here. Or people with small children. Or ladies who are pregnant who also have small children. Often if there is a couple with a small child, the dad will be carrying the child in a fancy baby-wearing device.

Some crosswalk signs show images of a big cat and two small cats crossing.

A fire extinguisher has a sign by it that says Skum.

Yesterday for dinner we had kabob med bröd. That means kabob with bread. Except that it wasn't a kabob, it was thinly sliced meat. And there was lettuce and tomato and sauce and it was delicious. Greg and I like kabob.

For a traffic light that is red, an additional yellow light will come on for about a second, and then both go off and the green light goes on.