The Vasa, Pride of Sweden

Above: several views of The Vasa, a swedish warship that sank right after it launched from Stockholm's harbor on its maiden voyage in 1627. The ship is in great condition and most of the parts are genuine, with some portions of the ship being replaced after it was recovered in 1961. More on Wikipedia.

I was convinced that I would not like Sweden, mostly because I come from Rockford, Illinois, a city known for having one of the highest immigrant swedish populations in the United States, and because Sweden and Poland fought a series of wars from the 1600s-1800s. Knowing that my reasons and cultural convictions were both ridiculous and immature, I decided to stubbornly hate Sweden like any American hating France for reasons he/she cannot identify. I've never liked my hometown, and I knew that I could always count on this prejudice to back me up. And I could never openly admit to anyone that I didn't like Sweden because of some silly war, but I could bash their obnoxious accent, the lack of daylight and those ridiculous swedish white shirts with the frilly cuffs. 

My dislike of Swedes paled in comparison to my dislike of Russians(justified, of course, by Russia's previous transgressions against Poland. And being roughly 25-50% Polish, it's easy to hate a group of people who have offended half of you), but I was determined to dislike Sweden nonetheless. What public monuments could I litter on? Could I break some law to irritate a passive Swedish police force? Could I 'liberate' some silverware or towels from my hotel in defiance of the establishment?(I became infamous in college for sneaking into the memorial union and refilling my soap dispenser in the bathrooms)

By the end of the first day, I just wanted to stay in Sweden. The country was so well organized, clean, and friendly that it instantly reached my top 5 list for European countries and I didn't want to leave. In truth, I never really hated Sweden, but I did develop a strange, quiet prejudice against the Swedes before even arriving in the airport. 

Sweden makes 27 countries for me, and even today I fly to new places with thoroughly ridiculous notions and prejudices about the countries and people I am going to meet. I am eager to go to Russia, because I feel conflicted about the place. My grandmother raised me with a healthy hatred of the Soviets, Stalin and anything red. But I have no real convictions or experience of my own to base this on. I just hear things, see things and have been conditioned to believe that this country/people are somehow bad. 

We need prejudices/stereotypes to survive in some sense(or we convince ourselves that we do), but quite often our prejudices are unfounded. Sweden was great by all accounts and I had a wonderful time. By the power vested in me as Prince of Poland, I forgive Sweden for all its transgressions against the Poles. Or, at the very least, I'll be back.

Did you do your Black Friday Christmas shopping while eating chocolate waffles? I did

Above, top to bottom: Karl serves up a tasty chocolate waffle with extra whip cream at the Christmas market in downtown Stockholm; a panoramic view of the market from the steps of the Nobel Museum; a woman works the game booth where you can win candy bars the size of small Swedish children; I might have bought one of these ornaments for a relative, but maybe not. You'll have to wait till Christmas, mom; a typical Christmas booth's inventory included ornaments, bowls, candles, woodwork, meats, breads, clothing, and gigantic heads of elk and huge salmon fillets. Mmm, mmm.

Above, top to bottom: Brett in front of a Polish billboard in Warsaw that says "and what do you know about the European Fund?" We can't figure it out, either but we like the guys; Brett wearing his swedish scarf wtih his swedish bike; Thumbs up, Stockholm!; Brett seems a little too excited to be reading a National Socialist Party flyer.

You want that pancake with lingonberries or pickled herring, lars?

Above, top to bottom: A candle globe holds dozens of candles inside the Storkyrkan Cathedral, a Lutheran Church in Stockholm, Sweden on the evening of November 28th, 2008; A swedish bachelor party gets rowdy with mullets and Burger King crowns near T-Centralny station in downtown Stockholm; Members of the National Socialist Party stand outside parliament to stump for representation with signs, flags, suspiciously close-shaven heads, and a lot of white people; on a bridge near parliament, from left to right: Amanda Sheaffer, Brett McCaw and Theodora Dryer; Skaters enjoy an afternoon on the ice near the bay in downtown Stockholm. The sun rises after 9 am and sets by 4 pm, leaving most of the day dark.