Globe Corner Blogs

Swedish flag flying - photo by Lisa

Every guide book to Sweden highly recommends going on a boat ride through Stockholm’s Archipelago–and with good reason. Many companies offer cruises that vary in length and activities on the boat, but they all offer spectacular views of the thousands of islands, the fabulous mansions and summer houses, yachts, and the many inlets. I went on the overnight cruise to the island of Aland. Aland is a bit of an anomaly as it is officially autonomous–it’s technically Finnish–but the majority of the 25,000 inhabitants speak Swedish and no Finnish. It is well known as a cycling destination, but the biggest attraction for the majority of my fellow travelers was the duty-free liquor store. After paying an exorbitant amount for a glass of wine in Stockholm, I understand why everyone was stocking up on as much as possible.

The ship was the called the Viking Cinderella and it was huge. It had restaurants galore including a Swedish Smorgasbord, a few bars and pubs, and a huge disco called the Fun Club with an ABBA cover band. The passengers were diverse but everyone seemed to be enjoying the duty free alcohol and dancing to ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.” It turned into quite the party. The next morning some of the passengers got off on Aland, and then the boat started to slowly make its scenic way back to Stockholm.

Olaus Magnus' Scandinavia 1539

The other day I was wasting a lot of time playing on Facebook and I got sucked into one of those stupid-yet-addictive quizzes that are popping up everywhere. They have one for everything imaginable and I saw that one of my friends had completed the “What is your true inner nationality” quiz. Naturally I had to take the quiz as well. Turns out my true inner nationality is “Swedish.” Hummm… never thought I was particularly Swedish. Even though I am proud of my Norwegian-German from Russia via Ukraine roots, I think that my inner-nationality is American. However, I have been told I have the soul of a Romanian by a Romanian, that I must be Croatian because I like red wine with fish, that I look really Bosnian, and that I was Icelandic by a sober Icelander. I would like to think that my inner nationality might be a New Zealander (I like the accent) or Canadian (I would like to live in Vancouver), but I never considered Swedish. It never crossed my mind.

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