Since I've started taking lessons to ride a motorcycle, I decided not to go on a holiday this year. I'm going to both HAR2009 and Lowlands and thought that would be enough fun this summer, but things turned out differently. Currently, I'm in Stockholm, Sweden. My two colleagues are on a summer vacation for two weeks and I really didn't want to sit at the office by myself, so I decided to go to Stockholm. Since I can work anywhere when I have my laptop and an internet connection, I'm doing some work here. Next to that, I'm partying with friends and just having fun. Stockholm is a great city. Swedish culture is quite close to the Dutch one and even the language has a lot of resemblance (although it's hard to understand when spoken). Because I didn't want to travel by plane and wanted to see a bit more of Northern Europe, I drove here by car. It was a 16 hour drive, but it was doable. I left Utrecht at 7:30 in the morning and arrived here 15 hours later. Some days ago, we went on a booze cruise to Finland. It was a one-day trip in a big cruise ship (Love Boat style) from Stockholm to Aland. On the boat, there was a huge tax free shop where all Swedish people went crazy. I've never seen so many people buying so much alcohol. Apparently alcohol is expensive here.
Although the countries I drove through (Germany, Denmark and Sweden) are quite similar, there are some things that I noticed and I need to write down for future reference (I might edit this list over the course of my stay):
- In Germany, a Frikadelbrotchen is something different than in the Netherlands.
- Danish people can't drive. They stick on the left lane, which is quite annoying when you want to put the pedal to the metal.
- Swedish ATMs and other machines that eat credit cards want your card upside down.
- Supermarkets and other shops have an ingenious system of giving you cash change. Everything is automated.
- Swedish highways are great. Not a lot of cars (except around Stockholm).
- Parking is much cheaper in Sweden then in the Netherlands. Where I'm staying, it's 5 SEK (0,50 euro) per hour and 30 SEK (3 euro) for a whole day.
- Traffic lights go to orange before switching to green (we should have this in NL too..)
- Only saw one police car (without cops in it).
- Most people drive exactly the maximum speed.
- There are some nice rock and metal radio stations here in Stockholm. Not only mainstream crap.
- There is a toll system in Stockholm. It's automated with license plate recognition, but I'm not sure if they can read mine and if, where and when I have to pay.
- The bridges in Denmark and the one from Denmark to Sweden is awesome.
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