Sweden!

Yesterday was my first trip to Sweden!  Many Norwegians hop across the border to buy their shopping in Sweden as it tends to be much cheaper, especially when it comes to food and drink.  This is very much like how the English hop across to France to buy their food and drink (However I've never done this as i'm from the opposite side of England!)

The day started off as quite a misty day, it felt very wintery - I loved it!  The temperature was around 2 degrees Celsius when we started our journey around 9:30am.  The roads were practically empty, completely different to how England would be at this time!  We drove through many areas where we had to be alert for any Moose - another completely different experience to being in England!  Instead of having Deer signs, there are Moose signs!

I would also like to point out how huge the Norwegian public bins are, you think they look huge from the outside....when in fact, when you open them up, they go all the way underground!  They look as if they are about 2 or 3 metres deep underground!

Back to our Swedish trip...as we neared the border, the weather started to clear up and the temperature rose, it looked like a different world because the weather had changed so dramatically.

Another thing we took note of as we neared the Swedish border was of how many cars we saw.  We had hardly seen a single soul on our journey, right up until we were about 30 minutes away from the border, it was as if all of these cars had appeared from no where!  All of the Norwegians seemed to be on a pilgrimage to Sweden for cheaper goods!  It was quite funny actually.

We finally reached Sweden after 2 hours of driving, and as we had thought, practically all of the cars in front and behind us turned into the shopping center just across the border, Charlottenbergs Shoppingcenter.

The shopping centre was huge, bigger than what I've seen in Scandinavia so far anyway.  It could be compared to an average sized shopping centre in England, for example, 1 floor in the Bristol Galleries - plus a supermarket included within it, the size of a large Asda/Tesco, e.g....the Asda at Longwell Green, Bristol (For those of you who know!).  The place was packed with people, just like back in England.  We stocked up on food and drink - including meat, juice and beer!  We also bought some treats for our new pet Gerbils.

I am so glad that I have finally been to Sweden, that's another tick box checked in my 'list of things to do!'.  I can't wait to go back already, everything was so cheap!  Though it wasn't nearly as cheap as things back in England of course.

Tomorrow I will be going to the local police station to 'register' myself.  I shall also be getting in contact with the people who give Norwegian lessons, scary!  Everything's starting to begin!  Wish me luck!