Recent lovely observations

Things have been busy and stressful this week, so I'm very happy that it's Friday! We've now signed the contract for our flat though, so we officially live there. Although I've been busy I've noticed a few things later that make life in Sweden a little bit more lovely.

1. Bus drivers

I'm used to living in London, where bus drivers tend to be grumpy at the best of times. Maybe the bus drivers in Stockholm are a bit happier in their jobs, but they are so much nicer! Since moving to Högdalen I've been travelling to work using the t-bana and then a quick bus journey, and I've found the bus drivers to have a totally different attitude. Often they say hello to you when you get on the bus, which is totally alien to me. Even better, when they can see you running down the road desperately trying to get to the bus stop in time, they'll actually wait for you! I cannot count the number of times that I missed a bus in London because the bus driver just drove off even though I was running as fast as I could towards the bus - in fact it was a novelty if the bus driver actually was kind enough to wait.

2. Flowers for name days

In the local supermarket there is a small flower section, and I noticed the other day that they have a sign there telling customers the name days for the week, so there's no excuse to forget your loved one's name day. Being from England I don't have a name day, but I still think it's a nice thing.

3. Dogs

This is not a new observation, but there are so many cute dogs in Stockholm. It almost seems like everybody has a sweet little dog. I love pugs, and I've seen so many pugs since I got here. In fact a few ways ago I was walking down the street thinking about pugs (as you do), and a lady suddenly appeared walking two of them. Maybe I just have a weird superpower that allows me to summon pugs. I'm sure that has many useful applications in life. On the way to work this morning I saw at least four lovely looking dogs, including one pug.


This week has certainly not been the easiest, so the little things can make all the difference when you feel a bit down. This weekend I hope to relax and cheer up, and I'm thinking of going to an hour long meditation class tomorrow morning to start the weekend in a calm way. It's easy to get overwhelmed in a new country when you're trying to establish yourself; perhaps I've been too harsh on myself and expected too much of myself. My only comparison to this experience is living in Finland, which turned out amazingly well in the end, and I think it's easy to forget the more difficult aspects of that experience, and the fact that there were so many challenges. Obviously, some of the challenges I face here are different - it's a different time, different country, and different circumstances. Perhaps this week can be a reminder to slow down, accept that it's not all easy when you have a lot of commitments and interests to balance, and keep going.

English food

I've been back for just over 3 weeks now, and definitely don't miss England, but I've been craving some English food, some things I could probably replicate here, some things probably not.

1.) Pret A Manger

Until recently I worked in Central London, meaning that Pret A Manger was literally everywhere, and took care of my lunch most days. My last meal in England, in the departure lounge at Gatwick, was a mozzarella and tomato croissant and a cup of coffee from Pret. Maybe it's just something familiar and dependable, but every now and then I've wished there was a Pret around the corner. Perhaps I could open their first franchise in Sweden! There are so many things I love from Pret it's impossible to list them all, and I love walking into their shops knowing that there are so many options. Once I start working here I think I'll be a bit lost at lunchtime at first.

2.) Fried breakfasts

Although I'm vegetarian and therefore don't eat the traditional breakfast, cafes in England always offer at least one vegetarian fried breakfast, and on a couple of occasions I've felt like a greasy breakfast would really be perfect. I suppose this is something I could replicate quite easily if I bought the ingredients, and I noticed that The English Shop in Stockholm sells Linda McCartney vegetarian sausages, which I quite enjoy, so if I get very desperate I know what to do. I've noticed that people from outside of Britain find the ingredients of a fried breakfast quite odd for breakfast - Heli and I once had a debate about whether this meal was suitable for breakfast or dinner, but I suspect most British people living abroad probably miss this one. It's normal for England.

3.) A very particular halloumi burger

I had a strange experience one day last week where I literally dreamed about a halloumi burger, and woke up desperate for it. For a little while I thought the burger was one I ate in a bar in Medborgarplatsen during the summer, in which case problem solved! After a while it dawned on me that unfortunately the burger I'm dreaming of is from Mildreds, my favourite vegetarian restaurant in London, and possibly the world. All of their food is delicious, I've actually only ever gone there with meat eaters, and all of them have loved it, including my mum, but it's the bread that makes that burger. I don't know what kind of bread they use but it really is amazing. A halloumi burger and a Kir Royale sounds like a pretty satisfying lunch to me. I need to stop thinking about it because I want one again, my friend Elena did offer to post one to me but I think I might pass on that offer.

4.) Refried beans

I love refried beans. Any mexican inspired food I make is incomplete without refried beans, and bizarrely, the Swedish public don't seem to be into them! When we visited The English Shop I noticed they were selling Old El Paso refried beans, which seemed very odd because that brand is available in all the normal supermarkets here. A few days later when we decided to make fajitas we noticed that the Old El Paso range in the supermarket included everything EXCEPT refried beans! I've looked in more than one supermarket, and it appears that Swedish people just aren't on board with refried beans - they're nowhere to be found in Swedish food shops! I'm a bit confused by this, especially as all the other products are available here, and Mexican food seems to be fairly popular in this country. Unfortunately, until I bulk buy beans in the only shop I've seen them, probably at a fairly high cost due to being imported, it seems that my fajitas and enchiladas will be a little bit lacking. Last time we did attempt to make out own "refried beans" - they were bloody awful.

That's all I've been missing for now. As mentioned before, restaurants are good and there are a lot of vegetarian options available in Stockholm, so I definitely don't feel like I'm going without. I think that wherever you go you end up missing things from other places. I miss a lot of Finnish products, some of which I can buy here, some not. Heli pointed out to me last week that the ferry between here and Turku has no luggage limits, so I have a feeling that sooner or later I'll be getting on that ferry with an empty suitcase, and coming back with a very full one!