Buying cigarettes

So just now I bought cigarettes in a supermarket for the first time, and I have to say it is a very strange process, the strangest I have come across. Up until now I have bought cigarettes and tobacco over the counter, as I am used to, in Pressbyrån or Svensk Tobak och Spel. I just came home to find that Pressbyrån was already shut, so I went to ICA to buy some cigarettes.

I had noticed before that over the tills there is a shelf of cards that look like the front of cigarette packets. I assumed that you chose the right card and the person on the till then gave you the correct cigarettes. That's not too complicated. Wrong!

So you choose your card, which is scanned and paid for. You then go over to another machine, scan the card, and are given your cigarettes. However, I thought you just needed the receipt so I was furiously trying to shove my receipt into the machine and getting nowhere. Just as the truth dawned on me and I was about to go back to the till, the member of staff who served me came over with the card and helped me.

I really do think that this country has a tendency to over-complicate things. In England you would go to the kiosk in the supermarket to get cigarettes. In Finland there is a machine by the conveyor belt of the till where you select the correct brand, it spits it onto the conveyor belt, and you pay for it with the rest of your shopping. When I lived in Finland the brands were shown on the machine, but a few months afterwards they banned this, considering it a form of advertisement, and just showing numbers instead. So unless you really knew the machine you had to ask for the correct number, or play cigarette roulette. Now I know that in Sweden I need to take the card with me, and once you've scanned it you can recycle it at the machine. But still, I find this very strange.

Vegetarian Sweden

One thing I've noticed recently, and which I'm very pleased about, is that in Stockholm there seem to be so many vegetarian restaurants, I would say more than in London, despite being much smaller. I had previously noticed one restaurant at Medborgarplatsen, but lately when I've been looking at various areas on maps, or just when I'm walking around, I've noticed so many more. Last time I was looking for specifically vegetarian restaurants in London it was a bit of a challenge to find somewhere other than my favourite restuarant. Here there are so many really visible options. I haven't been to any of them yet but I'm looking forward to doing that sometime.
I joined another group on Meet Up for vegetarians and vegans in Stockholm. There's an upcoming pot luck event that I'm looking forward to - I love food, and hopefully the people in the group can give me some ideas of particularly good restaurants to try here.
Even in the supermarket I've seen so many vegetarian and vegan options. As well as Quorn being available in this country, there's a Swedish brand making similar products, which I've tried and thought were pretty good. Last week I bought some dehydrated soya protein products, and although they probably wouldn't be my first choice they're definitely not the worst thing in the world. The ICA supermarket near to me also has a cabinet of vegetarian and vegan products - several varieties of tofu, which has been delicious so far, various vegetarian cold meat products, and a massive selection of vegan cheese. I'm not vegan, and probably could not live without real cheese, but I think it's cool that such a wide range of products catering for vegans and vegetarians are available. I've never actually seen vegan cheeses available in a regular supermarket in England - I think that kind of product would be sold in speciality shops. I like that it's so easy and accessible here.
On the subject of food, my palate actually seems to be changing a bit here. I've always preferred savoury foods to sweet, but in Sweden I find I'm actually really enjoying sweet foods too. Someone suggested that maybe sweet foods here are less sugary than in England, and that might be the reason why. Kanelbullar (cinammon rolls) are obviously a very traditional food here, but it's not something I would ever have purchased myself. Kai bought one for me and I actually loved it! I also really like Swedish sweets - Bilar have been one of my favourites since I lived in Finland, I've loved Daim bars since I was very small, and although it's from Finland I can easily purchase Fazer chocolate here, which is something I missed in England.
I'm also very keen on Festis and Bravo drinks - the flavours are really imaginative, flavour combinations that I haven't tried elsewhere, and they're delicious. In September I also discovered that Festis is a perfect cure for a hangover!
I think I can eat extremely well here, and the best part is that I don't have to worry too much about what I eat because I've been losing weight without meaning to! I thought this might happen, as it did during winter in Finland - presumably I use up extra energy keeping warm, but I'm not complaining. If only I was taller I'd look like a supermodel by spring!