Swedes: what’s one “only in Sweden” thing you think foreigners find weird? AND WHICH SIDE DOES THE BUTTER GO ON knäckebröd??

ALSO if you’re curious!
Interview with Offside: https://www.offside.org/portratt/chloe-minas-vaxjo-dff-damallsvenskan-youtube/
Interview with SVT: https://www.svt.se/sport/fotboll/vaxjos-chloe-minas-gor-succe-pa-youtube-fatt-rad-om-hur-jag-ska-ata-surstromming


*ALSO this is reuploaded video from yesterday due to copyright!*

1. There is no right or wrong side for the butter. Swedes are still arguing over that one.
2. Weird Valborg celebration. Never heard such music in that context before.

I think taking shoes off at the gym and using indoor shoes is a thing in at least the Nordic countries for the same reason you take off your shoes before entering someones home: We have four seasons and none of them are guaranteed to be dry and sunny. So you don't want to drag in snow, rain, salt or mud into gyms or homes. For the same reason, Nordic trailer truck drivers often take their shoes off and leave them in the door when they get into the cab. That is their clean space.

Grats on ending up on Swedish national TV, SVT. I discovered you before they did. And glad for that.

"Godmorgon allihopa" cracked me up right from the get go! Great pronunciation btw 🙂. The "heavy doors" are security doors for the most part and almost always located at the entrance. If there are heavy doors further into a public building, it´s because of fire protection. Those doors are airtight and can help contain a fire within a smaller area of the building, and stopping the fire from burning the whole building to the ground, and to save lives of course. The butter goes on the flat side for me, maybe that´s why I´m 5`9 and 150Ibs, LOL. I fika every day, even when I´m alone! Hallon/lakrits is awesome, I´m drinking hallon/lakrits tea as I´m typing this, would recommend. And I´ve eaten kaviar and salty licourice my whole life, couldn´t live without it. Good luck with SFI, it`ll be a breeze for you I´m sure

I can't believe I used to speak Montréalais fluently, I barely understand it anymore. 😀

Oh, and old guys on bicycles is a thing that goes back a long time. One of the most impressive things happened in 1951. There was a bike race called Sverigeloppet, which went from Haparanda in Northern Sweden, all the way to Ystad in the South. A 65 year old man with a thick white beard named Gustaf Håkansson showed up at the start, but the organizers refused to let him enter the race, due to his old age. What they didn't know was that he lived near the finish down in Skåne, and had actually cycled all the way to the start! He made his own number badge, with a big zero on it, and started three minutes after the other participants. As opposed to the other racers, he cycled day and night, cycling for up to three day in a row without sleeping. When he crossed the finishing line in Ystad, he did so 24 hours ahead of the official competitors! People nicknamed him "Stålfarfar" ("Steel Grandpa" or "Super Grandpa"), and he became an instant celebrety. He was a deeply religious man, and eight years later, in 1959, he hopped on to his bicycle again, cycling all the way to Jerusalem! Now that's something to try when you retire! 😀

So, I don't know how true this is since I only heard this being told by my grandparents, but apparently you used to call the two sides of the knäckebröd "the poor man's-" / "the rich man's side" of the bread since the side with the deeper ridges/dimples used up more butter when spreading it across the bread. And they jokingly told that if you where invited over to eat somewhere you always put the butter on the "rich man's side" since you weren't paying for the butter :P

I often joke that in the northern half of the country we have two seasons: dark out and light out. I don't even live that far north, but in summer the sun just barely dips below the horizon and it never gets dark. It's gorgeous and I love it.

Next year you should go celebrate Valborg in Uppsala. There are so many different things and traditions going on there! You can't even do it all in one year, because many of the traditions are at the same time. So many traditions and so many people celebrating! I highly recommend it!

After cleaning up what the winter left:  broken off tree branches, leaves and such, it was natural to burn it and spread the ashes to fertilise the earth, hence the bonfires.
I think it comes from the slash-and-burn agriculture method.

"Musöron på björkarna" is when the first leaves pops up on the birch in the spring, they look like small mouse ears (albeit green 😅).

Valborg used to be more fun too, it's heavily regulated now. back in the 90s and early 00s there were bonfires in every neighborhood, sometimes multiple bonfires and there were almost no regulations to it at all.

I normally dont watch any "vloggs" channels (guess am to old at 40 :P) But i stumbled across your channel a few month ago and both me and my daughter watches the video (she is 8 and just started fotball, ive played many years myself when younger). You positivity and profesionalism is something for younger kids to look up to :)
We live in the north of Sweden and here its really dark almost 24/7 during the darkest wintermonth and daylight 24/7 during june/july :)
I really think that Canadians and swedes are more alike, then if you would have been from the US. I have a canadian friend and we often jokes that Canadians starts with +1 to Niceness (thats not probably even a word :P)
We both wish you all the best /Viewers from the far north :)

Fika is also a very good first date 😉
It's a very relaxed first date, where you don't feel pressured to do anything else than just a short conversation at a cozy cafe

The doors are heavy to open because the door closers are set quite heavy so they always close to prevent an eventual fire to get oxhygen and the door openers are there for elderly and disabled. Both are required on "fire doors" in puplic places like stores, gyms. Appartments etc.

And it is not strange to open the door by hand

The mouse ears on birches thing is when the first leaves open up and kind of look like small mouse ears. For example gardeners typically quote that saying as it is a good time to start pruning Roses. It is one of the many spring signs us swedes look for. Another is the first citrus butterfly, the flowering crocuses and other bulbs.

"I'm so not picky I could eat anything" cut to Surströmming-video

Told you a few months ago you'd really love this time of year 😄

The heavy doors is just because they have the opening/closing mechanism. It presents the door to slam close to fast and that make them feel heavy. Without it most doors don’t feel heavy at all. And the mechanism is there to mechanism to make the place accessible to people with disabilities

I really love the tradition of Valborg. For me it’s a kind of symbolic getting rid of the old, ie winter with it’s dark days and SAD and welcoming spring, warmth and liveliness. Nearly all the songs for Valborg are about newness of spring with it’s greenary.
Where I grew up in the north of Sweden Valborg was a big celebration, huge bonfire and fireworks. Of course in the north it’s still very dark in the evenings on the last of April and the bonfire lit up the sky. It wasn’t unusual for it to be cold or even snowing.
Now living in the south it isn’t the same. Tiny fires that burn out quickly. People talking to each other over the singing and bringing their damn dogs with them everywhere. Perhaps it’s the lack of cold and snow in the south that lessens the need for a spectacular showing to King Bore (winter) that we survived and are still here.

And in the farthest south they don’t celebrate it at all. 😢 There they have bonfires and fireworks at Midsummer. Like what?!