Culture of Keds

Sweden. A month here has flown by quicker than anything. And although I did spend as much or more money in one month here than three and a half in India I still loved this country. As Jen says, sometimes you have to acutally enjoy traveling. And when the hostel you're staying at has delicious cheese and tomato bagel sandwiches for breakfast you don't go for the cornflakes from the grocery store. The point of traveling isn't always to suffer and to penny pinch. Much better to enjoy something for a little while than to eat cornflakes for a year. Jen is far too wise. Sweden is a place that gave me black licorice, and swedish fish, and chocolate covered marshmallows, and more licorice, and sour gummi pops, and on and on. Thrift stores and buffet breakfast with jams and breads and really really good coffee. Clean beds and showers, even if some of those showers you have to walk down the stairs out the door and around the basketball court to locate. Cooking camping style at a hostel because it doesn't having a kitchen then running out of gas when the spagetti is half done.Ice bars and organic gardens and cool blue water. And tiny creepy black snakes in the cool water. Amazing people like Jonathan and Kate, and nice but a little odd people as well. Bright green grass being cut and hitting me in the face.And legs. And finding that same grass in my pockets days later. Expansive parks to jog and walk unbothered throughout. A whole country to walk unbothered throughout actually. Incredible art at every turn; fashion and sculpture and murals and inventions. Good looking people everywhere.
Girls in matching outfits. A whole new throw to the same same but different. And now I thought that this was something all teenagers go through, you know wanting to look like your friends. You're both wearing black and white, tshirts and shorts. But You have black shorts and a white top and white shoes with black socks. And SHE has white shorts and a black top and vice versa. Except it doesn't appear to be something people grow out of in Sweden. I guarantee that walking down the street anywhere in Sweden you will see at least half a dozen girls in this exact outfit: Dark skinny jeans. White keds. Loose fitting white long sleeved shirt with thin horizontal navy stripes. Oversized pearl earing studs. Straight white blonde hair. Black leather bomber jacket. I probably saw at least one hundred girls in this outfit while being in Sweden. Slight variations like acid wash instead of navy jeans, white chuck taylors instead of keds, black stripes instead of navy, but basically the same. And although yeah it looks good; it does look exactly the same. And although the girls are stunningly beautiful, if you're a Swedish guy, how can you tell which one is your girlfriend and which one is her best friend? It must be a little tricky. And for me, this is one thing that doesn't jive. At least not since the pink and leopard days of my youth with Sabrina and Tina. I feel like this is even a little sad. The majority conforming to not only one ideal of beauty, but one outfit? Bummer dude.

Although Sweden does have it's faults, it is still a happy, clean, stable, peaceful country. A country where a couple gets FIFTEEN months paid maternity leave. And the man has to take a MINIMUM of three months out of that fifteen to raise their child. This is why families travel so much in Sweden, because they have the time to be together and enjoy to it. Both of them. Not only mothers get to see and enjoy their child's youth, but the fathers as well. I can't help but think that this could really do wonders in America. If it wasn't just assumed that mothers are the only ones who want to be with their children when they are small. And the government supported this? Why not? This is also why I am constantly asking myself what day is it? Because all I see in Sweden is families and couples and groups of friends walking around in parks, sipping coffee and baked goods, having a tika at cafes, families strolling together. Is it saturday? Nope wednesday. And yes it is also summer, but I have yet to see stressed out execs rushing off to the office. Even at rush hour, people are chilled out, they are enjoying the sun and their loved ones.

And I'm jealous. Not just of the couples. Okay a little of the couples. I've reached the ten month mark of being away from Sean and it's definitely one last push to the finish line. Not an easy push, I am constantly missing him and wishing he was here to enjoy the ice cream and laugh at the hipsters. Not helped by the fact that Berg is in like every single business name or sign all over this whole country. I miss him, and it's his birthday today and I'm not there. And I see two teenagers making out on the metro and I want to slap in the mouth because they've kissed like forty times in five mintues! It's way worse than being single and hating couples. Because I know what I could have it's just NOT HERE! Arrg. Maybe that's why I took up running again, to take the ol mind off of the BergerFevah!

Anyways, I leave for Greece tomorrow and leave behind Scandanavia. And to all those haters who are always asking why Sweden? Why not? Sweden is a lovely, exciting place and I wanted to check out a country that had it's shit together and where people enjoy life. And I think they do there. And I learned some things about what that means as well. I say I think they do because it's hard to tell what anyone is feeling due to the fairly reserved nature of many swedes. And although they do pretty much have it set as far as lifestyle and vacation time and delicious coffee. I'm an American at heart and I still love the outgoing no bullshit nature of the great west. I like chatting up strangers and having a beer just to have one, not because I'm thirsty. I like a country where many different outfits are fashionable and many different styles are considered beautiful. At first I was convinced this country had it all, but when you're given everything maybe that's not best either. A little struggle only made you stronger I think, and that seems to be more the American way. And I realize now what a shameless american I am because I do enjoy a bit of a hardship here and there, you learn more. And at the end of the day I want to smile and say hello to strangers on the street. And for these reasons I don't think I'll be moving to Stockholm, maybe for the bike lanes, but not the lifestyle.