Quirky Swedish lifestyle facts part II Posted by Katja on Apr 22, 2010 in Culture
Ok guys, for all of you who read part 1 you now know that Swedes do not wear shoes inside. Well then what do they do if they don’t want to lose “a part of their outfit”?
#1 Most Swedes have shoes for all occasions. Shoes you wear outside, then when inside you usually walk around in socks or bare feet. If you want to dress up or go to a party you take your “fancy” shoes with you. It is not uncommon that people take “indoor” shoes with them to their work places as well. The Swedish shoes called “crocs” are quite a funny sight in office buildings, everybody walking around in colorful shoes. But people also wear sandals to keep their feet healthier instead of wearing high heel shoes they can let their feet “breathe”.
#2 Tomato sauce (Ketchup) is the number 1 condiment in Sweden. There is no competition what so ever from any other condiments, no HP or anything. Almost everything has ketchup poured over it if not for the exception of bearnaise sås, which Swedes love to put on salads, meat and anything else thinkable.
#3 As you all know (at least those of you who have been to Sweden) that Swedish food is however much advertised as “foreign” and “exotic” will be “Swedish-ised”. Food made Swedish only means making it milder, and putting ketchup all over it. In some countries the whole food culture is based on fresh vegetables. This might be a problem some times since fresh vegetables aren’t as easily accessible as in other parts of Europe.
#4 In almost every window in a normal Swedish house/apartment you can expect to see a small hanging lamp to make the room look “homier”. In addition to that a flower can most likely be found, whether it is a plastic one or not differs. In the winter the flowers are exchanged for Jewish looking menorahs (Julstakar, ljusstakar). All these decorations to make the room and house look friendlier and more homey.
I was thinking about posting a couple of posts about “Quirky facts” in for example “the office” and “in school”. If you have any ideas, feel free to post a comment with them.
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Comments:
BM:
“The Swedish shoes called “crocs” are quite a funny sight in office buildings”
Crocs are North American (Canadian design, American manufacture, marketing, etc).
Katja:
Sorry about that, always thought of them as Swedish.
Katja:
Sorry about that, always thought of them as Swedish.
Andrea:
#4: flowers and lamps? For me, the almost everywhere empty windows here in a random Stockholm street look like offices that are just being sold or renovated… I wonder in many cases if there are people living there at all.
Minty:
Anoyone wearing crocs in Australia is labelled as either a tourist, a child, or a loser. 😛
Kenia:
“Quirky facts in the office”, great idea Katja! You see, I had no idea the bare-feet custom applied as well to work offices! What about a public indoor place, like a restaurant, or a store?
I guess you can find quirky facts in almost any aspect of the everyday life, just pick those you think would be more interesting to share with us.
I love these posts! Tack!
Katja:
Hi Kenia, As funny as that would seem Swedes keep their shoes on in shops and public places like restaurants (except swimming pools where most people either wear crocs or are just barefoot). Great that somebody likes reading them! Varsågod 🙂
Andrea:
I was wondering Katja where to read Part I, I didn’t find it.
About crocs: my Swedish ex-husband said that it was invented by a Swedish sportsman.
Katja:
Andrea, Part one was posted the 14th of April, this is the link
https://blogs.transparent.com/swedish/quirky-swedish-lifestyle-facts/
Hope you like it. The person who invented the crocs is called Peter Forsberg, he is a famous ice hockey player (don’t know if he still plays ice hockey or not. I don’t particularly like ice hockey 🙂 )
LC in Seattle:
#2 I don’t remember seeing an unusual amount of ketchup in Sweden, but maybe that’s because I’m a barbarian when it comes to cooking. I do remember the bearnaise sauce.
#4 I remember seeing lots of those large spherical (paper?) lights hanging in kitchens.
Majlis Hanson:
Like most of Scadanavian countries (?) the Swedish national flag is seen almost everywhere, in front of every house especially in the countryside, on a pole in different shapes…A very nice thing to see…