Monday Muse: Armchair Backpacker #5 - Sweden!

Hi everyone! Are you having a wonderful Monday today? Well, I hope everything goes well because after all, this is the first week of Fall! (or Spring in Southern Hemisphere. I won't forget you, dear Australians
♥) My summer break is officially over today, with me going back to study and everything. I'm missing summer (break) already of course, but on the bright side, I can dedicate myself to read more now! I always have tendency to read less, sleep more in holiday time LOL! x)

Now, for the mystery country!

Tarataratarataratarataraaaaaa~~!!

Sweden, the beautiful country in Europe where Lisbeth Salander lives and creepy vampires from Let the Right One In haunts the neighborhood. I'm sure that Sweden is as much mystery to you as it is for me, so... enjoy! ♥ :)

The Bookie in Action

Hello! I'm Rebecca from Kindle Fever! *waves* I live all the way up in Sweden and while I hate that our winters are so long, I do love it here. :D

I'm a Kindle addict as you might have already guessed and to the left you can see my little reading corner poke its nose out (our new couch has a chaise longue I absolutely adore!) and my bookshelf. 

If you see this, you basically know where I spend most of my days. *giggles*

Places I Love

I live in the more northern part of Sweden and it's definitely not as special or eventful as the southern--so don't judge Sweden because of this. Lol! We actually just got a NetOnNet store, known for its bad locations, right next to us--that's how awesome we are. ;)

View this and you'll understand! You don't have to understand Swedish to get it.) Since I only got to take the pictures kind of last minute, I've settled with taking some pictures of my favorite areas around me!

Frasses

 In the first picture you'll see a hamburger restaurant called Frasses that is a seriously awesome fast food restaurant and way more loved over here than, for example, McDonalds! We also have an, apparently special thing, called Skrovmål (a meal containing a double burger, fries and a soda basically) in different sizes, which is apparently even limited up to the northern parts of Sweden... I guess we're special? Lol!

Handelsområde

 In the second picture you'll see our little "shopping center"! A few clothes/sport/electronics stores, supermarket, pharmacy and Systembolaget--the place you buy alcohol in, since it's the only place allowed to sell the stronger things. Another thing special for Sweden!

Books

The supermarket is also the only place where I can find books around here without going to the library or down town; you can see their "awesome" selection in the third picture.

Library

 In the fourth picture we have the library! But I have to say I've come to love it a bit less lately, since they don't really have the best selection when it comes to my genres and English books. We do have a bigger one down town, but it's the same problem there. *sigh* It's kinda cozy though!

Food (Candy!)

If I can say so myself, we have some awesome food here--although apparently we use way more salt than many... Below are some of my favorite foods as well as candy that's pretty Swedish, from what I've understood. ;)

Julmust

The best soda ever! It's basically only sold during Christmas and is one of the yummiest things ever. It's the best selling drink around that time.

Smörgåstårta

Mmh! It's basically food and cake in one! There's many different versions of foods and vegetables used, but they're all oh so yummy. Another have to if you're ever in Sweden and haven't tried it!

Pyttipanna

One of the best "husmanskost"-dishes ever. It's basically food you make completely yourself and pyttipanna is shortly explained a left-overs dish. Put some cubed ham, potato and/or sausage in a pan and fry them for a while and serve with eggs and beets. This is what you long for when being abroad for too long. ;)

Palt

 Oh palt, how I love you! Another northern Swedish thing that's delicious. I guess it's most similar to dumplings; potato, flour, ham... and served with lingonberry jam and butter!

Surströmming

 Not that I recommend it, but it's a specialty. ;) Stinky, fermented herring... You can always just watch Big Steve try it on YouTube. ;)

Ahlgrens bilar

Car candy! Lol, while it's not my all time favorite candy, I absolutely love it because it's so random. They started out with car-shaped candy in different colors and have since then made different accessories to them with different flavors. Like tiers, trailers... you name it!

Chocolate

I won't even go into specifics, just say that these are all my absolute favorite chocolates ever. There's nothing better. :D Nomnomnom! Look for them if you ever visit. ;)

Events

We don't really have too many events or similar things here sadly, but we do get some music and other culture-ish things from time to time. One thing we do have around here though is a brännboll event! I love brännboll (a game kind of like baseball, but... not? For those curious, you can find the rules here and this tournament lets anyone enter a team and compete just for fun! There’s also a costume competition for the teams, so you'll often see them dress up for it while playing. ;) The only downside is the (mostly too much) drinking that's allowed during this weekend as well, but at least they're all having fun

Final Words

I wish life had let me have more time to show you some more awesome Swedish things, but I'm glad I got to show you some of it at least. I really hope you've all had a wonderful summer (it's most definitely fall here now judging by the weather *sigh*) and thank you Hilda SO much for inviting me here to share some Swedish things with you. :D *hugs* You rock!

Thank you so much for doing this awesometastic  post, Bex! ♥ You rock too! *hugs back* I have no tiny bit idea how to pronounce the food names, but they all seem YUMMY! And aww, don't we all have soft spot for chocolate? ;)

Right now, Rebecca's blog is on semi-hiatus, but you can still check her blog out, Kindle Fever! :) I love Rebecca's blog design, it's very professional-looking and clean! Simple but beautiful. ♥ I also love Rebecca's fresh writing! Her reviews are short, straightforward, and always brilliant! x)

The giveaway will be posted tomorrow, so stay tune! Thank you for sticking up with me during our journey in five countries! ♥ I meet more and more bloggers from all around the world lately, so I might will do Armchair Backpacker project again someday!

Thank you for reading! Hope you're having fabulous Monday (or any day you're reading this now), awesome people! :)