Schweden – Hölle oder Paradies?

Switched on the TV shortly after arriving and got a true only in Sweden moment.

It was some C-Span type live coverage of the Swedish parliament. It turned out to be a special session with “the five national minorities.” Like a little delegation of Jews, a little delegation of Roma etc. Each with a sign in front of them reading “Romska Minoriteten,” “Judiska Minoriteten,” and so on.

They each stepped up and did a show and tell, sung a song, explained their/ our history in Sweden, problems faced and plans for the future. Then a scheduled kaffepaus and an admonition to be bqack on time. “We are so glad to have our minorities; they make Sweden so much more colorful and interesting.” Incredibly bizarre to watch, fresh off the plane from New York. Watch for the upcoming web portal “minoritet.se”

Also, given the current demographics of Sweden, why are there two Finnish-speaking “national minorities” but no Arab or Muslim ones?

No Such Thing as Coincidence

I am writing this late evening in from the lobby of Hotel Anglais in Stockholm, very possibly the only place in the city with wireless access at this time of night. Normally a nice quiet place, unfortunately tonight it is full of graduating high school seniors partying the night away to house music. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

Weather here is extremely sunny and warm –- much to my surprise since I never trust a Swede’s temperature judgment. I am not particularly tired, still riding high off the light-fueled adrenalin kick. The sun hasn’t set yet even though it is past 10 PM local time.

The only snag in my journey here was that I stupidly forgot to drink up the water in my water bottle before going through security. A security guy on a power trip would not let me just drink the water, he insisted in it down the drain. OK.

Then, like a frazzled idiot, I let my camera (inside the camera bag) slide down my shoulder when I bent to pick up my other bags. It hit the floor. Not hard, but hard enough for me to have a horrible feeling I had cracked the filter (it’s happened to me once before). Sure enough, I had. I’m very, very happy it was only the filter as these are cheap to replace but it does make me think I should invest in some extra padding for my camera bag. I’m pretty sure my camera is ok, though.

On the plane I had the pleasure of being surrounded by the gentlemen of the metal band Tesla. (In existence since 1986, they told me.) They were on their way to play a festival but had forgotten which one.

I was a bit worried they would be all rock ‘n’ roll and drink heavily. Happily they all took sleeping pills before take-off. Weirdly, I was reading a book where Nikola Tesla was mentioned. I pointed this out to the guy next to me. He said Tesla invented the radio and that the band was named for him.

While I waited for the bus at the Central Station in Stockholm, who should come biking by if not Melinda. Thus we were able to continue our tradition of random unplanned meetings outside Swedish train stations.

Admittedly banal occurrences, but these types of coincidences happen way to often for me to believe they are random.