Swedish book, movie and music reviews.
Fika. I love trying to explain what fika is to my American friends. I never seem to convey the experience accurately. Thankfully, Fabian Schmid has started a 6 part documentary on the Swedish art of fika.
Here is the first episode, covering the ritual of fika and what it is, and why it is so important.
Fika is probably one of the first words you want to learn when you go to Sweden, just so you can start to connect to others.
What has your experience been with the Swedish fika?
Better late than never! Thanks to the Internet you can watch the live Eurovision show in Stockholm. It is also going to be shown on Bravo in the United States if you still have cable.
Eurovision is pretty huge in Sweden, and Sweden’s If I Were Sorry sung by Frans is #9 going in.
It’s at noon Arizona time, which means noon PST and 3pm EST. Watch it on Eurovision.tv.
In the mean time, you can watch Frans. Lycka till!
Recently I asked Swedish Freaks on our Facebook fan page to show off their favorite Swedish bands. It was a great turn out and I got a taste of some great Swedish music that I have not heard of before. That day I ended up listening to all of this Swedish music. So I wanted … Read more
Melodifestivalen – The Song Contest If you are a Swedish mum or dad, you know what you’ll be doing between 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM, six Saturdays in a row, starting in February every year: you’ll be watching Melodifestivalen on TV. And three weeknights in May are also booked. What is Melodifestivalen? It’s a TV … Read more
Hilary knows me as big Europe fan from Canada. I don’t mean Europe-the-continent; I mean Sweden’s own hard rock supergroup, Europe. But for the most part, whenever I thought of Swedish music, bands like ABBA and Roxette, or singers like Jazz’s Alice Babs or Opera’s Jenny Lind (a.k.a. the Swedish Nightingale) came to mind. Hilary … Read more
Imagine ten Americans of varying ages and professions, such as sheriff, factory worker, pastor, designer, student, singer-songwriter,… all of these getting together, all strangers to each other but with one common characteristic: Swedish ancestry, of which they know very little. Buy them a return flight to Sweden and offer them a months all-inclusive journey … Read more
This guest post was written by Brett Sills, the author of My Sweet Saga, a story of an American finding adventure in Stockholm. If you tapped my shoulder in 2008 and told me that, in a year’s time, Sweden would become one of the most important things in my life, I’d have thought you were … Read more
Wednesday was a very eventful day. Johan decided to join me for ice fishing. And either he is a closet expert ice fisher, or had extreme beginners luck. Whatever the case was, Johan enjoyed ice fishing! Walle Mellquist, the journalist from Norran who did the fantastic article about ice fishing, sent me this Swedish fishing … Read more
Stadsfesten, a music festival that takes place every summer in Skellefteå, Norrland, Sweden announced today that Robyn will be joining the performing artists.