first year in Sweden

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

(deutsch steht unten)

I was asked to provide a bit of summary of the first months in Sweden. As usual, it turned out to be not just after three months, but after a year. So, here it is. :-)

Life
#

I would say the main difference between Germany and Sweden is that things are not seen as stressful and are better balanced. Typical example: In Sweden, it’s normal to have to pick up your child from (för)skola in the afternoon. And that can sometimes clash with other calls. Well, that’s just the way it is. There’s no discussion about that. And the Swedes are also generally busy, of course, and are sometimes in a bit of a hurry when they go to work or something. But all in all, they’re not as overly stressed as they are in many German cities. And you shouldn’t forget: Gothenburg is the second largest city in Sweden. In general, a lot of emphasis is placed on leisure time, family time and health. I see people jogging or doing sports in the utegym all the time. And taking the kids to school and work by bike? That’s also more ‘normal’. Of course, this is even more pronounced in countries like the Netherlands or Denmark, but it’s nice to see that the city is focussing on sustainable and inclusive infrastructure for everyone. Another big difference to Germany is definitely the high level of digitalisation. Cash? exists in theory and is still used by very few people. But it feels like 95% of life is done entirely via ApplePay/GooglePay, credit card or Swish. And the internet is also very fast. 5G is virtually everywhere and you don’t have to worry about pages taking ages to load. At home there is fibre optic with 1 Gbit/s (both directions! ;-) ).

Year on Arnes Blog

first year in Sweden

Life #

Life
#