Well outright there are some serious differences out of the gate here in Sweden in comparison to France. I haven’t seen the “bad” side of Sweden yet so these are just initial thoughts and perceptions rather then something more meaningful. So don’t call me out on it just yet or hold me to them because they will probably change. I think the biggest and most noticeable is how everyone is so orderly and systematic. When I was in this crowded major department store I didn’t feel like I was mosh pitting like how I felt in France. France was like being in a pinball machine when trying to walk through a crowed area. Another astonishing difference is how people line or queue up. In France it’s just a cow herd of people to the front of the line with cutting and butting etc. In Sweden it’s much more civilized. If there isn’t a number system then there is a straight and obvious line with no cutting. In the rare occurrence that someone does cut you don’t say anything about them until they can no longer hear you and then they are open to verbal abuse (thanks Johan and Joel for explaining this). So far and yes I know this is only my opinion and may change but everyone I have interacted with has been excessively nice. It maybe that I’m starting to see the cup half full from the torture I endured in France but I’ll keep an eye on this one. Also it seems that the people here seem to be more humble then the French. Both people have things to be very proud of but the Swedes tend to be more humble and do not flaunt what they are good at. Also going along with the whole Swedes are more communal from some of my posts earlier in the trip I see that it’s very true. Almost all of the vehicles here are Volvo or Saab, McDonalds major competition is not Burger King , it’s the Swedish franchise MaX Burger (which is pretty good) ,most of the road signs are the national colors blue and yellow and there are many company names like “Swedco”, “SwedBank” and “Swedol”. What do we have … Bank of America and American Outfitters? Another weird thing is that I can barely pick out my name spoken with the Swedish pronouncing were as in French you can kinda pick things out and understand. I’m at a total loss when it comes to the language here … but yet I feel much more comfortable here then I did in France. One thing that is weird is the money. Specifically the coinage, the 1 krona is about the same size as a quarter and the 2 euro. The 5 krona is about the size of the 50 cent. But the 10 krona is the size of a dime, 4 times as thick. Just a tad misleading and confusing, I guess the dime and the nickel confuse an equal amount of people.