Tourism
‘’Sweden is the friendliest country in the world.’’
‘’The Stockholm City is ’absurdly beautiful’.’’
These are a couple of headlines from European and American journals, talking about experiences from the Pippi Longstocking’s land. Why are they all so enthusiastic and poetical?
We could find a number of reasons for that. For example: the fact that you can bathe in the middle of a city with million inhabitants, in which each underground station is a true art installation, the fact that the »köttbullar« (meat balls) are absolutely genuine and that the ‘’absurdly beautiful’’ centre of the city is also known as ‘’Venice of the North’’; and last but not least the fact that during holidays all citizens disappear from the city in order to inhabit the 20.000 islands in the Stockholm’s Archipelago.
And then, there is the glittering Nordic light across the Polar Circle; the darkly black and infinitely clear sky offering an excellent canvas for the glowing light.
It is also because Dalarna, with its old provincial tradition, with its deep forests and glimmering lakes, offers a magical setting for the celebration of the arrival of the summer and the sun, known as »midsommar« (midsummer), and because here each red summer cottage or »röd stuga« is worth its postcard. Dalarna is where the famous painter Anders Zorn was born and where the traditional winter running event Vasaloppet continues to take place.
Then there are restaurants here which surprise and charm the visitors with their dishes, tastes and atmosphere; the modern architecture with the obligatory Nordic harmony; the world detective and criminal best-sellers and of course the awesomely popular Swedish pop music.
And so we could go on and on about the natural wonders and other appealing features of this vast, extraordinary land. We could talk about the summer sailing among the thousands of Swedish islands along the east and west cost, about the picturesque coastal towns and fishermen villages; we could write about the historical town Visby on the island of Gotland, the freedom of the vast forests and national parks Sarek, Stora Sjöfallet, Padjelanta in Lappland, the autumn hunting of the moose, and on and on ...
Turizem
"Švedska je najprijaznejša dežela na svetu."
"Stockholmski city je ”absurdno lep”."
To je nekaj naslovnic iz evropskih in ameriških časopisov, ki govorijo o doživetjih v deželi Pike Nogavičke. Zakaj so tako navdušeni in poetični?
Med drugim zato, ker se je mogoče kopati sredi milijonskega mesta Stockholma, ker je vsaka podzemska postaja prava umetniška instalacija, ker so »köttbullar« (mesne kroglice) resnične, ker je center mesta »absurdno lep« in ga imenujejo tudi Severne Benetke in ker med prazniki vsi meščani izginejo ven iz mesta med 20 tisoč otokov stockholmskega arhipelaga.
In potem je tam ta nordijska lesketajoča svetloba čez polarni krog; temno črno in neskončno čisto nebo je odlično slikarsko platno za žareče nebo.
In ker Dalarna, s staro podeželsko tradicijo, z globokimi gozdovi in blesketajočimi jezeri ponuja čarobno praznovanje poletja in sonca »midsommar« in ker je tu vsaka rdeča podeželska hiša vredna svoje razglednice. V Dalarni sta doma tako slikar Anders Zorn kot tradicionalna zimska tekaška prireditev Vasaloppet.
Potem so tu restavracije in jedi, ki presenečajo in navdušujejo z okusi in okoljem, moderna arhitektura z obvezno nordijsko harmonijo, svetovne detektivske in kriminalne uspešnice in seveda tudi popularna švedska pop-glasba.
In tako bi lahko pripovedovali naprej o naravnih lepotah in posebnostih te širne, drugačne dežele. Govorili bi o poletnem jadranju med tisočerimi otoki na vzhodni in zahodni obali, o slikovitih obalnih mestecih in ribiških vasicah, pisali bi o zgodovinskem mestu Visby na otoku Gotland, o svobodi sredi obširnih gozdov in narodnih parkov Sarek, Stora Sjöfallet, Padjelanta v Lapplandu, o jesenskem lovu na lose in še in še …