@narfcake Divorced men furnish their apartment at the thrift store and building supply. You can do a lot with sawhorses, cinder blocks, and unfinished lumber.
Ikea is nice enough that it’s just something else to lose.
/giphy not bitter
@heartny I have a jar of that in my pantry! I need to open it up. I actually went to Sweden last summer on an insurance company award trip. I wanted one of those little orange horses but they were maybe $45. I found one at Goodwill for two bucks after I got home and pretend it’s a souvenir.
Walk outside today, stand still for 15 minutes or until your ears and nose grow numb, and know that you have experienced the wonders of a Swedish winter.
Until that happens, the closest I’ve been physically is a layover in Amsterdam. Culturally, the trip my family took to Iceland in the '90s is probably closer.
Germany, Italy, France, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Netherlands (Amsterdam) but I haven’t made it far enough north to hit Scandinavia. One day…
We spend the entire month of August 2014 in Europe on a trip that included Croatia, Turkey, and Greece (Mediterranean cruise); Italy, France, and England (by train), and Denmark, Estonia, Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway (Scandinavian cruise). We weren’t supposed to go to Norway, but the Baltic Sea was too rough for the pilot boats at Stockholm and Visby where we were supposed to go. So we diverted to Goteborg, Sweden and Oslo, Norway. Below is a photo I took in Goteborg, Sweden. So lovely. Sorry if the photo is flat looking, I lost thousands of photos in a hard drive crash, so I took a photo of the photo in my photo book. PS: I got 20 days of cruising, 5 days of hotels, 5 days flat rental in London, train and chunnel tickets plus our international flights for $3,400pp.
As a native Texan, I found Sweden is beautiful Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall! The stamps shown are from my old passport but I’ve been to Sweden many more times.
My wife and I lived in Norway for a year. While I was there I spent a weekend in Stockholm. We met a friend who was there for an endocrinology conference. His old friend who was also there worked for big pharma so we partied for the weekend on some drug company’s dime. It was fantastic because otherwise there was no way I could afford to drink in Sweden or Norway.
We discovered Ikea during that year in Norway. It was '95-'96 so it wasn’t a big thing over here yet. It was also the only place in Norway that we could afford to buy anything. In Norway, Ikea isn’t blue and yellow (the colors of the Swedish flag) because the Norwegians don’t like the Swedes. Instead, it’s red and white (at least it was back then), two of the colors in the Norwegian flag.
@narfcake Divorced men furnish their apartment at the thrift store and building supply. You can do a lot with sawhorses, cinder blocks, and unfinished lumber.
Ikea is nice enough that it’s just something else to lose.
/giphy not bitter
/giphy bork bork bork
@spitfire6006006 well that didn’t work…
Do massages count?
I have a jar of organic Lingonberry preserves I recently bought at Ikea. It’s like a souvenir from my trip to Sweden I never took.
@heartny I have a jar of that in my pantry! I need to open it up. I actually went to Sweden last summer on an insurance company award trip. I wanted one of those little orange horses but they were maybe $45. I found one at Goodwill for two bucks after I got home and pretend it’s a souvenir.
@heartny My dad always had lingonberries at Xmas along with a whole Swedish dinner. Years ago, he use to make Lutefisk.
I make kringla, does that count?
Walk outside today, stand still for 15 minutes or until your ears and nose grow numb, and know that you have experienced the wonders of a Swedish winter.
My grandfather came from Sweden, so part of my DNA came from there, does that count?
Does Ikea count?
Not that I’ve been to one, I’m just curious if Sweden owns them.
@DVDBZN It’s complicated.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/walterloeb/2012/12/05/ikea-is-a-world-wide-wonder/amp/
My wife and I will be staying with friends in Umea this July. She’s been before. I haven’t.
Until that happens, the closest I’ve been physically is a layover in Amsterdam. Culturally, the trip my family took to Iceland in the '90s is probably closer.
Closest I have been is the Swiss airport
@tinamarie1974 Closest I’ve been is the Dallas airport. Even then, I was just dropping someone off.
@JoetatoChip IAD is pretty exotic!
I have Swedish meatballs… does that count?
Sweden is one of the countries I have always wanted to visit.
Some day…
Germany, Italy, France, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Netherlands (Amsterdam) but I haven’t made it far enough north to hit Scandinavia. One day…
I haven’t been to Texas. Does that count?
@ELUNO I’ve never been to Spain, but I kinda like the music.
I hear the ladies are insane there.
@macromeh I want to go to there now.
We spend the entire month of August 2014 in Europe on a trip that included Croatia, Turkey, and Greece (Mediterranean cruise); Italy, France, and England (by train), and Denmark, Estonia, Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway (Scandinavian cruise). We weren’t supposed to go to Norway, but the Baltic Sea was too rough for the pilot boats at Stockholm and Visby where we were supposed to go. So we diverted to Goteborg, Sweden and Oslo, Norway. Below is a photo I took in Goteborg, Sweden. So lovely. Sorry if the photo is flat looking, I lost thousands of photos in a hard drive crash, so I took a photo of the photo in my photo book. PS: I got 20 days of cruising, 5 days of hotels, 5 days flat rental in London, train and chunnel tickets plus our international flights for $3,400pp.
Amsterdam is the closest for me.
My grandmother, the amazing cook, was Swedish.
Is Anita Eckberg Swedish?
Closest I’ve been is Montreal. It’s cold and they speak a foreign language (they can speak English, but they won’t because they’re French.)
Does that count?
As a native Texan, I found Sweden is beautiful Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall! The stamps shown are from my old passport but I’ve been to Sweden many more times.
@planotex What are you, a “fish” smuggler or something?
@mfladd maybe IKEA meatballs?
@mfladd Nope, just an Ericsson employee given opportunities to travel. I did eat some good fish there though. FYI… their IKEA is bigger than ours.
@planotex Nice you get that type of travel on the companies dime. And I love “swedish fish”.
There they go swinging their big ikeas right in front of our faces. Those bastards!
My wife and I lived in Norway for a year. While I was there I spent a weekend in Stockholm. We met a friend who was there for an endocrinology conference. His old friend who was also there worked for big pharma so we partied for the weekend on some drug company’s dime. It was fantastic because otherwise there was no way I could afford to drink in Sweden or Norway.
We discovered Ikea during that year in Norway. It was '95-'96 so it wasn’t a big thing over here yet. It was also the only place in Norway that we could afford to buy anything. In Norway, Ikea isn’t blue and yellow (the colors of the Swedish flag) because the Norwegians don’t like the Swedes. Instead, it’s red and white (at least it was back then), two of the colors in the Norwegian flag.