You're asking someone from inside the box, very hard to tell but I'll give it a try.

The stereotype of quiet and withdrawn people is probably true applied to the northern swedes but in the more urban half of the country people tend to be more open. On the surface, that is, because a lot of people are very opininated. In the smaller towns and communities people are often very close-minded, conservative and not keen on changes. In the bigger (relatively) towns like Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and maybe even Västerås, Örebro, Linköping, Lund and so on, people at least try to act out a more continental aura of openness but the truth is that the general swede is a very collective person who stick to certain ideas and conform to one common stream or another. And the infamous "Jantelagen" is still prevalent - you're not supposed to be anything special. These days however, when some try to point out that individualism is (and has been for a while) on the rise, I just don't see it. What I see is yet another collective stream trying to outsmart the surrounding streams by lauding the uniqueness of the individual, albeit in the process instead forming a social conformity in which you're still not supposed to deviate from the norm within.



Did that make sense? :confused:

The music scene is in many ways better than Finlands. Also I hate the general drunken retardness Finland seems to be almost proud sometimes. Other than that Swedes and Finns seem to be really similiar.

I guess it does.
Strange thing though, as I get the idea that the people from norway and finland tend to like sweden better than their own countries.

I have a question for you, Folkslave.

What's up with the salty licorice? BLEUUUUGHH.

Sweden's musical legacy is definitely something worth mentioning, I agree upon that. The drunkenness however is not absent here either. In Sweden people get drunk every weekend and alcoholism is not uncommon. Maybe it's even worse in Finland, I don't know.

I think that drunkenness is inherent in every first world country.

We have that here, too. I don't think it's all that groce. But then I'm not really in to licquorice. Don't really like the sweet version either :)

The norwegians probably do since they can live near the border and drive over here when it's shopping time. :D

s_k: I've always been fascinated of the ingeniousness of extending the land, with all the ocean barriers and cities built on poles. I recall from long ago some documentary or whatever that Amsterdam had problems with buildings tilting and slowly descending into the ground. How is all this working out these days?

(Well, maybe you don't even live in Amsterdam so that should probably be my first question, but in any case I figure you might have some insight)

Oh my god! Salty licorice (Salmiakki in finnish) is propably the greatest thing since sliced bread. Love eating it :D

I think the drinking is pretty same everywhere but it sometimes sickens me that people here find our drinking culture to be something that is worth bragging about. It's actually quite a problem here. Personally I don't drink at all anymore and I don't care if people drink but it's a shame that people here seem to think taht finnish people are the biggest drinkers in the world and are proud of it and try to keep that illusion up.