Posts tagged with "tourism"

Gekås – the temple of freezer bags and socks

Posted by jennie 13 Comments
Dec 14 2009

Imagine Sweden on a beautiful day in July. Imagine the warm breeze, the fresh air, the wide fields, the endless coastlines and the great big smorgasbord of things to do, see and experience. What would you pick? Would you spend the day on the beach? Take a boattrip in the archipelago (skärgård)? A walk in the woods? A stroll around a little fishing village?

Well, let me tell you what the first choice would be for thousands of Swedes. They  (I…) would get in a steaming hot car and travel hundreds of kilometers, to the little town of Ullared in the south west of Sweden. Ullared has 830 inhabitants, a firestation, a hotel and a primary school. But (you can see the “but” coming, can’t you?) Ullared also has Gekås, Scandinavia’s biggest department store (varuhus) and one of Sweden’s most popular tourist attractions.

Over 20 000 people enter the doors of Gekås every day and on a good day, they (we…) spend över 20 million SEK in there! (1.6 million GBP, 2.9 millon USD – roughly). It might not sound like an overwhelming sum of money at first, but when you take a closer look at what Gekås mostly sells and think about the number of Swedes, it is pretty respectable.
Gekås is four football pitches big and packed to the limit with freezer bags (fryspåsar), socks, washing up liquid, shampoo, cotton balls, underwear, sweets, toys… you name it, Gekås has it and it’s cheap (billigt). You can even stay the night or a fortnight in the Gekås campsite or the Gekås motel in case you plan to shop until you drop.

But Gekås is much more than an house filled with bargains. Since founded in 1963, Gekås has become an insitution that you either love or hate – even if you haven’t been – and everyone has something to say about it. The stories about the department store are many and amazing (people almost dying of exhaustion in the long queues, people fistfighting over a parking space…) and this winter, Gekås got its own tv-program. One of Sweden’s most popular tv-channels spent the whole summer filming customers (kunder) and sales assistants and believe it or not, it became one of the most popular tv-shows this year. Ullared part II is already scheduled for next year and “Gekås the Christmas special” is on tonight. If you are lucky, you can win a pack of freezer bags signed by the boss of Gekås. And that is not a joke.

So forget Stockholm, nevermind the north and don’t bother with the coastline. If you want to experience the true Swedish soul and get yourself a trolly filled with bargains at the same time – Ullared is the place to be. Just remember to bring comfortable shoes and very sharp elbows.

Foto:Daniel Jälmbratt/Kanal 5

Gekås in numbers:
Every year, the customers buy 100 million paper cups, 12 million rolls of baking paper, 1 million schampoo bottles, 12 million pair of socks and 2 000 tons of sweets.
The average customer drive 150 kilometer to get to Ullared.
Gekås has Sweden’s biggest parking lot with 2 000 parking spaces.

Have you been to Ullared? Or would you rather eat someone’s dirty socks? Share your thoughts or experience and you might win a pack of freezer bags signed by the Swedish blog team!

Fun Places in Sweden – Öland

Posted by Transparent Language 8 Comments
Aug 21 2009

If you read with some regularity what I write here on this blog, you might have gotten the impression my most favorite places in Sweden are all in the north. True, many of them are, but not all. Take Öland, for example. Definitely not in the north. In fact, as far as Sweden goes, it’s positively down south. Very south.

What? You’re surprised that I like Öland? And what’s there not to like? The place has everything – history, culture, nature, beaches (yes, beaches, and as far as Sweden goes, they’re quite OK), it’s sweet and charming and it’s definitely worth a visit. Or two. Or three. And the best part? It’s totally on the way from Kalmar, which just happens to be one of my favorite Swedish towns NOT located in the north.

I’ll never forget the first time I was traveling to Öland. I was a kid and had a massive panic attack while crossing the bridge (Ölandsbron) linking the island with the Swedish mainland. The bridge is six kilometers long, and while it might not be all that impressive by today’s standards, it was a feat of engineering back in 1972 when it was opened.

Oh, didn’t I tell you? Öland is an island. It’s pretty much self-explanatory when you look carefully at the name:

  • Ö + land = Ölan
  • ö (def.: ön, pl.: öar, def.pl.: öarna) landområde med vatten på alla sidor – in other words – an island.

And by the way, don’t you just love those one-letter words? I know I do.

But where were we? Ah yes, visiting Öland. Personally, I think that the Öland Tourism website does not do the place justice.

It fails to stress that while most of its info is indeed very summer oriented (and in Sweden, for all intents and purposes the summer season ended on August 16th this year), Öland is a very nice year-round destination, especially if you’re not a beach person (but then again, if you were, you’d go to Greece or Spain, not to Öland) and prefer history and nature.

Yeah history… can you believe that people settled on Öland back in 6000 BC? Isn’t it when the dudes in Egypt were busy carving sphinxes and building pyramids? It just boggles my mind when I realize that during that time things were also going on in other parts of the world. Namely – in Sweden.

But the ruins you can see on Öland these days are positively modern when compared to those very ancient times – they come from the Viking era. So if you’re into Viking stuff, then Öland should definitely be on your itinerary.

And if you like harvest festivals and pumpkins, then Ölands Skördefest will be right up your alley. This year it’s scheduled to take place on September 24 through the 27th. And even though I don’t like pumpkins, this event sounds like a lot of fun.

So, if you’ve been to Öland before, please tell us what you thought of the place. Would you recommend it as an interesting destination for a visit? (I’m asking, because I know that my opinion might not necessarily be for everybody).

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Sweden

Posted by Transparent Language 5 Comments
Jul 28 2009

Believe it or not, but I know a person who actually said that Sweden was a very boring country. She claims that apart from Stockholm, there is absolutely nothing interesting worth visiting here. Unfortunately, her point of view is shared by the many foreign travel writers who bang out mediocre stories about Stockholm and think they “know” the real Sweden. I don’t know about you, but personally, I’m tired of such nonsense and so when I see a travel article on Sweden in one of the major US newspapers (or even travel magazines) I am reluctant to read it. I even know one such travel writer (no it’s not you, Lola!) and she thinks, no, she’s convinced that Stockholm is all that Sweden has to offer. No, scratch that, she’s convinced that Sweden IS Stockholm, and that’s it. End of story.

So in case you are wondering what else is there to see in this country, I thought I’d take the most convenient way out and list all the UNESCO World Heritage sites. And there’s more than just a couple of them here (oh, how I wish that those ill-informed travel writers knew how to use google!)

Here they are (most of them, anyway) in the order they’ve been added to the World Heritage list:

  • Drottningholm Palace, Theatre — 1991
  • Birka and Hovgården (on the islands Björkö and Adelsö in Mälaren near Stockholm) — 1993
  • Engelsberg Ironworks — 1993
  • Rock carvings in Tanumshede — 1994
  • Skogskyrkogården (in Stockholm) — 1994 – I even wrote about this one before
  • Hanseatic town of Visby — 1995
  • Church Village of Gammelstad, Luleå — 1996
  • Laponian area (in the Gällivare Municipality, Arjeplog Municipality and Jokkmokk Municipality – my favorite!), Swedish Lapland — 1996 (that’s a nature site)
  • Naval Port of Karlskrona — 1998
  • Agricultural Landscape of southern Öland — 2000 (another nature site)
  • High Coast and Kvarken Archipelago — shared with Finland — 2000, 2006 (a totally fabulous nature site)
  • Mining Area of the Great Copper Mountain in Falun — 2001
  • Varberg Radio Station at Grimeton — 2004

So there you have it! There is indeed more to Sweden than just Stockholm and even the UNESCO World Heritage list big wigs agree!

Interesting Places – Linbana in Norsjö

Posted by Transparent Language 3 Comments
Jun 27 2009

A week ago the season started at one of my favorite tourist attractions in Sweden. And I hear you groan… If it’s one of Anna’s favorite attractions it must be somewhere up north. Ridiculously up north. Hard to get to. Rather obscure. Infested with mosquitoes. Filled with blueberries. And surrounded by wild nature. Yep. You’re right. On all accounts, except for the “ridiculously up north” bit. The place I’m going to tell you about today is moderately up north by Swedish standards. It’s practically southern Lappland. And that’s practically central Sweden if you squint at the map at just the right angle.

And the attraction I’m talking about? Världens Längsta Linbana (the world’s longest ropeway) in Norsjö. Well, technically it’s between Örträsk and Mensträsk, but since nobody’s ever heard about those places, we’ll stick with Norsjö – much easier to find on the map.

What’s the longest ropeway in the world doing in the woods, you might ask? Hmmm… It’s a long story.

It started with a mine (gold, silver, copper, zinc, and lead) in Kristineberg. Back in the olden days, the ore had been transported to Boliden by road – about 100 kilometers (or 10 Swedish miles). But then WW2 happened and with it came severe shortages of fuel and rubber. In other words, road transport became pretty much impossible. But the world still needed that ore. And even more so than before. The problem of how to transport it to the coast was solved in a rather ingenious way.

“Hey, let’s build a ropeway,” someone said. And the rest is history.

And boy, did they build a ropeway, or what? 96 kilometers of it. Through the woods and over the lakes. It took 1500 men two years to finish it.

So how did they transport that ore using a ropeway? They simply loaded it into buckets and moved those buckets on a cable. Kind of like that:

These days 13 kilometers of this ropeway are used for moving tourists. Not in buckets, of course (but hey, now THAT would be an attraction, don’t you think?), but in comfortable cabins. The trip takes about an hour and a half and you can even order lunch. Or bring your own picnic along. And a camera – don’t forget about the camera!

And the best part? If you go towards the end of the season, you can see all the best hjortron patches from the air!

Yeah, yeah, nice bucket of hjortron. (Seen from the air).

And here’s the official website of Världens Längsta Linbana with all the relevant info. Enjoy!

Hostels in Sweden

Posted by Transparent Language 7 Comments
Jun 15 2009

Yeah, it seems to be the coldest beginning of summer in Sweden in the last 50 years or so! Brrr… The calendar says one thing, but the weather – another.

Still, summer is summer, and as you’ve probably noticed (or know very well, if you’re Swedish) Swedes tend to believe the calendar more than the weather forecast. Why? The calendar is never wrong. And what about the forecasts? Well, we all know how accurate those can be…

However, we won’t let such a petty thing as weather stop us from enjoying our summer, right? But what can stop us from enjoying our summer are hotel prices in Sweden. Let’s face it, they’re high. Or very high. Even with the lower summer rates, it still can be too expensive for many people and families to go out and explore the country.

One alternative is to stay at a hostel instead.

Don’t worry, it’s not just an option for starving backpackers (though a month of exploring Sweden can turn any foreigner into a starving backpacker) anymore. Many hostels have private rooms, some with private bathrooms, even. Sometimes it’s hard to tell when a hotel ends and a hostel begins, because some full-service hotels turn part of their properties into cheaper hostel options.

If you think that as a family you can’t stay in a hostel, you’re wrong. Hostels (at least those in Sweden that I’m familiar with) know that families like to travel, too. Even families with smallish children. Therefore, don’t be surprised if you see many of the hostels here offering “family rooms”. And accepting pets (hey, some families have pets instead of children).

There are two main organizations in Sweden that run their own hostels. One is SVIF (Sveriges Vandrarhem i Förening – Organization of Swedish Youth Hostels) and the other STF (Svenska Turistföreningen – Swedish Tourist Association)

I like them both, and their hostels are pretty much of the same standard, both in terms of comfort, as well as price. Of course, in big cities you can expect to pay more than what you would in the countryside, that goes without saying. But even with that, hostels are a much more affordable option than full-service hotels.

I think that there are many hostel misconceptions, especially among Americans. But in my experience, those who were reluctant to try a Swedish hostel, but soon realized they couldn’t afford to spend every night in a hotel, very quickly came around to the idea of hostels and saw that this type of accommodation in Sweden can be of high standard, clean, safe and super friendly.

Both SVIF and STF have a list of hostels on their websites. And yes, their websites also have English versions. Which organization’s hostel you choose depends solely on you and on where you want to go. For example, in Västerbotten SVIF has only one facility, but STF – four.
And to that you still need to add a whole slew of independent hostel-type accommodation (not belonging to any association). So, in other words, pretty much anywhere you want to go in Sweden, there will be an affordable place to stay nearby.

No excuses! You CAN see Sweden on a budget. True, that budget may be a bit higher than in other European countries, but what other European country can offer you as much as Sweden, huh?

One thing you need to remember – room prices in Sweden are normally given per person, NOT per room! Keep that in mind, and there won’t be any unpleasant surprises later on.
If you plan to stay at a hostel, be sure to call and book ahead. Every year, seemingly all of Sweden and half of the world come up with exactly the same idea of cheap places to stay. This is doubly true in these tough economic times – there will be even more people competing for those affordable bunk beds, especially in the more popular areas.

What else can we do to travel in Sweden without breaking the bank? If you have any tips or suggestions, feel free to comment.

Today’s word:

  • vandrarhem (def. -hemmet, pl. -hem, pl.def. -hemmen) – enkelt ställe där man kan övernatta och laga mat, t.ex. när man är ute och reser – hostel
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