Skandinavia

^^ Assuming the most commonly spoken languages correlates with people whose ancestors originated from those countries -- a fair assumption, I think ... then it reinforces the image of Norwegians as the "extremophiles".

I'm curious though ... Does anyone really know how to speak Scandinavian languages over there? I've never met anyone, myself, but I know there are "Sons of Norway" societies still active some places.
 
The big news in Norway today was that the World's Biggest Aeroplane landed at the airport outside Oslo. It's some Russian plane, Antonov something, that the military rented to take back all their expensive toys from Afghanistan. I hear it was a big day for aeroplane enthusiast.
 
beanstew said:
^ An-225 Mriya. There is only 1 in existence and it is huge. It's broken all kinds of records.

</aeroplane enthusiast> ;)
Click to expand...
Right, that's the one I think:

So was that the aeroplane they had in one of those American catastrophe movies? I forget what it was called ... Something about the end of the world by flooding? And a group of people who escaped in a very big Russian aeroplane, that they only just managed to get off the ground.
 
Hi :)

I am going to Malmo, Sweden soon on a surprise holiday (so excited), as well as Copenhagen for a day trip while we are there. Any vegan related (or otherwise actually!) things to do, advice, must-sees, etc welcome. How well is veganism understood (i.e. if I am somewhere that isn't fully vegan)?

How much should I try to practice from my phrase book... obviously don't know any Swedish (except the odd word picked up from TV... not sure that counts), but I don't want to offend but assuming everyone can speak English... I know some countries are more welcoming of English speaking than others :p

ETA: I backread and saw some relevant stuff too :up:
 
  • Like
Reactions: Trinity, Second Summer and ledboots
SummerRain said:
Hi :)

I am going to Malmo, Sweden soon on a surprise holiday (so excited), as well as Copenhagen for a day trip while we are there. Any vegan related (or otherwise actually!) things to do, advice, must-sees, etc welcome. How well is veganism understood (i.e. if I am somewhere that isn't fully vegan)?
Click to expand...
Sounds like fun! I haven't been to that area in a long time. You could ask @Trinity who was there just a few months back.

In Copenhagen the Viking ship museum is mandatory. Christiania is also interesting.

How much should I try to practice from my phrase book... obviously don't know any Swedish (except the odd word picked up from TV... not sure that counts), but I don't want to offend but assuming everyone can speak English... I know some countries are more welcoming of English speaking than others :p
Click to expand...
If it's similar to Norway, they won't let you speak much Swedish / Danish because they will be too eager to impress you with their English skills. Though they will probably appreciate you trying to speak their language.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: SummerRain
Indian Summer said:
In Copenhagen the Viking ship museum is mandatory. Christiania is also interesting.
Click to expand...

Ooh viking ship museum sounds good. I'll look that up.

Indian Summer said:
If it's similar to Norway, they won't let you speak much Swedish / Danish because they will be too eager to impress you with their English skills. Though they will probably appreciate you trying to speak their language.
Click to expand...

:) Phew.

Trinity said:
I'd really recommend Kao's for anyone visiting... It's a laid back all vegan restaurant where we totally vegged out on the most delicious main course and then enjoyed raw lemon cheeze cake and raw chocolate & blue berry cheeze cake for dessert too. Absolutely amazing.
I also loved Govinda's, which is a vegetarian Hare Krishna place. It left me craving their gluten free celeriac pakoras for weeks! Sweden is expensive, so this was a welcomed haven, serving inexpensive, really tasty Indian food.
Click to expand...

Ah brilliant, I saw both of those on Happy Cow and thought they looked promising. :)
 
SummerRain said:
Hi :)

I am going to Malmo, Sweden soon on a surprise holiday (so excited), as well as Copenhagen for a day trip while we are there. Any vegan related (or otherwise actually!) things to do, advice, must-sees, etc welcome. How well is veganism understood (i.e. if I am somewhere that isn't fully vegan)?

How much should I try to practice from my phrase book... obviously don't know any Swedish (except the odd word picked up from TV... not sure that counts), but I don't want to offend but assuming everyone can speak English... I know some countries are more welcoming of English speaking than others :p

ETA: I backread and saw some relevant stuff too :up:
Click to expand...

I was so pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to find vegan places or vegan friendly places in Malmo! I saw some listings in Copenhagen too, but I didn't stick around long enough to explore there.
Have a great trip.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ledboots and SummerRain
Thanks for your help guys, I had a great time in Malmo and Copenhagen. I was surprised by how expensive food and drink was (despite warnings!).

In case anybody else visits:

* Kao's: Very nice, delicious deserts/cookies/cakes including traditional swedish deserts which were delicious. My favourite place!
* Pizzeria Rex: vegan pizzas and meat pizzas if your traveling buddies aren't vegan, cheap and tasty. Mine had faux cheese (I tried Daiya! It was really good!) and faux ham and I really enjoyed it.
* Balthazar: french/european food, the most expensive place we went to, and I thought it was tasty but my fiance wasn't so keen.

I ate in Kaos twice and everywhere else I just winged it finding vegan food, which was surprisingly easy. I loved the Oatly products which were everywhere.

Our hotel was Radisson Blu which is a chain hotel (they have them in lots of countries) but was really really nice. Particularly liked the breakfast - they had fried potatoes, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes and bread if you wanted cooked food (cooked in oil - I checked) and this one had oatly yogurt, various non-dairy milks including soya and oat and chocolate oat, with cereal/nuts/fruit. So lots of vegan choice. They also had gluten free breakfast which I thought was a nice touch though not needed for me.

Had a fab time, Malmo was lovely, hopefully heading back to Sweden for our honeymoon. We're hoping to self cater somewhere rural (preferably nearish a city for traveling) but it's quite hard to work out where would be good... we're also open to other Scandinavian countries, so if anybody has any recommendations they're very welcome! :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Trinity and Second Summer
Glad to hear you had a good time, SR!

Did you get to speak any Swedish? Or Danish? I wish I could hear you! :)

If you ever go to another Scandinavian country, I suppose it would have to be Norway. (Since that's the only one left after Denmark and Sweden ...) They are somewhat less progressive in the food department there, although it has improved slowly the last couple of years. I wouldn't really recommend Oslo (where I lived for more than 6 years), but I hear good things about Bergen, which is the second largest city. It's closer to the mountains and the proper fjords, and it's on the west coast which has a different and more authentic feel to it. (It's true!) I've actually never been to Bergen myself, but I have a couple of relatives there, and my dad lived there a long time ago.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SummerRain
Ta :D

Indian Summer said:
Did you get to speak any Swedish? Or Danish? I wish I could hear you! :)
Click to expand...

Haha I tried. I had a few, slowly spoken, words/sentences down so that sometimes I could get through simple transactions without resorting to English (Basically: Hi, Can I have a glass of X thanks, thanks, bye, type of thing. Coupled with tonnes of awkward smiling). I had a webpage pinned on my phone that pronounces stuff for you so I got an idea of that.

I found that in trying to speak Swedish/Danish (even just greetings), people assumed I could speak lots of Swedish, so then people would say complicated things and I'd have to look blank for a bit and say "uh, sorry, I don't speak Swedish". Which, to the infinite credit of everyone I spoke to, people seemed to then apologise to me for. So I figure either I sound amazingly Swedish (unlikely) or most English speakers don't try at all.

:) Everyone was really nice though, and only one person I met didn't speak English. But when I return I will try to get a few more phrases/words nailed ;) .

Indian Summer said:
If you ever go to another Scandinavian country, I suppose it would have to be Norway. (Since that's the only one left after Denmark and Sweden ...) They are somewhat less progressive in the food department there, although it has improved slowly the last couple of years. I wouldn't really recommend Oslo (where I lived for more than 6 years), but I hear good things about Bergen, which is the second largest city. It's closer to the mountains and the proper fjords, and it's on the west coast which has a different and more authentic feel to it. (It's true!) I've actually never been to Bergen myself, but I have a couple of relatives there, and my dad lived there a long time ago.
Click to expand...

Interesting, thanks, that sounds nice :) I only went to Denmark for a day so I don't think I've really "been" there yet :p
 
  • Like
Reactions: Second Summer
norwegian-language-651200.jpeg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Amy SF and Second Summer
A young woman (21) has dented a total of 4 other cars and her own while attempting to parallel park near her home in Oslo. She had simply stepped on the wrong pedal. The police said she was genuinely sorry.
 

Similar threads

Rosie1
Food Porn Around the Internet
Replies
388
Views
48K
Food & Drink
shyvas
shyvas
Top Bottom
Back