I now live in the meatball nation or the socialist union or ...

This is a picture I took yesterday evening as I biked home from work. The sun is setting over Stockholm. I love living close to water again. Stockholm is full of water and you certainly understand why is is called the Venice of Scandinavia. Here is the city hall with its three golden crowns that symbolize the Swedish nation. It is here that the Nobel festivities take place each year at the 10th of December.

This is a map based on stereotypes that other countries have on Europe. I think it is really funny how Americans see Europe for example. This was published in the Swedish newspaper yesterday. So I live in the socialist union now next to the commies. Well at least I don't live in the nation of the smelly people, ha ha. So Sweden is pictured as meatball country by the French and as IKEA country to the Germans. Swedes and Sweden also seem to be associated with trashy pop music, ABBA and Volvo. I enjoyed studying these maps of Europe as seen by the US as well as other European nations.

Fall has arrived big time here. It is quite chilly now. Today was one of those very beautiful crisp fall mornings when the sun was shining and Stockholm looked its most beautiful. On mornings like this one I love going by bike. But now I have to wear gloves, it is too cold otherwise. There are lots of neat and nice fall clothes in the stores and people here are a lot more trendy than down the south. I love watching what people are wearing here. Now is the time to really dig into the fall fashion. Here you don´t get tired of your summer clothes because summer is not that long which is both good and bad.