Let us introduce California resident Eva Morato-Crose who is the winner of the Car Plus Vacation contest hosed by West Sweden, VisitSweden and Volvo Overseas Delivery.

Eva won her dream vacation—a road trip of a lifetime in West Sweden where she will be driving around and experience highlights such as Oyster safari in Grebbestad, the Sea Lodge in Smögen and the Garden Society of Gothenburg. View her full itinerary that she picked out herself here.

Tell us a little bit about yourself…

I am a trained nutritionist, but at the moment I work as a mental heath community support worker. I support parents who have children with difficulties; I help them find resources to serve their children better.

My husband and I are celebrating our thirtieth wedding anniversary in July, so this trip came as a very pleasant surprise—we’ll celebrate our anniversary in Sweden!

What is your relationship to Sweden?

I’ve never been to Sweden, but I’ve always wanted to visit. I used to have a camp counselor as a kid who was Swedish—she was such a fun-loving, warm, and nice person. I’ve wanted to visit Sweden ever since. I want to see if the country is as warm as she was!

What are your previous travel experiences?

I haven’t traveled much at all. I have always been in school, working, or raising children so I haven’t been able to travel much. The only place I have been to so far is Canada, and I am originally from the Dominican Republic. I guess that’s why I entered the contest. I am at a point in my life where I’m finally able to travel—my youngest son is twenty-one years old and he recently moved away from home. Plus, I love exploring different cultures.

Can you tell us a bit about your expectations for this trip?

I just expect to have a wonderful time, meet a lot of interesting people, and create lots of new memories. I look forward to learning more about Sweden and its culture.

Well Eva, we are sure you’ll enjoy West Sweden and we look forward to hosting you and your husband!

Spring has Sprung (kinda).And, with summer around the corner and the temperatures heating up, it’s time to transition those bulky coats and scarves into a warm weather chic combinations.  I have been scouring the the pages of Lookbook.nu to spot the top trends circulating in Gothenburg. Here is what I found:

1. Vintage Sweaters paired with Minis:  Spring has sprung but summer isn’t exactly here yet, so we feel your pain with the “it’s hot, now cold” fluctuating temperatures. The perfect solution to this? Pairing a short skirt with an oversized comfy vintage sweater.
2. Navajo Prints: I absolutely adore this trend. If you are like me you love to layer, scarves, jackets, etc. Summer is not so great for layering so the next best thing is an amazing print. The Navajo trend is fantastic because the colors are muted and not too bright and look adorable when paired with a simple gladiator sandal and a leather messenger bag. Easy. Breezy.
3. Light Wash Jean Shorts: We saw a bit of a resurgence with acid wash this past winter but for Spring the hot jean color is a light wash, worn in, shade.
4. Rolled Pants: This goes for both guys and girls. If you have a pair of comfy, baggy pants you don’t have to banish them to the back of your closet! Simply give them the roll up and pair them with a lightweight tank and you are ready to go.

Any other trends that you have spotted? Leave them in the comments!

Metal festival in Gothenburg with artists like Slipknot and Marilyn Manson.

www.metaltown.se

Lucia Festival - "Lucia" and her procession of maidens and "star boys".

I’m not quite sure any other culture is as fanatical about Christmas as the Swedes. The celebrations start at the beginning of the first Sunday of advent  and don’t end until after the new year.  This year advent was Nov. 29th, and the Swedes started things off in a delicious fashion with a traditional glöggfest – a gathering to imbibe hot, spiced, mulled wine (glögg) accompanied by blanched almonds and raisins, with saffron buns and ginger biscuits. Who doesn’t want hot glögg on a brisk, snow-filled Gothenburg evening?

After the glögg, the cities of Sweden are decked out to the nines, with lights, decorations and more Christmas markets than you can imagine. Gothenburg has not only seven distinct Xmas markets but also the largest one in the country: Liseberg has dozens upon dozens of stalls selling gifts for all, shows, ice skating, holiday delicacies (including of course more glögg) and what holiday market would be complete without St. Nicholas sitting in his workshop to listen to the wish lists of excited children. As if that weren’t enough, the market is bedecked in over 5 million (!!!) Xmas lights to celebrate the seasons.

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Pater Noster Lighthouse is on an island accessible by boat only

Perhaps contrary to first thought, Sweden’s pharological hotspots are not Egyptian Pyramids or statues paying homage to the ancient rulers of the Upper and Lower Nile. No, the attractions that draw pharologists from around the world have nothing to do with Egypt at all. So what are they? you ask – Lighthouses.

It is not surprising, given West Swedens extensive coastline and rocky shores, that it finds itself home to a fair number of these oft isolated but beautiful beacons that welcome ships home and warn them of rough waters. Some remain active today and some are not but many are open to the public for visits, dining, and even overnight stays.

Here is a list of lighthouses in the area with a plethora of information on what to do, how to get there, and who to talk to about it all!

And for the interested etymologist – pharology derrives from Pharos, the lighthouse at Alexandria, and one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.

Financial Times calls West Sweden a “Nordic Cape Cod”. Read the excellent article here!

A rainy but music filled last day

The third and last day of the beloved Way Out West Festival has come to an end. The sun took a vacation and left us with downpours and muddy shoes, but that however was no cause for concern. At least not if you ask the rock veteran Olle Ljungström. Luckily for both artist and fans, he performed under a tented stage, and we were able to enjoy the concert in shelter from the rain. Olle is quite a legend in Sweden, famous for subtly balancing misery and joy and his performance today took us back to the time when it was still okay to live on the punk side of life.

Nas also put on a great concert despite the rainy weather – with thousands of arms waving to his rapped beats and feeding his already substantial ego the attention and energy he thrives on.

Nas and the thousand-arm wave

Another cocky performer who put on a fantastic show, was our incredibly popular lady from London: Lily Allen. She was one of the strongest attractions at this year’s festival, drawing huge crowds and a devoted audience. For having only had a relatively short career, it is impressive how faithful her fans are – Slottskogen was dancing, sweating, singing and swearing right along. Fuck You is probably the best way to start a party.

The evening continued, of course, at the club scenes. The choices were many and varied. Harmonic folk/acoustic at the Annedal church, hard rock at Sticky Fingers or dark, decadent country at Pustervik. Way Out West certainly has something for every musical taste and provided a great showing of local and international superstars to satisfy even the most discerning audience!

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Let the dueling begin!

Life in a medieval theme park easily gets a bit surreal. If the contrast between hi-tech press center and people in 12th century garb won’t knock you down, the diminutive 180 cm (5′10″) high doorways to every building sure will. The first day here at the Arn Festival in Götene, Västergötland is now over and I would probably give it four out of five spears up. I didn’t actually expect the machinery behind the entire thing to be so well run but I got a seat in an old cottage with wifi and nice press people.

Daytime yesterday was an orgy of historical events and it felt like there were children everywhere; People trying to kill each other with swords or dancing around to the constat stream of folk music of a bygone era. I ran into a Belgian family and they were very impressed, especially with the locally brewed mead and the myriad of kid-friendly activities.

Costumed kids enjoying the festival - some more tradionally dressed than others!

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A jouster at the Arnfestivalen

Sweden is a very old country, whose traditions evolved from the civilizations in the South and West of Sweden (nobody really knows anything about what was going on in the North before the 1900’s). These historic civilizations are what inspired Jan Guillou, one of Sweden’s most prominent and also arrogant writers, to write a bestselling trilogy about a medieval protagonist named Arn struggling with life in the dark ages, The Knight Templar.

The hugely popular book series turned into hugely popular movies and now virtually all of the more rural eastern part of West Sweden, where the trilogy takes place, flourish from the attention. Guided tours, film remakes and an unprecedented influx of tourist have turned heretofore sleepy small towns into summer hot spots. The peak came a couple of years ago when Götene, a West Sweden town that is near both the shooting location of the movies and Arn’s fictional heritage, bought the entire prop set from the movies and built a theme park around it.

Now of course, a Medieval theme park isn’t necessarily the hippest of things, but surrounded by the history and culture of the Swedish countryside that still recalls bygone eras, it comes much closer to bringing history to life than any other theme park. This August there is a festival, conveniently named Arnfestivalen, celebrating the old times with slow roasted spitted food, locally brewed mead and major artists, like Ulf Lundell! and Caroline af Ugglas playing on stage. It takes place from the 12-16 of August and will be a blast…from the past, especially for those of you who enjoy jousting, sword fighting and eating grilled wild boar.

Sweden by car - a fantastic vacation idea.

When people think of taking a trip to Sweden most everybody thinks, plane. Of course those who are not so keen on flying might look into cruise ships. And for the really old fashioned, and exorbitantly wealthy, zeppelin might even be an option. But car? Impossible – no bridge, no underwater tunnel, ergo no roadtrip…right? Not quite!

You can in fact get to Sweden in  a new Volvo car. The Volvo Overseas Delivery Program allows you to purchase a new Volvo car directly from Sweden for up to 8% under the MSRP, and then gives you two complimentary roundtrip tickets to West Sweden with Scandinavian Airlines System, one free hotel night in Gothenburg, Sweden, and a fifteen day European Car Insurance coverage (including Swedish temporary registration). When your vacation is over, your new car will be shipped back to your local US Volvo dealer gratis, including all US Customs charges and fees.

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