Photos by me ©

Photos by bb ©

The Kolmården Zoo is Scandinavia’s largest Wildlife Park and basically is packed with quite exciting experiences, where you can meet almost 750 wild attractions from jungle, savannas and oceans.

The main attraction of the zoo is the Dolphinarium, which was the first in Scandinavia, opened 1969.

To manage to find an apartment in Stockholm, convince the owner that you are the right person, convince the owner of the whole building, convince the district, where the apartment is located is not a easy thing - it is like you trying to convince the nation that you are the right president.

First let me start out by saying this article is not designed to be critical . One thing above all should be stressed: There is an acute shortage of rental accommodation not only in Stockholm, but in every Swedish city.

An article written by a Swede in Stockholm describes that “moving every month, living illegally, and paying double the actual rent” is normal in Sweden in order to have somewhere to live.

Sweden’s rarely mentioned dark underbelly is the rental property market where large sums of cash change hands daily in exchange for rental contracts.
Housing shortages are caused by three factors:

A. Rental levels and rent increases are tightly controlled

B. The rent for an apartment is based on it’s ‘use‘ above all else and not it’s location. The word ‘Use’ in this context can usually be interpreted as the apartment’s size. So an apartment will probably cost the same to rent whether it’s in central Stockholm or a 1000 kms away in the middle of nowhere.
Rents do tend to be slightly higher however for recently built or renovated apartments. The Swedish rental system gives little benefit to those that choose to rent in the countryside.

C. Renting can often be cheaper than buying an apartment.

As you may know I have decided to remain in Sweden because of the new job. When I started looking for a flat I got an uneasy feeling because I had a problem finding anything. I looked on the all possible web pages, local paper’s and there was nothing.

Anyway an excellent free website to find something to rent anywhere in Sweden or to just look at costs is Blocket. I also want to add that finding a short term rental of a couple of months with a second-hand contract is not that difficult, it’s long term rentals that are the problem.

Basically in Sweden there are two forms of rental contract. A first hand contract which the tenant takes out directly with the owner of the property gives the tenant a high level of security. They can be fairly sure that they can continue to live in the property. But first hand contracts are scarce because apartments in many cities are scarce.

The second hand contract however is basically a sublet by someone who has a first hand contract and doesn’t want to loose it. Maybe there are going away on holiday, maybe they are working somewhere else for a while but often they are moving with no intention of ever coming back. You come across Swedes all the time who will tell you about some first hand contract they have on the other side of the country for an apartment they haven’t seen in years and which they have no intention of giving it up because…. well they are hard to get aren’t they! And only the clinically insane would relinquish a first hand contract in Stockholm (without a substantial cash payment that is).
A first hand contract in a desirable location is so hard to get, people will make an illegal under the table payment to get them ranging from 10,000SEK to much much more. In Stockholm it might cost 150,000SEK in black money to get a central one room apartment. On Blocket.se you find grainy digital pictures of unremarkable washing machines and the blunt question: ‘who will give me 30,000sek for my washing machine?’. Welcome to Sweden’s massive black economy .

One of the fastest way to find an apartment is just to post on blocket.se a short info about yourself, something like “Nice tall Moldavian seeks apartment…..everything of interest”. You can get lot of calls and rental proposals.
If you don’t choose this way, you can just keep sending your CV and picture and try to convince.

Another strange thing that happened was that I was rung up by a small property company who wanted to offer me a first hand contract. They checked me out and seemed happy and invited me to view the property. What I didn’t know is that I was invited along with about 20 other people. It was an annoying waste of time and illustrated how property companies feel they can create a ‘beauty contest’ out of unwitting participants.

So in conclusion my advice on renting an apartment in Stockholm is:

* Put an ad in the paper and see what comes up. You might get lucky.
* Don’t live in Stockholm unless you’ve got a really good salary and a lot of patience.
* If you have the right contacts in a property company, apartments can appear out of thin air.
* If you’ve got the money and plan to stay awhile then buy don’t rent.
* If you are offered any first hand contract, take it, it’s a bargaining chip.

After 3 months of unsuccessful apartment search my employer helped by contacting a real estate company. In the end they also find an interesting add on blocket.se. The employer really did a great job by convincing the owner of the apartment that Moldavians are nice guys and they don’t keep guns at home .

If you are so curious, the apartment is located in a very cosy area - Aspudden - just 10 minutes from the city center.
Some pictures:

Guests are welcomed anytime

Below you’ll find some pictures with the castles/palaces owned by the Swedish royal family and believe me you won’t find inside any IKEA decoration .

Drottningholm Palace

The Drottningholm Palace is on UNESCO´s World Heritage list. It is the most well-preserved royal castle built in the 1600s in Sweden and at the same time is representative of all European architecture for the period. The Palace is also the present Royal Family’s permanent residence. The rooms in the southern wing of the palace are reserved for this purpose. The rest of the palace and grounds are open to the public year round.

Gripsholm Castle

Gripsholm is known as Gustav Vasa’s castle, since he decided to build the castle.

At Gripsholm you can take a royal stroll around the romantic castle grounds or meet the royal deer at the Hjorthagen nature reserve. Gripsholm Castle is also home to the oldest national portrait gallery in the world. It is also one of the largest, with around 4500 pieces, primarily oil paintings. The earliest portraits date from the late 15th century and the collection includes contemporary works.

Despite these nicely decorated locations, in Sweden there other nice destination like Vaxholm. Vaxholm is, despite its small population, for historical reasons normally still referred to as a city. According to Statistics Sweden, however, only localities with more than 10,000 inhabitants are counted as cities. The name Vaxholm comes from Vaxholm Castle, which was constructed for defense purposes, by King Gustav Vasa.

Time is passing by so fast that we don’t even realize how fast the seasons are changing, I still have the feeling that the university started yesterday:

The semester ended with the final presentation of the business project. The business project is an obligatory part of the CEMS MIM curriculum and is supposed to be a real life learning experience for students. Basically student teams solve a real business problem as a one-semester part-time activity tutored by the company and a professor in parallel. The project results are evaluated by an academic and corporate supervisors. Sounds quite easy, but when you have an academic supervisor like ******** P.O. it is just intolerable. For example in the official curriculum of the CEMS organization is said the we need to write a report of about 10-12 pages, but Sweden would be all the time an exception, and is better to write a report for at least 50 pages…never mind, the most important thing it was a great opportunity to meet new people, make friends, was really a very pleasant team to work with - I guess this is the most important factor when you do a project like this.

Now on the queue is Storkolm or Stockholm, which is probably the biggest city in Sweden, but nobody really knows. Over the years, it has garnered a reputation for its edibility, and the most famous kebab district.

Quite strange was how Swedish people celebrated their National day on 6th of June. Of course this holiday was celebrated only by Central part of Sweden, since those from North part consider themselves as part Antarctica and those from South consider themselves as part of Greenland. The first thing you notice during a national holiday in Sweden is the Americanized style of celebrating and the immense amount of flags with the similar colours of the Ukrainian flag.

I though Sweden is really a cold country with could people who don’t know how to celebrate an event and stay at home during the National holiday and watch some ABBA clips - wrong, very wrong. They really know how to celebrate their independence and it seems that their laws are not so rigorous:

Since it was very hot outside some sweet Swedes went to the woods to solve some family duties far away from paparazzi lenses, but of course they didn’t forget about the most important thing (Swedish flag):

Some of them decided for a romantic dinner or just went out for a beer with best friends :

…or just for a glass of selected wine : (please notice the Lidl shopping bag - again celebrating in the spirit of national colours)

Anyway it was a lovely day and even bears around enjoyed it:

During the past week there were not so many gay events in Stockholm, except the Quarnevalen .
Quarnevalen is kind of Scandinavian Rio de Janeiro carnival, the only difference is that you don’t see nicely dressed Brasilian ladies, but strange Swedish students from Royal Institute of Technology, still there were some exceptions :

More pictures HERE

Oh yeah I forgot about the Olympic stadium from Helsinki, quite a nice place…

front of the medal:

back:

The following weeks: exams, projects, presentations, work - see you in 2 weeks!

Our group for one of the projects

1. Wife Carrying World Championships
Each summer, this weird event in Sonkajärvi, Finland, becomes more and more popular. The wife-carrying contest has been at a world championship level for over 13 years now.

2. World Cell Phone Throwing Championships
Finland is the home of cellphone manufacturer Nokia, but it is unclear if they have anything to do with this weird event. Ever wanted to throw your phone? Join the World Cell Phone Throwing Championships taking place each August in Savonlinna, Finland.

3. Ice Swimming Events
Whether in the nude, or clothed, ice swimming is popular in Finland. There are events in many areas. So whether you’re looking for a quick ice-cold shock, or nude beaches in Scandinavia, Finland is the destination for you!

4. World Cup in Snowshoe Football
Finland also has football! No, not the regular kind, but the unique kind: Snowshow Football.

5. Finnish Sauna World Championships
Not quite as weird as other annual events in Finland, the Sauna World Championships test how long the competitors can tolerate a humid 110º Celsius in a Finnish sauna.
Perhaps the Finish sauna, is their sole contribution to human life as of today (except of course, nordic walking and the totally useless Nokia ). Some like to say that the Sauna really comes from Russia, but don’t be silly: everyone knows the only thing the Russians ever came up with is the AK-47.

Before describing the trip to Helsinki, I will present some fact about this lovely country:

* One of the most successful countries in the Eurovision Song Contest.
* Finland’s natural resources are composed mostly of non-vegetative soil, prairie, and cell-phone minutes.
* The climate in Finland is pleasant and temperate. During summers it rarely snows and during winters it doesn’t rain so much.

Government:
Bureaucratic Demorcratorship.
Official language:
Undecipherable with lots of unpronounceable vowels.
Location:
Far away from USA, so far from Japan, quite a long way from Cairo, lots of miles from Vietnam, but it´s there.
National anthem:
The Nokia Tune and any HIM song.
Currency:
present day EU rubles, before that Säkkiwulesi, ihQseteli and flying squirrel skins.
Population:
Maybe a bit over 1000, nobody cares.
Exports:
Saunas, Love Metal, snowboards, Lappi, Turunmaa, Jarkko Ruutu, Vowels.
Imports:
Russian vodka, African husbands, Russian wives, Beer, Used German cars.
Kings:
0.001 %

I guess to many facts and now some pictures:

It seems that in Finland everybody used to be or is a sailor-man, so this leads to another Finish record - the highest number of hats per capita

My impression is that people are not so conservative and cold as it is stated in all crappy cross-cultural literature.
They are actually very friendly, all the time ready to help and give a hand for the people in need:

They will listen to you very carefully and also provide time for retort:

will make you company and serve with cold Finish beer:

For a while I thought that I am actually in Georgia or Ukraine when seeing all those demonstrations for the 1st May:

Monday - Tuesday

My responsibilities at my old new job are becoming more significant and more varied so that on Monday and Tuesday I was appointed as the official paparazzi of the that mysterious company . The only thing remains to increase the salary for this risky and hazardous job . Monday and Tuesday were really busy, full of meetings, quarterly reports and so on. I guess the purpose of these meetings is to accentuate that the main reason for being successful is not because we have a strong and tall CEO , but actually it’s because of us, every employee who is making the company more successful day by day. To motivate us for better results and to perceive this successful first quarter, our manager reserved a small boat and invited us to go for a short-long trip to a nice and lost island.

After some traditional Absolut Swedish food:

we were ready for some tango moves

since it was a natural park, alcohol was forbidden and everybody respected this rull

even the exclusive RAMBO :

More pictures from this event - HERE

Wednesday

after the boat trip on Tuesday and not drinking any alcohol you may imagine how motivated I was to work . Life is Sweden is so spontaneous and unpredicted, that I am not surprised anymore.
This time Mr. Mallon called me:
Mallon: hey Ion, what are your plans for the next 2 hours?
Ion: 2 hours or 2 days ?
Mallon: how about to take the ferry and go to Finland?
Ion: ohhhh no, again alcohol

The thing is, that most of the exchange students from SSE went on Wednesday on a trip to Finland, Baltic countries and Russia. However few students cancelled the trip, so some free tickets were in the air and without any modesty I took one and the opportunity to see the country of sailor men.

The cruise-ferry

The trip took around 15 hours and you got to see how younger people party together with senior citizens and also how they play the slot machines like they’re in Vegas.

Speaking about cruise-ferry it’s a new type of ship. The enormous demand for sea travel in the Baltic (approximately 15% growth in recent years) together with the ferocious competition between the existing lines has promoted the development of so called cruise-ferry. The English word “ferry” is used to designate a ship that allows passengers and vehicles to travel from one port to another. Ferry designers always try to increase the number of passengers and vehicles, and also improve the turnaround time (loading and unloading) and the crossing time. The factors previously mentioned (demand and competition) have made the atmosphere, the comforts and the leisure activities on board more and more necessary.

So, the ship itself has become a tourist destination as important as the two ports. This has allowed the operators to increase their revenues from passenger sales and services (duty free stores, foods, casinos, etc.). This represents up to 40% of the total revenue, allowing companies to lower, or at least maintain, present prices.

It is quite unlike anything I have seen before. Normally I tend to think that to be scenic an area must have significant undulation if not mountains. Here there are none. The islands are so low that a ship like the one we were on could be spotted even if there were two islands between us and it. It is the sheer number of islands and the immense sense of peace which give the voyage its character.

And now you may ask yourself, why 25 springs on 2 boats - yes you are right , somebody just turned 2,5 years and now has the official permission to buy alcohol without showing his birth certificate

It started with a smile, then a warm “hello, how are you” and I then I told myself that’s all for the beginning. I thought it’s very typical way of welcoming a new colleague – a very tall one . However I was wrong, very wrong!

After 5 minutes of walking in the office and meeting almost 500 new colleagues I really understood how difficult is to be a president or a receptionist . Anyway was quite easy to remember them, since many people are foreigners and represent one certain country. Regarding the Swedish colleagues, was a little bit difficult, since everybody is relative with Mr. Ericsson, Karlsson and of course Johansson .

After explaining everybody and showing on the globe where the lovely Moldova is I decided to go next to the floor to introduce my self to the remaining 500 colleagues. Surprise ! They already know my name. I guess every employee receives in advance an e-mail that a new person is coming, something like this: “Dear all, please notice that we have a new colleague from Moldova, take into consideration that Moldova is not a GAME and it’s not a country from Balkans, so this time you may hide your guns” .

I guess the first small shock came when a person from the IT department apologized for the whole company that they didn’t manage to buy the need quantity of laptop bags, so temporary I am supposed to be satisfied with a back-pack. The second excuse came from the same department, but because of Sony Ericsson’s fault. They didn’t manage to delivery a cell phone for the only Moldavian in the company, can you imagine I was supposed to wait 1 day - 1 whole day . I don’t have the experience of working inside many companies, but this one is simply amazing . The way how fast the information travel from one department to another one simply surprises me.

Next pleasant surprise was my multifunctional working place. I don’t think that in every company you receive gifts, welcome letter and different useful things like good headphones Sennheiser, a real keyboard - so I am not supposed to wait for it 1 week as others did . I mentioned that the place is multifunctional - yeah, the table is electric and is adjustable. Maybe, it’s sounds funny for you, but for People Republic of Moldova this is completely high-tech .

You think this is enough, NO, of course not. Imagine you receive a big, nice bouquet of flowers on the 1st of April. You would say, yeah right “good joke guys”, but actually it’s from the same company, it’s just arrived a little bit late. This is the way how the company welcomes every employee.

More interesting is the way how the process of performance management is working inside the company. This process is done in such a friendly way that you even don’t realize that somebody is controlling and evaluating your performance. Also this is not the company where you are an expert in your figures and you have no clue of what is marketing, IT, HR department. We have so many meetings with people from the other departments so soon or late you really may become a CEO of company , because you almost understand how everything is working in the company.

Another way of how the company is trying to retain employees is to organize as many afterwork activities as possible. This is the best way how you can meet your boss, explain him the sense of “Where is Moldova” game, play some interactive games and if you have some problems with him, laser game is the best way how you may solve these issues :

I was so pleasant surprised by how the HR department takes care of every employee that I decided to choose this company to do a project at the university. To project is about how important is to have a strong company culture in order to be a successful company and to have a 20% growth every year for the period of over 40 years!

That’s all for the moment and Happy Easter everybody!*

*-Christian Orthodoxy celebrate Easter this weekend

It is an exciting story stretching from the art pioneers of the 1950s to modern artistic experiments. Almost all stations have been adorned.

In some 90 of the 100 Metro stations, passengers can enjoy an exciting, beautiful and varied art experience in the form of sculptures, mosaics, paintings, installations, inscriptions, and reliefs.

Around 140 artists have helped to create this art along the Metro lines. An additional few hundred artists have added temporary art features.

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- Astonishing Swedish Lappland
- The highest mountain in Sweden - Kebnekaise
- The immense Swedish and Norwegian frozen lakes - Torne, Kalix, Vittangi, Könkämä & Rautasälven
- The most coldest hotel in the world - Ice Hotel
- The oldest wooden Sami church in the world
- The biggest iron mine in the world - Kiruna mine
- The deepest located mushroom farm - Kiruna Svampodling
- The most beautiful sunset next to the Atlantic Ocean
- The magic Aurora/Nordic lights
- The mysterious fjords in Norway
- An more than 200 amazing reindeer’s and 500km per day on icy roads!

Of course now you see the list and say that it’s impossible to see all the sights during one day, but when the sun is rising at 4 o’clock in the morning and never sets, of course is possible. Starting May in Lappland (Northern part of Sweden and Finland) nights are missing at all for more than 50 days

Departing to Lappland

We first took the Arlanda Express to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, which is the fastest way to go to the airport, is kind of Swedish Maglev Train.

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I tried some part-time jobs, like serving as guardian, but it was really difficult to resist to make photos with every tourist

Finding a part-time job it’s not a easy thing. For some companies you need to speak Swedish, other companies want more flexibility. A good chance to meet representatives from different companies and to ask them for a part-time position is participating at business forums, which are organized at local universities.

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I shall start first of all with more culturally things and then end with less culturally attractions .

One place in Stockholm which is quoted with 5 stars in all the guides is Vasa Museet. The Vasa Museum is Scandinavia’s most visited museum. The Museum is so famous because of the warship Vasa - the only remaining, intact 17th century ship in the world.

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Today, at long last, the sun decided to grant us a bit of attention, so finally no more black/white pictures:

Now I can enjoy making new pictures with the blue-blue sky and those from Milan may envy us :

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Putin is very talented and surely he may find some occupation like:

Merkel’s personal tailor:

or Hillary’s personal washer:

Queen’s broider:

Tiësto’s assistant:

or he can just play some laser games with the future radar from Czech Republic:

cook something special for his best friend Bush:

or.. he may just lay on the bench, eat some sunflower seeds and rest:

(this picture was attached to the invitation, so I suppose I have all the rights to post it on my commercial blog )

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