I’m not going back to Sweden, but it was cute.

So let me start with Sweden is a beautiful country. The snow on the landscape is as beautiful as you can imagine. The hospitality workers are great, BUT the Swedish meatballs are not enough to get me to come back. For this to be destination number 4 on my 30 before 30, ehhh.

Before I go into how Sweden is not a country for Black Americans, I will have to say it was not all bad. but the bad is enough and enough is enough. The hotels we stayed in Stockholm (Hotel Giò) and the Swedish Lapland town of Kiruna (Camp Ripan) were wonderful. The hotel workers were nice, and the restaurants on the property had delicious food. I got to eat Reindeer, Moose, and Ox, all animals I would NEVER get at home. Would I eat it all again, OF course. I got to try to ski, it was a fail but I got to say I did it in Sweden. The hot mess that was night life, HOT MESS -5 stars, do not recommend if you have a vagina and a black. Unnecessarily rude, I see how easy it was for ASAP Rocky to get arrested. They will literally provoke you then switch to Swedish to play stupid. There was a silver lining- The Hallwyl Museum. This venue in particular is a museum during the day but at night turns into a luxurious bar that plays house music. Of course, I had to get meatballs, and Meatballs For The People did not disappoint.

But here is the BS, I know you are waiting for it. So getting to Stockholm wasn’t difficult, but because I flew in from another European country it was similar to going to a different state. But on Friday we had a flight to Kiruna, in the far north region of the country, as we were hoping to see the Northern Lights. (We didn’t, you can’t force nature to do what you want) and the airport agents at Stockholm airport were just careless and impatient and nasty. They took the bag containing my face serums and were just slamming it all in the bin. They broke $100 worth of my face serums being careless. As a person who travels often, putting my liquids in a bag is something I know to do. So I know the process and take care to make my airport experience easy. They could see the bottles were glass and did not care. Strike 1.

Then we get to Kiruna, catch the city bus to get to our hotel and walk up the hill to what we thought was the property. Based on the directions we received. In the area where Camp Ripan is there is a hostel/hotel that you come up on first. Following the crowd of people who also seems to be travelers who were heading to lodging we walked into Malmfältens logi & konferens AB as that was the first thing we saw. We followed suit, as that is what we were told to do. We arrived at 10 am, which is early for anyone’s check-in policy, I know. However, the lady at the reception desk was rude, smug, and unhelpful. She looked us dead in the face and told us she thought we couldn’t check in until 4. MAAM you are the one controlling that process it’s up to you. Nevertheless, we patiently waited, got food, and walked around to explore. After ignoring the stares, and passive-aggressive behaviors like jumping in front of us and just walking into us like we were invisible plus looks of annoyance at our presence we decided to just wait until we could check-in. I do not know how many times “Excuse you” was said. So many times, so many times. Around 1 pm, as we were sitting in this waiting room the receptionist comes and lets us know we can check-in. After typing in the computer half-heartedly she looked at us with that smug stupid grin, they give (you know where they cock their heads to the side, smile tight-lipped and squint) and says “oh I am sorry I don’t see you in our system. I don’t see you have a reservation” after looking at us stupidly when we said the name of of the property we had a reservation for, it wasn’t until she saw that we had somewhere booked and that she wasn’t going to be able to convince us to stay at that property she goes “hahaha that happens all the time it’s just up the walkway.” Despite all of that we walked to Camp Ripan, reviewed blog coming later, and proceeded to enjoy our day. But between that lady and the rude people- Strike 2.

It wasn’t too many more times I was going to excuse their behavior based on ignorance/

THE FINAL STRIKE WAS in Stockholm City Center. I do not even know where to start. So as I mentioned we went to The Hallwyl Museum, great time, the House Music was fun. 10/10. But after we left we went to just bar hop. My friends took us to The Soap Bar, the place that they had JUST been to on Thursday. My friend went to ask the bouncer a question about admission to the club, explaining to him that she was told to come back specifically on this day and he yelled in her face “I don’t give a damn what they told you.” This was after the men blatantly ignored us and only spoke to my friends boyfriend. It happened multiple times to the point where men look at us speak to them and still ignore us. But we are already hyper-cognizant of how people view Black Americans so we tried to be as respectful as possible but after that bouncer yelled in her face, she yelled back and we decided to leave because we knew it was going downhill from there. We proceeded to walk to another venue and while in line this white lady sees us a group of 3 women, and 4 guys just talking to each other trying to get into the club, and says “omg they are going to shoot up the place.” When my other friend said something to her she grabbed her bag and her friend and scurried off. So at this point, I was ready to go. Because I can experience Authentic bigotry and racism in the states I’m not paying for somebody to be racist based on what they see on TikTok. However, after agreeing to let 7 people in, the bouncer stopped at 5 people right before me and proceeded to yell at us about how he isn’t going to let us in and that he already did enough and we can’t get in. I kindly lifted that rope and left because what you not gonna do is yell at me and I wasn’t even talking. I already wanted to leave because of that lady's comment, so I was more than willing to not patronize that venue. I do not even remember the name because I didn’t care to be there. But because it was my birthday trip and my friends wanted us to enjoy our last night in Sweden we decided to try one more spot before we just went back to the museum, and this is when I almost physically lost it. We were standing trying to figure out our next moves and this man started gathering phlegm in his mouth and walking around us like he wanted to spit. I watched him walk past us spit on the ground and start speaking aggressively in Swedish and pace around us aggressively. Now I may not know Swedish I know when somebody is angry, no matter the language and I was trying to figure out what his issue was. We were minding our business and he then proceeded to walk back and post up on the gate to the left of us. Still hacking up phlegm and menacingly staring at us and speaking Swedish. He kept inching closer to where my friends and I were standing so I asked him what was the issue, as he was a little too close for my comfort. And he was the closest to me, I am just trying to mind my business, and now your red in the face angry over something. He then proceeded to yell at ME in another language. If my momma doesn’t yell at me in English, I am not letting a stranger man yell at me in Swedish. So I gave him what he wanted and after he got a mouthful I remembered I was not home and my friends and I walked away to de-escalate. THIS MAN proceeded to follow us across the street and continued to antagonize me. He just kept saying stuff in English and Swedish to me to the point where my friend’s boyfriend had to tell him to stop talking to us. Then the man proceeded to act like he wanted to fight him. So it almost escalated into a verbal altercation that could have turned physical. At that point, I knew I wasn’t coming back to Sweden. Yet and still we went back to the Museum grabbed one more drink and then caught a cab back to the hotel.

On that car ride back to the hotel I decided meatballs, massages, and IKEA are not enough for me to put up with that. So while Sweden was beautiful I had a great time, the people of the country ruined the experience for me and I will not be back. I’ll see the northern lights somewhere else. I have to deal with ignorant people for free because America has a stupidity problem I expected more from Sweden.

While I did enjoy my time in Sweden, the inconsistencies in the way the citizens acted are enough for me not to go back. AND I didn't get to see the Northen Lights, which is the ONLY a reason I picked Sweden. But If you want to go please do, don’t let my experience stop you. However for me there are a few one-and-done countries for me and Sweden is on that list.

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