Apparently I've not learned my lesson, and here we go again... gulp😳 if you want to see me try sandwich cake in a video, you know what you need to do😱 p.s. hope you enjoyed today's video! You know by now that I absolutely love Sweden, so this was definitely only intended as a bit of fun! Let's be honest, it would be boring if the whole world was the same anyway, right?😅 happy Wednesday!
Have you thought about ”further ado”? ”Further” is cognate with ”fort” (=forward is what it actually means in Swedish, at least in compounds). And ”ado” is short for ”att do” (=att göra), so in this word English has a nordic loanword in it - ”att”. I think this might be the only place where ”att” remains in Standard English.
You need to try a homemade cake. The store bought versions are never good, the are too sweet. I hate when they put cream and "frukt coctail" on them. You should NEVER put anything on it that you can not put on a sandwich. I love my own smörgåstårta that I make my self 😀
@@Erika-br8xo Extremely sad to say, but the best smörgåstårta you can buy are the ones served after funerals. How weird is that!? I'm 60, so I have been to a couple, and of some reason they seem to come more frequently🙄. So far not ONE dreadful of the sort you described, with loads of 😵 canned fruits 😖on. Pineapple rings with "kassler" (cold smoked (pork) whole piece of cutlet part, you typically buy a chunk and slice in your own liking, but on smörgåstårta it's always very thin slices of this usually a little bit salty meet.) is the only I can remember. However, if you look at recipies with 'kassler' från the sixties - seventies, you'll see it was a common thing to serve pineapple with the kassler! (In general the mix of the sweet and sour pineapple and the saltiness of the kassler marry well together, BUT not really the case with everything else you have on (and in) a smörgåstårta!)
The Swedish word for cake is tårta. A pancake tower is also called pankakstårta in Swedish. It's just layers of eatable things. So the word Tårta doesn't necessarily mean sweet. And smörgåstårta is delicious, but I suppose what topping you're using.
Thanks, this is what I wanted to say. Cake and tårta might not be the same meaning. Translations of a cake will be tårta, but the word tårta means more than cake. You even use it for fireworks, when you have those with lot of layers. Basically, I think tårta is more a meaning of something with several layers.
Also, cake is generally translated with tårta/kaka (depending on type), but kaka can be both a plain cake and a cookie. Sometimes it's better to slightly release one language when trying to learn another.
ahhh it is Joacim? there's the flaw in my logic then😅 but I was fully expecting that you guys would be able to make me see sense in the end! what topping would you recommend?
@@nutcaze2 you use it for fireworks too Eric? I have no idea! that's so interesting!! perhaps as you say, a more direct translation would be "multi-layered object"?
Recepie for Smörgåstårta: - take any bread you like - layer it in a few layers with any kind of delicious stuff you like. Mayo? Cream cheese? Avocado slices? Shredded tuna mixed in Creme Fraice and garlic? WHATEVER - stack a few layers - "Frost" the cake with something nice, like cream cheese - For the ideal juicy cake, leave it in fridge overnight with clingfilm on. - Add toppings of WHATEVER your heart desires. Salmon, shrimp, boiled eggs, caviar (real one, not the Kalles stuff), lettuce, tomatoes... little rolls of cheese or ham... or WHATEVER - Add more toppings. You don't have enough yet - No sorry, you can still see some cake through the toppings. ADD MORE - Okay, now decorate with lemon twists, sprigs of dill or whatever you feel like - Look at your fantastic creation. Then EAT.
Well, we don't eat sandwich cakes with the same purpose as we eat "ordinary" (sweet) cakes with, and therefore we don't expect the same tastes etc. when we eat them. The "smörgåstårta" has "tårta" (cake) in its name because it looks like a tårta. Don't compare it with a tårta anymore. It is like comparing knäckebröd and sweet biscuits. A piece of knäckebröd or a salty cracker may have some features in common with biscuits, but we know that they aren't biscuits, so we don't eat them with the same purpose, and we don't expect the same type of taste.
good point Anders" there certainly is a difference between the purpose isn't there, and therefore the expectations on the "dish" you're about to eat. But you're right, time to forget tårta😅 thanks for sharing and have a great day!
At my work, people eat smörgåstårta when there is any kind of celebration. This gives it the same purpose as a cake in other countries? If my Swedish colleagues can choose, they always choose a smörgåstårta over a gräddtårta.
@@JustaBritAbroad Smörgåstårta is a real meal , gräddtårta is more like a snack or something you eat with coffee after the main course ( my spelling program sucks ) . You should try Rostbiff , always a hit..
Even a Finn can tell how swimming in the icy water started: people just walked on thin ice and went through it. That is quite common. Those who survived thought it kind of cool and made it a habit.
..here in sweden it has for a long time been manadtor kids learn to swim and be able rscue themself and others if thay goues trough the ice, usually all kids do this (but its not forced), in the military it required u do, sweden finland has alot of lakes and being able rescue someone or urself is important... ...i guess it first caught on as a trend, but studies has shown it actually has health benefits... and now u know whay thers so many finnish naked men (and women) running around in the snow outside of the sauna... u can also roll in the snow if its cold enugh after u bathed in a ice-pool -10c or lower... u are actually drying out the water faster than if u shouldnt... on ur body the water doesent freeze (unnless it rly rly cold -30c or below) but it helps the heat loss enourmusly ... so get dry fast as possible to survive (survival training) is a must...
Tårta in Swedish literally means layered things stacked high. That's it. The "default interpretation" is the sweet thing. But we have fyrverkeritårta about a prepackaged set of fireworks, for example. It's kinda like how in English the word "sandwich" means to stick things between other things, whereas the Swedish word smörgås has no such connotations. ..which, btw, is why English speakers are confused by our "open sandwiches" because they think a sandwich is two pieces of bread with things in between. "It's in the name" to an English speaker "to sandwich things together". So simlarly, a "tårta" just means "to stack a bunch of things".
good point Zap! I think that's the real difference between the two. linguistics, you got to love them right? its how we all end up with our colourful and interesting varieties of concepts and ideas right. it would be boring if everyone spoke and meant the same thing right!😅
@@JustaBritAbroad Swedish even has the expression "tårta på tårta", which simply means you've laid too much of something on top of more of the same thing (often metaphorically), as in "deodorant on top of parfume is tårta på tårta" ... okay shitty example but you get the idea :P
Well in English you have things like pancakes, teacakes and ashcakes and they are not sweet cakes are they? You may put sweet jam on them but still. 😉
3 года назад+24
Regarding costs at hairdressers, say a not so decent salary of 17000, which would be 100 krona per hour before taxes. On top of those 17000 krona, the company needs to pay fees at about 26%, now we are up to 21000, or about 125 krona per hour. then the place and materials cost, and the company profits are taxed. 800 krona per hour if you have two clients per hour makes 600 after vat. Sure 600 per hour is fine if you are fully utilized whole day, but that’s not always the case, you need to have some room for empty chairs, days you are sick and vacations and stuff, and then the cost at the hairdresser isn’t that unreasonable…
Also, a hairdresser by proffession requires a fairly decent education. First of Gymnasium. Then if wanna study futher and learn more besides basic stuff you can actually learn that in Uni. Most of the world dont require an education for it. So thats why its mostly cheaper. But then again, a good hairdresser is more expensive. You normally get what you pay for. Just like anything else in this country.
yeah good point Örjan! the effect of fees and taxes makes it very expensive to be able to make this kind of service profitable I guess! when you break it down, it becomes a lot more logical!
I think the thing with the flags is that. Normal rectangular flags are only allowed to be up during daylight hours meaning you have to take them down every night and put them back up in the morning which naturaly no one wants to do. Therefore we all use the triangular one since that one is allowed during the night. The full flag is therefor seen as more festive and are usually put up on birthdays or "national flag days" which are days when everyone who owns a flagpole is required to raise a flag (preferably the real deal). National flag days include normal holidays like new years, easter, chrismas and midsummer but also first of may (unions related holliday here), military veterans day, opening of riksdag (parlament) and the birthdays and namesdays of the king, queen and crown princess. While I dont think there is actually any punishments for breaking any of the rules above they are all part of the tradition of our flag.
oh really Vilma? is that still a rule - that you can't have normal flags out in the evening I mean? And if so, do you know where it came from? I'm so intruiged!! this is so interesting!
You are actually allowed to flag in the evening, as long as the flag is lit. The flag is supposed to be treated with respect, so it might be something like respecting the flag that is the origin of this rule maybe?
Förr när man gjorde(lumpen)var inkallad till armèn.Så reste dom flaggan kl 8.Det var som att se kackerlackor när man tänder ljuset.Alla som var utomhus sprang in.För dom ville inte stå i givakt under hela reveljen och salutera flaggan.
What you are paying for, getting a haircut, is the skill, education, the rent of the shop, wages for the barber, supplies, maintennnace of the supplies, 1 pair of shears/scissors can often cost up to 10.000:- ($1000) and they need several, sharpening costs, electric bill, heating, advertisement, insurance, continuous education courses, taxes, and sometimes even parking. So 400:- is quite reasonable here in Sweden, where it's considered expensive. If it's cheaper, the barbers and hairdressers over all expenses are probably lower. Some have more education and experience in a low cost area, so they are just as expensive as somewhere in other posh areas. Some just set their price however they like. As a customer, you still have a choice to either let someone skilled do it for money, or let a friend help you for free, or you do it for ones self. A carpenter or plumber costs at least ca 600:-/hour, +"resekostnaden" (trip cost), and supplies needed. So skilled people will cost you. I have not even a clue what a lawyer would cost per hour for giving advice nowadays, last I checked, I think we paid over 2000:-/hour...🤔 Correct me if I'm wrong.
The very high price is maninly due to our very high taxes on wages and services. Swedes are accustumed to pay very musch for services like plumbers, etc (They introduses the tax reduction ROT and RUT becuase regular people could not afford to hire help, and more and mor jobs were done undeclared, as "svartjobb". So a barber both pay taxes as an employer/ business owner AND regular income tax on his wage. Arbetsgivaravgift, moms, company tax etc. The money you pay for your cut must also cover shop rent and utilities, insurance ( which are all high because of addedc taxes). It is a lot...
Labor costs are high here n Sweden, this makes a lot of services like hair cuts fairly expensive. Also, there are a lot of jobs that simply don't exist here because labor costs make them unviable. Supermarkets don't employ people who pack groceries for the customers, parkings have no assistants that park peoples cars etc.
The tradition of everyone having their own flagpole and flying the swedish flag comes from the turn of the last century when the Swedish/Norwegian union broke up. It became very high status to have your own flagpole and fly the swedish flag to show your support for the kingdom. Same thing on the norwegian side but worse.
Most new houses don't have flagpoles. But if you buy a house with a flag pole you need to put a flag on it, or it'll just look ridiculous.
3 года назад+1
I have another idea, I know that is was a "status symbol" to have a flagpole and to flag with the Swedish flag after the union was broken, but this was nothing the common man did, so the use of the flag for normal folk need to have another source and function and then the royal family use a flag to show where they are and when a palace is used this was a tradition folk adapted when they could have several houses (summer house), so flagg up when they were in the summer house to let other know, 'the owner of the house is now here'.
The definition of tårta in swedish seems to be anything multilayered, whereas the direct translation "cake" means a dessert. We also have Tacotårta. Smörgåstårta is great btw.
yeah good point Carl-Henrik! I hadn't really thought about the implications of that until I posted this video - so fun to get a new perspective on it!
3 года назад
How about, våga vägra smörgåstårta :D
3 года назад+11
Well, the Sandwich cake. And pancake tower. We call the pancake tower a pancake cake as well in Swedish. The concept itself is just a fancy sandwich that got more fancy… just look at the shrimp/prawn sandwiches we have, they are almost a small sandwich cake on their own, just with only one layer of bread.
👍 Think in terms of Elvis's sandwiches, but perhaps not banana and peanutbutter😂! If you like bananas and peanutbutter on your smörgåstårta, go for it, but I think I'll pass on that one. (A double sandwich with banana and peanutbutter 👍👍, but don't add ham, turkey and God-knows-what else to it😣)
If you are interested in eating a Sandwich Cake then you should choose one with your favorite ingrediens. There are a lot of different ones. You can have with salmon (with or without the shrimps), you can add cray fish meat, you can have no sea food at all and just have meat on it like "rostbiff skivor" and you can of course have a vegetarian one. You can put anything you want in it and on top. There are no "rules" on what it has to contain except bread and fillings+topping of course and it's in layers. The shrimp one is just a favorite for many people. Swedes in general love shrimps and seafood I think. And yeah, tårta is used for a lot of different things as long as it has layers. The examples with pankaks tårta and fyrverkeri tårta are great ones to show how the word tårta is used. Basically Smörgås tårta is just a very fancy sandwich. You wouldn't eat a sandwich as you do cake right? You eat it for lunch or dinner and not as a regular cake. Actually. It's very similar to your traditonal English Tea Sandwich. It just have more layers and we may have different ingredients. The biggest difference is how we present it as our smörgåstårta resembles a cake, hence the name.
😂Try this: Lift of the toppings and make your "smörgåstårta" in tirangular shapes.... and you have something very familiar, right? ;-) Ok I recon its a rather posh variant of that triangular thing, but yet.. somewhat similar... 😀 Smörgåstårta is something that I eat maby once a year, if I'm invited to some event or someone where it's served.
When it comes to the sauna i think you need to ask a Finn, as far as i know the whole thing comes from Finland. Finland will probably put us to shame when it comes to all things sauna :)
Regarding hairdressing: it is a skilled trade and you are paying for their skill, not their time. Would you be happy to pay more for an inferior hairdresser because they would take longer?
You also pay for the high tax on labor. There is not much left for salary after tax, insurance, rent and other expenses for the hairdresser. 250kr sounds very cheap.
I don't mind paying the price so much as not getting the cut I want. Have asked the last five hair dressers to leave my from bangs long, and they still wack it off so the scar on my forhead doesn't show. Yes, I have shown them photos, hair style sketches, and shown the length I want on my self.
I do not belive that the thing with the flags are patriotic. It's more about tradition and that a flagpole is a very sad sight without a flag in it. New build houses rarely have flagpoles.
Gonna try .y best as a swede to give you my input. :) 1. A haircut indeed are high priced, but then again it's just as nails..The person trimming you don't know what you're gonna do before you get there and if you sit there for 30-60min just to trimm the edges instead of doing a full treatment and color etc.. it's kinda the same thought of why we don't tip as much in Sweden.. The people are thought to be paid well in any position but at the barbers they may not -therefor the price is higher. 2. Smörgåstårta, you ned to try it.. just think of it as a big sandwich. It's cheeper than a cooked meal and still fills you up. As it first came around I guess it weren't as fancy as today but I've read a story from Africa where they had a wedding where they served sandwitches instead of other meals because they still wanted to feed their gusts..I think this were the beginning of the Smörgåstårta as well but it became bigger and with better fillings after time went by. 3. I think along this process.. some drunk swede or norwegian/finish person were hot one day (and perhaps drunk) and said "damn it's hot in here.. I need to cool down!" and then went out to the snow.. one day the snow had meter but they were still too hot so they just went to the lake. This together with #4 still confuses me as an native swede but then agin.. I really like saunas and cooling down so I've just accepted it.. 5. Flags.... I don't understand it but I'll support if you want to have them. Don't unddrstand the rules or them and when to not flag them.. I'm with you on this one. Now due to the fact that you WILL get the likes and will have to ett a Smörgåstårta I would like to prepare ypu that they come in many shapes.. most common is the seafood one but there are alternatives with rast beef and those that combine the toppings with fruits. If possible, have a tasting with them and find your favorite (or the one you like more from the alternatives). They vary from area to area but I think that the seafood one is the most common. Love to see you try it. :) Just don't think of it as a "cake".. think of it as a meal.. it's an error in translation to call it a cake (even though we call it "tårta".. we' were just stupid when we named it) :P
@@JustaBritAbroadif you buy one, avoid the fruit in the first bite. Important! 😄 Fruit on a smörgåstårta is most of the time just plain decoration. Same with roe. And buy different sorts of smörgåstårta (one without sea food for example). I love seafood tho :)
Oooo! This is gonna be interesting and amusing, I'm sure! (starting the video) When it comes to haircuts and colouring well... I did it before, but pretty often I just cut my own hair. I'm too impulsive to wait and to lazy to pick up the phone and call to make an appointment. I know, sounds weird huh, yep. We do save some money though. And I like cutting my own hair. It's a bit wavy and curly (probably frizzy), so if it's not even to a fault, nobody really cannot see it. Btw, I like your hairstyle! You look great! I have no idea how smörgåstårta came to be. But it's very popular and too much to eat (I love it, but jeez... my stomach!). My mom made such great smörgåstårtor and I had to go to bed and take a siesta because it was simply too much. Or I ate too much... Oh no no no no no! Abso-f*ck*ng*-lutely not taking a dip in ice cold water! Never have and never will do. And I will not be rolling naked in the snow during or after a sauna either. I'm so not that kind of Scandinavian. Hahaha!! Neither is my husband. To my defense; I'm adopted! From another country! LOL! To my husband's defense: eeeeer... he so typical Swedish I don't have any. A really hot sauna and alcohol just cannot be good for your health. But - been there, done that, so I cannot say nobody should do it. Besides sweating myself silly in the sauna, I also of course, got tipsy. Very tipsy indeed. And when you are tipsy, you probably shouldn't go swimming in ice cold water. I mean... i en jäkla vak! Sorry, couldn't find the English expression for that. Btw, I feel just like you do. Sauna is too much. The heat. The sweating. Flags. Yes. They are everywhere. I think I haven't thought about it that much because I grew up here and I live here. Funny enough, I did notice how many flags there are in the U.S. though. But maybe it's actually equal here in Sweden and the U.S.? Not sure. Thanks you so very much for an amusing video! And you just have to try the smörgårdtårta. The traditional one with shrimps on. Looking forward to that video very much! :DDDD
I think you just got hung up on the fact that we happen to call it "tårta". It's not a sweet cake, it's food. Just think of it as a really fancy sandwich. 😊👍 Try to pry out that pesky word "tårta" out of the equation. 😜
3 года назад+6
Yeah, I fully agree. Just think of it as a decorative multilayered sandwich…
You forgot one more rule about flags. If you rise a full flag it’s done at sun rice (or lates at 9 am) must be hauled down at sun fall. When it comes to sauna, go to Finland to experience real classic sauna, not too hot, max 80 Celsius, but massive load of stones on the heater where you splash plenty of water on. The door should not go all the way down to floor, leaving 5-10 cm opening air gap along the floor. Plenty of air flow and not overheated keeps your brain working, and you regulate the burn on the skin with splashing water on the stones. Then you can stay with pleasure in sauna all night. Save your beer after until you sit outside under the stars and cool down slowly. At that moment the beer taste as best.
yeah good point! I actually didn't know that Sonny, how interesting! thanks for sharing🤗 I didn't know that rule about needing t leave the door a little open though, thanks for the information!
I just went for a swim today, in the Baltic sea, October 13th, in 9 degree water. It was refreshing, remember, You never regret a swim! A swim always improves your day, no exceptions. About the flag thing. I think a lot of Swedes associates having your own flag pole with Swedish summer and therefor like to fly it. You can fly the full flag any day you want but you have to take it down at sunset and raise it again at sunrise and it can't touch the ground and needs to be folded a certain way and it's a big hustle. That's why we use the triangular one instead, the "vimpel" (pennant/pendant/streamer/banderole/bannerol). It's just a lot simpler.
bra poäng Sina! det är ett kul och annat sätt att uppleva alla säsonger kan jag tänka mig! tack för att du tittade och jag önskar dig en trevlig vecka med!
I think sandwich cake or smörgåstårta in swedish has more to do with shape than something sweet. I think it was first made in the sixties but I am not sure. I think it was very popular with sandwiches in those days. Landgång is a name of a long sandwich wich also used to be very popular.
ahhh you're right Marianne! that makes a lot of sense! I didn't know that it was such a recent invention as the 60s though, how interesting! do you know how it came to be?
@@JustaBritAbroad I made some google research and it seems like the origin of smörgåstårta is a mystery. However the official sandwich cake day happens to be November 13 so that might be a good day to experience a first bite.
@@JustaBritAbroad It originated in a bakery in Norrland in the 60's and got popular fast as a practical way of serving food at less formal events. I like an open house for a birthday, or a funeral party, I think it became a hit because there are many occasione when we celebrate in Sweden where you do not ecactly know how many people will attend, and when they arrive. It is a dish that can look fancy but it is practical because it is quite compact per serving, not complicated to transport, and you can also store it in a regular fridge over night. At the event you do not need to heat anything or keep warm, you do not need a lot of servers. One single person can hand out the portions, or guests can serve them selves. Also the portion size can be completely individual = less waste= more economical, which we like in Sweden... 😋
Smörgåstårta is like big boy version of landgång, that how it got started. Ice bathing was more common up North were Saunas was more common due to being closer to Finland. Finland was part of Sweden for several hundreds of years, so habits got mixed and exchanged. You need to be able to clean your self even in winter .Also you should be naked in a sauna.
I've actually not tried landgång either Hanna, but I'll have to add it to my list! is it good? yeah, I can totally understand how the history of the sauna came to be. makes a lot of sense from a sanitation point of view! do you use saunas a lot?
@@JustaBritAbroad I'm too Swedish for it... Finns uses saunas ( it is a Finnish word) more then us. The Swedish word is bastu, you can also see that in food, like basturökt skinka, yes the sauna was also used as smoke house. How ever there is Bastuförening here in the area, maybe I should join..
So...basically, there's three-four variants of smörgåstårta. There's shrimp, salmon, liverwurst and lastly roast beef. However, any combination is allowed. Which...weirds me out sometimes. Combining a salmon and roastbeef smörgåstårta is just strange. But it helps to think of them as giant sandwiches. My favorite is actually one my sister used to make for parties when she couldn't be arsed to cook much - basically, cream cheese mixed with grated parmesan, arugula, prosciutto, olives and sundried tomatoes. It's amazing.
You are absolutely right about the costs for a "regular" haircut with no extras - it´s just insane! They charge as if it´s something extra... count on the hourly rate.... more than a car repair with all their costs for a garage, tools and computers!
About the first point. All that money you pay for the haircut doesn't go to the hairdressers pay. 25% goes to taxes, 25% goes to rent of the salon and other expenses, like 25 goes to the salary of the hairdresser and the rest goes back into the salon. If it's like this, it goes well for you. Flags everywhere? What? I'm so confused. I'm in a suburb to Stockholm and I almost never the flags here or in Stockholm, except on busses when it's a holiday.
Well, if you find it difficult breathing after just a short time in a sauna, try leaving the sauna when you start feeling that way and jump directly into the nearest lake. Dip your hole body in the water just long enough to stop being ”heated up”. Now you are ready for the next round! And what ”smörgåstårta” is concerned, there ar several different kinds. Personally I prefer those made out of brown bread and not with too much mayonaise. Try this with beer or tea - not coffee…
Haircut: No idea why it costs so much either. Rent, or possibly a demand issue? Smörgåstårta (sandwich cake): This is actually a main course, not a dessert. It's actually pretty easy to do for many people, so very common on weddings and corporate parties that want cheap & easy festive food. Icy dips: You Sauna, you get really hot, you bathe in the lake, you get really cold, you warm yourself in the sauna again! Sauna parties: Eh, just another way to socialize. *shrug* Flags: Actually, not common at all where I live unless it's a national holiday.
You can flag on any day you want and for any reason. But it once it was forbidden to have the flag up at night. It's not illegal today, but the tradition is still strong. However the 'vimpel' could stay up at night, so if you dont want an empty pole and at the same time don't want to take the flag down every night and then put it up again in the morning, the 'vimpel' is a good solution.
really Kata? how interesting! I didn't know it was illegal in the past for it to be out in the evening. That's so interesting! do you know why? Was it seen to be a lack of respect or something?
@@JustaBritAbroad - In most Countries it's just "flag etiquette" based on the military and the poem by Laurence Binyon - "for the fallen". ( At the setting of the sun and in the morning...we shall remember them") etc.
About the hair cut thing. Remove 25% because that's just taxes. It's a common mistake with people from other countries to forget the product tax. Still we surprisingly pay less then for example usa on some stuff
@@JustaBritAbroad maybe not a haircut. But I talked with an American about this and we found out that in Sweden with tax a cheeseburger from McDonald's cost little over 80 cents while they pay 1 dollar with no tax in usa. Kinda funny example but still interesting
I've read some of the comments and I think your hairdresser issue has been quite well explained. The only thing is miss in their calculations is the rent for the shop. A not too qualified guess is that it is rather high, even for a barbershop that is more like a hole in the wall. Many have already explained what smörgåstårta is about. The traditional toppings are quite fat, so if you must try one, see if you can find a smörgåstårta that is less fatty. One comment remarked that "everything is cold" and it was as if we don't want to cook. It depends on the time of the day. Tårta with coffee or tea is suitable for afternoons and same goes for smörgåstårta. Apart from sweet vs less sweet, a smörgåstårta is also more filling and a beer with it (or a glass of white wine), instead of tea or coffee, won't hurt. If you are invited for dinner, at least one warm dish should be served. Believe it or not, but I have a question for you to answer and that is what in the UK you find odd (I won't take "nothing" for an answer) or don't like or don't do? :-D Conclusion: there are a number of things we don't fully understand or don't like, can't eat or drink but despite this, we seem to have a good life. :-)
thanks for the topping advice Staffan! and good question - nope, I wouldn't say that I find everything straight forward and clear in the UK either to be honest😅 need I mention that half of my countrymen and women voted to leave the European Union?! that's definitely not something I can justify😅 another good example is our approach to parental leave - guys get up to 2 weeks off by law and that's the ceiling, women can have longer but only get support for about 6-7 months. don't even get me started on the cost of childcare😱😱 but you're certainly right with your final comment - and these are also the things that make each country unique and interesting, so I'd say we should be grateful for these subtle differences!
Ill give you my thoughts about the winter bathing thing. The "Bastu" is very old in Sweden and in the old times they didnt have showers so they built the Bastu by a lake and used the lake to rinse off the sweat and cool down after sitting in the hot Bastu for a while. Remember this was the only way many people got a real cleaning in the old days. Consequently when the lake froze over and it was time for the Cristmas bath they chopped a whole in the ice and dipped there after the Bastu. Some people instead of jumping into the water rolled in the snow to cool off. :) Quite a sceene. Besides, what a boring thing if you could move abroad and everything were crystal clear from the start. Cultural clashes are fun and makes us evolve as human beeings I think.
The sandwich cake didn't come out of nowhere. It's an old (American!!!) invention that has gone through some iterative modification and became a thing in Sweden (where it also went through several iterations). The sandwich cake entered the world as a "party sandwich loaf" in the US almost 100 years ago. It was a savory entrée. Sometime in the mid century it existed in Sweden as a "cocktail cake", as in type of stand in for canapés during a cocktail party. And it went from there.
I didn't really read comments, so sorry if I'm repeating same answers. 😅 Finns point of view here: First sandwichcake: it makes sense because if there is sweet and salty cake in party they are balanced and you don't feel so yucky afterwards. That being said it took me 30 years to warm up to sandwichcakes even if they have been in all parties ever. So second try might not convince you yet. Also there is huge quality differenses on them. My mother-in-law makes best ones ever! Second point, ice hole swimming: During the old times people just washed in rivers and lakes because it was easier than carrying water to home. And if there was ice, well you just broke it and washed yourself still. 🤷♀️🙂
I also thought about the price of a haircut in Sweden so I asked about it. This is the explanation I got: When beards went out of fashion in the 60s and 70s the barber training courses lost their appeal and were cut from the Swedish education system and has still not been brought back. So all prices are set according to women's hairdresser salon principles. They will charge more. The other fact are that the social costs in Sweden are way higher. That is the cost a company are obliged to pay into the social service system. the basic equation you can use is that half the cost you pay for a service is to cover these costs.
1 The equal society. The hairdresser also need to afford to eat, how does that even work abroad? 2 Richard Tellström explains it well, it is the middle ground between offering you fika and offering you dinner at a party. 3 It works well together with Sauna, you will understand it when you are pushing the extremes of ice and fire. The cold bath makes the sauna feel even warmer 4 I don't find it stranger than the bath-culture the Romans had. But well, if you periodically cool of in the frozen lake, you will be able to stay in the sauna for longer. Also the sauna is not as strict in what is socially acceptable in Swedish politically correct culture. 5 Back in the day there was laws regarding how when you were allowed to fly a flag. It only regulates the flag. The pennant may be risen at any moment, while the flag only may be risen at daytime, or on a ship while traveling. Sweden has a few flag-days like the kings birthday that was law to fly your flag, but later is more of an official recommendation. I would say most people doesn't have a flag-pole, but you may be of a different opinion. But I do think if you bothered to get a flag pole you will probably want to use it.
The stack of pancaces @4:30 is called a "pannkakstårta" in Swedish. Tårta is the same word as Tarte in French or English, but it does not have exactly the same meaning, and it's not directly translatable to "cake" either. It is something in between, but can also be used for food (and some other things) that consists of stacked layers like "smörgåstårta", or the above mentioned "pannkakstårta".
years ago (been in Sweden 13 years now) I went to the local "Frisor" for a "trim up" = 350kr! After that I blew 500kr on an electric shaver and just give myself a "number 1" every 6 months. Then again, I'm past the "dating" age range now and not trying to impress anyone any longer! 😂 The food here has always baffled me. It's like they hate cooking, so everything gets served cold! I've given up. Once I arrived and noticed the "flag thing", I ordered a full size flagpole and an 8ft X 5ft Union flag and flung them up in the front garden regardless! It apparently became somewhat of a local landmark .. "Drive up the hill then turn right just after the Brit's house" kind of thing! 😆 To be fair, I did want a half Union half Swedish flag stitched together but the GF was terrified we'd go to prison as it's "illegal to cut the Swedish flag", lol.
I live in Värmland, where a lot of Norwegians have houses (both living permanently or summer/vacation homes), and I estimate 99% of them have a Norwegian flag, the year around! 😁 I used to live outside of Stockholm, and for many years a Norwegian family had their flag🇮🇸, next to them lived a partly Finnish family, the Finnish flag🇫🇮, next to them a partly Danish🇩🇰 family. And further down the street a family of German ancestry🇩🇪. So the Swedes had no choice but compete about the LARGEST flag, which could fit the pole (It used to be regulations about length of flag, contra hight of pole. Some years ago all regulations about how to flag was eased, not as strict as they where before, when you could be fined for not follow the law if you missed to lower your flag in time. Nowadays there are no other laws about the flag other than you cannot use a military or marine type of flag. There are RULES, but no laws per se. But to respect the rules, is to respect the flag, the symbol of Sweden, in the extention to show the country Sweden respect. Huh.. I better add to that, it was no politically aspect here! Isn't it tragic, when you EXPECT to have fifty comments on you being a racist if you mention "flag", "country" and "respect" together?? 🥴 But don't raise another flag than the Danish in Denmark. That is a legally crime.
I absolutely feel you on the sauna thing, it must be all the moisture in the air, it feels like I'm struggling to breathe! The other thing is I get uncomfortable sweating if I'm not active, I'm super active for my job so it feels like I'm working even though I'm just sitting there trying to relax.
glad to hear I'm not the only one that finds it a little bit difficult to last long in a sauna Xavier😅 but good point about the impact and effect of getting sweaty when you're not active - especially for someone like you who spends the entire day active and dancing for work. perhaps its nice to spend some part of the day (i.e. when you're relaxing) not sweating your butt off😆 thanks for stopping by! hope you have a good day Xavier🤗
Funny! :D You got us on most of these, but I'm not sure if I agree with the flag one. Maybe I'm home blind (hemmablind) or maybe it's not the same here in Stockholm. One type of place though that I do know flaunt their flags are (or at least in Stockholm) the archipelagos. Though, about the local flags. Some people up in Roslagen recently came up with a flag for Roslagen which has become very popular. It's reminicent of the Swedish flag, but with a deeper blue and a white cross baked into the yellow one (similar to the norwegian flag, but with different colours).
Silver bordering on gold?! That's a big no-no in the vexilliological world. Metal ("gold/silver"=yellow/white) should always border on tincture (other colours). Metal on metal or tincture on tincture is considered a bad choice.
@@dsludge8217 Interesting. I’ve never heard of that, though I wouldn’t concider myself much of a vexillologist. :) But why is it so? Is it a historic thing or a visual thing (like hard to distinguish between gold and silver)?
Great video and thanks for your thoughts much appreciated. And i don´t know why the sandwich cake were invented or so but there would probably be someone who knows.
thanks for your comment - glad to hear that you found it interesting!! I'll have to dig a bit more into the story behind smörgåstårta before its time for me to do the challenge trying it on camera I assume!!
@@JustaBritAbroad Yeah i agree but as far as i know smörgåstårta have been around when i was a kid. I have never done any research on how it was invented.
Hair looks nice. In California the cheap chain haircuts are up to $20 plus we tip here... and that makes no sense because I think the cutter gets paid per cut and not by the hour. So $25 per cut is what I pay but I let myself get shaggy between cuts. In Stockholm everyone looks like they should be in a magazine.
Pancake tower is pannkakstårta Smörgåstårta is not replacing a regular cake, it’s replacing individual sandwiches at a reception. Much quicker to make 800-1000 SEK an hours is what yoy pay egen företagare who adhere to legal requirements of keeping books and paying taxes. They pay their own social security feed -and that’s a lot In what part of the country did you see all those flaga? On a regular day or an official ”flaggdag”? To me it sounds like a 1960’ flaggdag (Christmas, queen’s birthday etc) As for the sauna and ice dip - I skip it, too
Curious if its different from where you are located, or Im just to home blind. But Id have to say I hardly ever see a swedish flag so was a bit shocked with point 5
you don't? interesting!! could be either I guess. or maybe I'm hemmablind too and we have way more in England, I just don't notice them for the reason you point out though. interesting!!
I don't like too sweet things. I eat birthday cake when it's someones birthday. But it's tooo sweet for me. But Smörgårdstårta is so good! I can eat it for dinner, breakfast or just Fika when it's mine or someone else's birthday 😊 I feel like it's something you can eat through the whole birthday. I just hate that it's a bit expensive and I haven't learn how to make it my self 🤣 I know it's not that hard. Maybe it's my goal throughout 2022, to learn how to make Smörgåstårta 🤤
I think the reason we call it "smörgåstårta" is that it looks like a "tårta". I don't think it's much more complicated than that, but I could be wrong, of course.
The reason for the flags is in one way the opposite of patriotic. In the 80s and 90s, nazis in Sweden used the Swedish flag as their own. To reclaim in, and make more people feel welcome since there was a huge refugee crisis from baltic states at that time, people started to put in on their houses and in neighborhoods. Swedes were tired of the Swedish flag being dragged in the dirt so we reclaimed it and started to be proud of it again. It´s a flag of unity and celebration :D
In Finland they have a wonderful sauna culture and there is where I learned how to have a sauna so that you really enjoy it. To enjoy a sauna you should neither be hungry nor full before you enter it. Also high humidity not high temperature is very important. Third, start out hard and reduce after every sitting. And lastly, don't go into the cold dip too early. You need to have an elevated body temperature to enjoy it. Sit in the sauna until your heart is racing and you are getting out of breath, then the icy water feels warm and cozy, nothing macho about it. Finally in order to upset any finish viewer, sauna or "bastu" as we say in Swedish, started in what used to be the east part of Sweden, long before Finland even existed, so isn't it then a Swedish thing rather than Finish?
I'm a swede and I've never heard of a sauna party. I'm also living in Ireland and for the hairdressers , UK is cheaper in general I think, I go up to Belfast a lot, cause just the price difference between Dublin and Belfast is worth the trip. I'm not much for the sandwich cake myself, would never go to a cafe or to the shop to get one, the only thing i would eat in a sandwich cake is tuna with mayo, red onions and cream frech. Those shrimp sandwich cakes are awful.
For men it is usually cheaper to go to a Barbershop to get a haircut. The prices otherwise is base on popularity, location and if they have rented a chair at a place. When i went to a barbershop i got a haircut and a shave for 500 kr
lets invent pancake cake this year - You try to swim in icewater this year - 2: try iceskate on a lakebed on ice 3: try to find the nearest wolf living to your location and pay him a visit
Flags, proper ones, must be lowered between sunset and sunrise, the long triangular ones aren't proper flags so can be flown 24/7, the long triangular ones are also a marker for if you're home or away in your summer cottage, so don't come a-knockin' if not flown.
Never really thought about prices at the barber but it’s ridiculous now that you mention it. A cut for me usually takes about 10 minutes and I pay 280 kr for that. I can kind of understand it if they want to have a fixed price but still… Sandwich cake is hit or miss. All depends on what you put on it and the quality of the ingredients.
People bathed in the lake back in the day before plumbing. If you needed to take a bath in the winter, you would open the ice and take a bath. That's it. That's why 🤣
Wait where do you live, I've lived in Sweden my entire life and more or less NEVER seen any flags except for maybe when I've visited Stockholm or when they have flags on the busses during a national holiday? I'm so confused by this one thing because it is something that has always baffled me about the US in movies and such...
I am totally with you!! (except when it comes to smörgåstårta… Smörgåstårta is the best! 😋) Their is a law regarding the flag. It’s called Lag (1982:269) om Sveriges flagga. It does not say when to raise the flag or not anymore - but it used to. Nowadays those rules are just customs most of flag pole owners abide by out of respect. The big flag can only be raised when it’s daylight but the triangular one can be raised all night long. Many ppl choose that one because it’s less of a hassle. ☺️
thanks Johanna, I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one... well, except for when it comes to smörgåstårta as it seems😅 but I'm convinced that I'm going to learn to love it eventually!
@@JustaBritAbroad I cry internally every time I get a hair cut… (Because of the cost! Not the result 😅) I even get a huge discount because my hairdresser is a relative but it’s still 900kr every 6 weeks… 😐 That’s Stockholm prices though
The way icebathing was invented does not require alot of thinking. Keeping clean in deep the winter during the Iron Age (in the Bronze Age it was alot warmer), especially among poor people with limited supplies, did not give many options. The sauna, like the Sibirian sweat tent, is a really old tradition in many parts of the world. The romans enjoyed saunas, just to name one example. Comparing it to current day houses is missing the historical background. The health benefits, along with the sheer enjoyment of walking into a hot room during the winter months, must have been even more appealing during the harsh Nordic Iron Age. Nowdays it is mostly an enjoyable tradition. For some, it can be more of an acquired taste, tho.
Smörgåstårta is excellent for events where you want to serve food but you have no time or staff to heat it. So do a cold dish that becomes better the next day. Then you are all set.
Good thing I don't have hair lol. I am actually looking forward to trying a sandwich cake, they look yummy. I want to see you try one. Let's make this happen : ) In the U S, there is what is called The Polar Bear Club in which people jump into the ocean in winter wearing just a bating suit, mostly older folks too. Per and I both have asthma, so we wouldn't be able to breathe very well in a sauna, but I have also seen people in the U S go from a sauna right into the snow. I have my Swedish flag proudly and love it. I'm still waiting for you to go to Söderhamn and give your thoughts hahaha. I've shared this on my Facebook to help you get that sandwich you know you really want LOL.
haha Herk, we're not far off me having to try one now!! love that you've shared the video to try and get me closer to going through this pain😅 I love it😅😅 I'm waiting until you move for the Söderhamn video though ;)
A smörgåstårta is just a large sandwich 😂 U dont HAVE to put shrimps on it :D I suggest you make your own smörgåstårta in a video :D with your preferred toppings :)
I think it's something missed in translation between Smörgåstårta and Sandwich Cake. The word Tårta in many cases in Sweden actually is more associated to Layer Cake, instead of only cake that has a much wider meaning. In this case it refers to the layers of a tårta but used in the context of a sandwich.
The prices of hairdressers in Stockholm, don't know about the rest of Sweden, is crazy expensive to me. I usually spend about 3000- 4000 kr on a simple cut of the edges + highlights ( just light highlights, bm not anything fancy either). There are cheaper places but still expensive and the quality of the highlights are usually much worse.
I was shocked about the barber prices here as well. Back in Finland I paid usually around 17€ (but there's also more expensive barbershops), here in Umeå cheapest one would be around 320kr. So I decided to start trimming my own hair and in that way spare a lot of money. Ofc I'm no professional but it's anyways my own hair so I don't care that much if the outcome isn't "perfect"
If you do something in several layers it is often called a "tårta" but the translation is often cake that we in sweden call "Kaka", a fun saying in sweden is "Tårta på Tårta" (cake on cake), the meaning is to say (or do) something and then change something before saying (or do) it again but the result was the same or worse, but also to describe when adding something do not end up in a better result, "I was in a barbershop that costed me 800 Sek, but then there was two barbers cutting my hair, it was cake on cake, I wasn't happy". The sandwich cake we have today was a result of the worst era in human history, the 80th; the idea had existed a longer time and was first written down around 1951, but in the 80th it became a bit of a trend to do quick parties that was supposed to be a bit posh and where the host stood for the whole cost without looking cheap, here was the sandwich cake great, it could be made a day ahead and most of it could be made with rather cheap products you can get in the normal stores and then was it topped with more expensive fish; and here is the smart part, many do not like smörgåsstårta, so they will just take small bits to be nice, they think the host is generous but would feel rude to say they do not like it, folk that like also think the host is generous for they can eat plenty of it. Bad things come to stay a long time, stupidly bad things stays and becomes culture; that is the reason we still have that ***** in every ****** we *** go to :-D Edit: The flagging have a reason that is forgotten. The royal family have a flag flying when that are in a castel and this tradition was adopted by the common man, when some went to their summer place they raised a "vimpel" (long triangular flag) to show that they were there, this tradition followed into the modern era when folk moved into apartments when it was common to put up/out a flag when you where at home, over time folk started to let the flag become rather permanent and at later times the flagging have got different meaning for different people. Many stores and fik still use flags to indicate that they are open, but today they use a flag with a brand symbol rather than the Swedish flag. I should really watch the video before stating to spam the comment section with long boring and poorly spelled posts.
So. Let me see if I got this right. You can't call it cake unless it's sweet. Right? So you can't call a stacked panCAKE thing a cake? :) And you should try the sandwichcake that has your favourite thing on them. If you like shrimp, take a shrimp one, if you like roast beef, take a roast beef one. It's that simple. Saunaparties: The same as hot tub parties. Sitting down in a warm place, relaxing, while gulping down some cold ones. Amazing. There is nothing better. EDIT: Think of how great it is to sit down and have a cold beer after you have been out working hard in the sun all day. With a sauna party you skip the hard work and go straight to the beer. :)
haha good pooint Jonas, you got me there! I'll be sure to give it a proper go in a video soon though! thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a great week!
Smörgåstårta, brukar man bjuda på när man vill erbjuda något mer likt mat, typ på en begravning, studentfest mm. Att det ska vara lätt att bjuda på(det kan förberedas före och det blir lite disk) Framför allt ska det kännas högtidligt att äta och snyggt att se på
250-350sek for 30 mins sounds reasonable tho. Cause thats not 100% profit for 30 minutes. Theyre paying rent for where they are, as well as bills, theyre paying for any cleaning or styling products they used for you, and even if youre only there for 30 minutes they still have to clean the area and their tools, plus paperwork/administrative tasks going into it. So for that 30 min haircut they are probably working for 1 hour, plus theyre likely gonna be paying higher taxes due to being a bussiness rather than a privately hired person. Say for example that they have rwnts and bills that amount to 20000 sek a month for their business, at 1 hour per client, thats 160hours for a 4 week month, like febuary, that means that they need to bring in 125 per hour just to break even, add in actually taking a profit that resembles a normal salary at 150/hour, thats allready 275sek, add on top of that a bunch of taxes and bussinesowner fees, and the easiest way to put it is (what atleast used to be) the reccomendation of livsmedelsverket that for a bussiness to be sustainable financially a product needs to cost 4x the cost of producing it. If we count the bills for the salon as cost of making it, not accounting for the time our hairdresser needs to get paid for, that commes out to 500sek/hour, and like I said, a 30 min haircut is more than 30 min work when factoring in cleaning and paperwork - such as taking payment and scedualing the appointment or even doing the bookkeping. The 250sek haircut is probably either underpaid or in a very low cost of living area where the rent for a salon and actual cost of bills and similar is lower.
Ok, so: 1. I suspect that the prices are higher in Sweden in the manual labour business fields because of the long and successful union work towards fair wages and to eliminate "svartarbete", aka unregistrered transactions. I am sure that a swedish haidresser would accept a lower pay in cash if it meant she or he could put it right into their pocket and not pay moms and taxes. The amount that you pay for 1 hour of manual labour is not even close to what the person gets on their paycheck for that hour. In best cases it would be 50% but more often even less than that. 2. As others have pointed out, the word "tårta" does not actually translate to "cake" but rather to "layers of baked goods" or something like that. Maybe a better translation into English would be "sandwich tower". 3. I an imagine lots of situations where people for a variety of reason have had to go down an ice covered lake. First of all, learning how to manage yourself of you by accident fall through the ice is survival 101 for ascandinavians. Before the age of roads, lakes were the most important means of transportation, either by boat or on ice sleds during winter. Therefore, scandinavians have had to know what it means to take involontary ice baths. And as always, there are That Kind Of People who sonehow found that experience positive for some reason so they just do ice baths because they like it. Which is of course, as you brits say, bonkers, but what can you do. 4. I fully agree that a sauna party is weird, but I can't agree that it is that common. Amongst my friends and family it has been suggested 0 times. 5. Regarding the flags, there are actually laws that stipulate that if you own a flagpole you need to follow a certain flagging regimen. The small triangular flag is the "standby mode" and it can be up 24/7, but if you don't replace it with the full flag on "allmänna flaggdagar" i suppose you could tecnically be fined or something. It is at least frowned upon by people who care about these things. You need to rise and take down the flag at a certain time and it can under no circumstance be up after sunset. It's a whole thing. Best is to just take down the flagpole so you don't have to bother. If you walk through a neighboirhood where everyone have flagpoles, you should expext flags because it is literally the law to have a flag on a flagpole.
I don´t know how the sandwich cake came into existence, but just note that there are variants with meat in them. Ham, meatballs and stuff like that. If you don´t like the seafood stuff, go for that as a tryout. -Haircut in Sweden? How does it work? Swedish hairdresser: Great! :)
I am a swede living in Scotland and I never understood the winterswim or sauna parties. The flag thing I've taken with me over here. I wish there were more flags up around here. Smörgåstårta I love but haven't had in years. However, I do understand your bafflement, it is all in the translation, as has been mentioned in previous comments. Love watching your vlogs!
oh you haven't? interesting! but I can agree with you that there's a bit of charm that comes with the flags going up! thanks for your kind comments about my videos though! so fun to hear you're enjoying them. I've got a really fun one on the way for next week🤞🏻 have a nice week!!
About the hairdressers price, many years ago there was a new tax on their work. It went from reasonable to CRUEL in one week. In the 90s I used to pay 130 SEK for a cut in Stockholm. Something happend and 250 (normal girl-price back then) went up to 500 in a jiff. And there we remain.
It depends on where you live in sweden. That haircut you can get for about 100kr at local drop-in barbers in Malmö. I have seen as low as 80kr for just trimming the sides as you did.
yeah you make a good point about the differences in regions Joakim! I live in a much smaller city than Malmö though, which is why I kind of expected it would be cheaper for me!
The flag may sit up in the dark if it is illuminated. You have to raise the flag every day. You can hoist a foreign flag. Only ONE national flag may be on the same flagpole. So the one in your movie with some company flag above is doing wrong. If you have three or more flagpoles with different flags, the Swedish flag must be on the outer, foreign flags or company flags on the inner flagpoles. Ships and leisure boats may fly flags around the clock when they are driven. Claims outside own territory.
interesting Johan, you're the first person whose mentioned that you can actually have a flag up at night if its illuminated. I didn't realise that! interesting, thanks for sharing the history!
I think it begins with the other sandwich landgång. Landgång have cheese, some meat and leverpastej and some mimosa sallad and after a time they begin to build it in layers, look at Danish different sandwich
Apparently I've not learned my lesson, and here we go again... gulp😳 if you want to see me try sandwich cake in a video, you know what you need to do😱 p.s. hope you enjoyed today's video! You know by now that I absolutely love Sweden, so this was definitely only intended as a bit of fun! Let's be honest, it would be boring if the whole world was the same anyway, right?😅 happy Wednesday!
Go ahead and try it, but try two or three variants like seafood, rostbeef and 'other' ham maybe.
Have you thought about ”further ado”?
”Further” is cognate with ”fort” (=forward is what it actually means in Swedish, at least in compounds).
And ”ado” is short for ”att do” (=att göra), so in this word English has a nordic loanword in it - ”att”.
I think this might be the only place where ”att” remains in Standard English.
You need to try a homemade cake. The store bought versions are never good, the are too sweet. I hate when they put cream and "frukt coctail" on them. You should NEVER put anything on it that you can not put on a sandwich. I love my own smörgåstårta that I make my self 😀
@@Erika-br8xo Extremely sad to say, but the best smörgåstårta you can buy are the ones served after funerals. How weird is that!?
I'm 60, so I have been to a couple, and of some reason they seem to come more frequently🙄.
So far not ONE dreadful of the sort you described, with loads of 😵 canned fruits 😖on. Pineapple rings with "kassler" (cold smoked (pork) whole piece of cutlet part, you typically buy a chunk and slice in your own liking, but on smörgåstårta it's always very thin slices of this usually a little bit salty meet.) is the only I can remember. However, if you look at recipies with 'kassler' från the sixties - seventies, you'll see it was a common thing to serve pineapple with the kassler! (In general the mix of the sweet and sour pineapple and the saltiness of the kassler marry well together, BUT not really the case with everything else you have on (and in) a smörgåstårta!)
@@stefannilsson9061 good advice indeed!!
The Swedish word for cake is tårta. A pancake tower is also called pankakstårta in Swedish. It's just layers of eatable things. So the word Tårta doesn't necessarily mean sweet. And smörgåstårta is delicious, but I suppose what topping you're using.
Thanks, this is what I wanted to say. Cake and tårta might not be the same meaning. Translations of a cake will be tårta, but the word tårta means more than cake. You even use it for fireworks, when you have those with lot of layers. Basically, I think tårta is more a meaning of something with several layers.
Also, cake is generally translated with tårta/kaka (depending on type), but kaka can be both a plain cake and a cookie. Sometimes it's better to slightly release one language when trying to learn another.
ahhh it is Joacim? there's the flaw in my logic then😅 but I was fully expecting that you guys would be able to make me see sense in the end! what topping would you recommend?
@@nutcaze2 you use it for fireworks too Eric? I have no idea! that's so interesting!! perhaps as you say, a more direct translation would be "multi-layered object"?
@@JustaBritAbroad There are usually two types of smörgåstårta, fish or meat, It depends of what you like.
Recepie for Smörgåstårta:
- take any bread you like
- layer it in a few layers with any kind of delicious stuff you like. Mayo? Cream cheese? Avocado slices? Shredded tuna mixed in Creme Fraice and garlic? WHATEVER
- stack a few layers
- "Frost" the cake with something nice, like cream cheese
- For the ideal juicy cake, leave it in fridge overnight with clingfilm on.
- Add toppings of WHATEVER your heart desires. Salmon, shrimp, boiled eggs, caviar (real one, not the Kalles stuff), lettuce, tomatoes... little rolls of cheese or ham... or WHATEVER
- Add more toppings. You don't have enough yet
- No sorry, you can still see some cake through the toppings. ADD MORE
- Okay, now decorate with lemon twists, sprigs of dill or whatever you feel like
- Look at your fantastic creation.
Then EAT.
This!! 😁😁
(Except for the cream cheese, it should be creme fraiche and mayo! 🤪😂)
My mother have a great version including grated carrots. Really good!
@ - HÄDARE!!! Morot i smörgåstårta? Sitt ner i bänken.
hahaha love this Zap! thanks for sharing😆 I'll bear this in mind when its my turn to do the challenge!!
@@attesmatte creme fraiche?😱 interesting😅
Well, we don't eat sandwich cakes with the same purpose as we eat "ordinary" (sweet) cakes with, and therefore we don't expect the same tastes etc. when we eat them. The "smörgåstårta" has "tårta" (cake) in its name because it looks like a tårta. Don't compare it with a tårta anymore. It is like comparing knäckebröd and sweet biscuits. A piece of knäckebröd or a salty cracker may have some features in common with biscuits, but we know that they aren't biscuits, so we don't eat them with the same purpose, and we don't expect the same type of taste.
good point Anders" there certainly is a difference between the purpose isn't there, and therefore the expectations on the "dish" you're about to eat. But you're right, time to forget tårta😅 thanks for sharing and have a great day!
At my work, people eat smörgåstårta when there is any kind of celebration. This gives it the same purpose as a cake in other countries? If my Swedish colleagues can choose, they always choose a smörgåstårta over a gräddtårta.
Excellent logical explanation 👍😁!
@@JustaBritAbroad Smörgåstårta is a real meal , gräddtårta is more like a snack or something you eat with coffee after
the main course ( my spelling program sucks ) . You should try Rostbiff , always a hit..
Even a Finn can tell how swimming in the icy water started: people just walked on thin ice and went through it. That is quite common. Those who survived thought it kind of cool and made it a habit.
I like what you did there Sampo... quite cool ;)
Or it was the only option 1000 years ago?
..here in sweden it has for a long time been manadtor kids learn to swim and be able rscue themself and others if thay goues trough the ice, usually all kids do this (but its not forced), in the military it required u do, sweden finland has alot of lakes and being able rescue someone or urself is important...
...i guess it first caught on as a trend, but studies has shown it actually has health benefits... and now u know whay thers so many finnish naked men (and women) running around in the snow outside of the sauna... u can also roll in the snow if its cold enugh after u bathed in a ice-pool -10c or lower... u are actually drying out the water faster than if u shouldnt... on ur body the water doesent freeze (unnless it rly rly cold -30c or below) but it helps the heat loss enourmusly ... so get dry fast as possible to survive (survival training) is a must...
Tårta in Swedish literally means layered things stacked high. That's it. The "default interpretation" is the sweet thing. But we have fyrverkeritårta about a prepackaged set of fireworks, for example. It's kinda like how in English the word "sandwich" means to stick things between other things, whereas the Swedish word smörgås has no such connotations.
..which, btw, is why English speakers are confused by our "open sandwiches" because they think a sandwich is two pieces of bread with things in between. "It's in the name" to an English speaker "to sandwich things together". So simlarly, a "tårta" just means "to stack a bunch of things".
good point Zap! I think that's the real difference between the two. linguistics, you got to love them right? its how we all end up with our colourful and interesting varieties of concepts and ideas right. it would be boring if everyone spoke and meant the same thing right!😅
@@JustaBritAbroad Swedish even has the expression "tårta på tårta", which simply means you've laid too much of something on top of more of the same thing (often metaphorically), as in "deodorant on top of parfume is tårta på tårta" ... okay shitty example but you get the idea :P
Well in English you have things like pancakes, teacakes and ashcakes and they are not sweet cakes are they? You may put sweet jam on them but still. 😉
Regarding costs at hairdressers, say a not so decent salary of 17000, which would be 100 krona per hour before taxes. On top of those 17000 krona, the company needs to pay fees at about 26%, now we are up to 21000, or about 125 krona per hour. then the place and materials cost, and the company profits are taxed.
800 krona per hour if you have two clients per hour makes 600 after vat. Sure 600 per hour is fine if you are fully utilized whole day, but that’s not always the case, you need to have some room for empty chairs, days you are sick and vacations and stuff, and then the cost at the hairdresser isn’t that unreasonable…
Also, a hairdresser by proffession requires a fairly decent education. First of Gymnasium. Then if wanna study futher and learn more besides basic stuff you can actually learn that in Uni.
Most of the world dont require an education for it. So thats why its mostly cheaper.
But then again, a good hairdresser is more expensive. You normally get what you pay for. Just like anything else in this country.
yeah good point Örjan! the effect of fees and taxes makes it very expensive to be able to make this kind of service profitable I guess! when you break it down, it becomes a lot more logical!
@@rickardsvensson7097 do you have to go to a formal university to be a hair dresser here? interesting!
@@rickardsvensson7097 Good answer! You get what you pay for.
Do not forget about the rent. Sometimes you'll have to pay for lokation.
I think the thing with the flags is that. Normal rectangular flags are only allowed to be up during daylight hours meaning you have to take them down every night and put them back up in the morning which naturaly no one wants to do. Therefore we all use the triangular one since that one is allowed during the night. The full flag is therefor seen as more festive and are usually put up on birthdays or "national flag days" which are days when everyone who owns a flagpole is required to raise a flag (preferably the real deal). National flag days include normal holidays like new years, easter, chrismas and midsummer but also first of may (unions related holliday here), military veterans day, opening of riksdag (parlament) and the birthdays and namesdays of the king, queen and crown princess.
While I dont think there is actually any punishments for breaking any of the rules above they are all part of the tradition of our flag.
oh really Vilma? is that still a rule - that you can't have normal flags out in the evening I mean? And if so, do you know where it came from? I'm so intruiged!! this is so interesting!
You are actually allowed to flag in the evening, as long as the flag is lit.
The flag is supposed to be treated with respect, so it might be something like respecting the flag that is the origin of this rule maybe?
@@JustaBritAbroad - The rule is "to kl 20 or when the sun goes down", but you know... In this country those are two WASLTY differet things.
Förr när man gjorde(lumpen)var inkallad till armèn.Så reste dom flaggan kl 8.Det var som att se kackerlackor när man tänder ljuset.Alla som var utomhus sprang in.För dom ville inte stå i givakt under hela reveljen och salutera flaggan.
It’s actually not a law but a deeply rooted tradition so everyone thinks it’s a law. It’s military in origin.
What you are paying for, getting a haircut, is the skill, education, the rent of the shop, wages for the barber, supplies, maintennnace of the supplies, 1 pair of shears/scissors can often cost up to 10.000:- ($1000) and they need several, sharpening costs, electric bill, heating, advertisement, insurance, continuous education courses, taxes, and sometimes even parking. So 400:- is quite reasonable here in Sweden, where it's considered expensive. If it's cheaper, the barbers and hairdressers over all expenses are probably lower. Some have more education and experience in a low cost area, so they are just as expensive as somewhere in other posh areas. Some just set their price however they like. As a customer, you still have a choice to either let someone skilled do it for money, or let a friend help you for free, or you do it for ones self. A carpenter or plumber costs at least ca 600:-/hour, +"resekostnaden" (trip cost), and supplies needed. So skilled people will cost you. I have not even a clue what a lawyer would cost per hour for giving advice nowadays, last I checked, I think we paid over 2000:-/hour...🤔 Correct me if I'm wrong.
The very high price is maninly due to our very high taxes on wages and services. Swedes are accustumed to pay very musch for services like plumbers, etc (They introduses the tax reduction ROT and RUT becuase regular people could not afford to hire help, and more and mor jobs were done undeclared, as "svartjobb". So a barber both pay taxes as an employer/ business owner AND regular income tax on his wage. Arbetsgivaravgift, moms, company tax etc. The money you pay for your cut must also cover shop rent and utilities, insurance ( which are all high because of addedc taxes). It is a lot...
good point!! there's certainly a lot of other factors at pay here!
Labor costs are high here n Sweden, this makes a lot of services like hair cuts fairly expensive. Also, there are a lot of jobs that simply don't exist here because labor costs make them unviable. Supermarkets don't employ people who pack groceries for the customers, parkings have no assistants that park peoples cars etc.
you're right Rasmus,that certainly pays into a lot!!
Another thing to mention is the taxes! You may pay 400 kr, but at least half of that will go to the government, and then there's rent etc
And state retirement funding. Witjout taxes, no state guaranteed retirement funding for you.
The tradition of everyone having their own flagpole and flying the swedish flag comes from the turn of the last century when the Swedish/Norwegian union broke up. It became very high status to have your own flagpole and fly the swedish flag to show your support for the kingdom. Same thing on the norwegian side but worse.
And also the Dalaromantik-thing, were it was really popular with having your own torp/stuga. Snickarglädje, syrener, faluröd och en flaggstång.
ah right! interesting, so fun to learn the history behind it - thanks for sharing!!
@@familyupgrade oooh I'm going to look this up now!
Most new houses don't have flagpoles. But if you buy a house with a flag pole you need to put a flag on it, or it'll just look ridiculous.
I have another idea, I know that is was a "status symbol" to have a flagpole and to flag with the Swedish flag after the union was broken, but this was nothing the common man did, so the use of the flag for normal folk need to have another source and function and then the royal family use a flag to show where they are and when a palace is used this was a tradition folk adapted when they could have several houses (summer house), so flagg up when they were in the summer house to let other know, 'the owner of the house is now here'.
The definition of tårta in swedish seems to be anything multilayered, whereas the direct translation "cake" means a dessert. We also have Tacotårta. Smörgåstårta is great btw.
yeah good point Carl-Henrik! I hadn't really thought about the implications of that until I posted this video - so fun to get a new perspective on it!
How about, våga vägra smörgåstårta :D
Well, the Sandwich cake. And pancake tower. We call the pancake tower a pancake cake as well in Swedish. The concept itself is just a fancy sandwich that got more fancy… just look at the shrimp/prawn sandwiches we have, they are almost a small sandwich cake on their own, just with only one layer of bread.
you do call it a pancake cake?😆I had no idea! haha how interesting!! but you're right about the concept, thanks for explaining! have a great day!!
Crepe cakes with layers in between are however not only a Swedish thing.
@@martah5369 True, that is probably why he referred to it as a pancake tower, which is apparently what it is called in English.
@@Johan_g I've definitely seen the word crêpe cake too though.
👍 Think in terms of Elvis's sandwiches, but perhaps not banana and peanutbutter😂! If you like bananas and peanutbutter on your smörgåstårta, go for it, but I think I'll pass on that one.
(A double sandwich with banana and peanutbutter 👍👍, but don't add ham, turkey and God-knows-what else to it😣)
If you are interested in eating a Sandwich Cake then you should choose one with your favorite ingrediens. There are a lot of different ones. You can have with salmon (with or without the shrimps), you can add cray fish meat, you can have no sea food at all and just have meat on it like "rostbiff skivor" and you can of course have a vegetarian one. You can put anything you want in it and on top. There are no "rules" on what it has to contain except bread and fillings+topping of course and it's in layers. The shrimp one is just a favorite for many people. Swedes in general love shrimps and seafood I think.
And yeah, tårta is used for a lot of different things as long as it has layers. The examples with pankaks tårta and fyrverkeri tårta are great ones to show how the word tårta is used. Basically Smörgås tårta is just a very fancy sandwich. You wouldn't eat a sandwich as you do cake right? You eat it for lunch or dinner and not as a regular cake. Actually. It's very similar to your traditonal English Tea Sandwich. It just have more layers and we may have different ingredients. The biggest difference is how we present it as our smörgåstårta resembles a cake, hence the name.
thanks for the tips Sussie! I'll bear that in mind when I'm putting the smörgåstårta video together. have a great day!
Smörgåstårta is just a big communal sandwich, which you share.
yeah, I like that way of looking at it Robert! perhaps with another couple of tries I'll be convinced haha
😂Try this:
Lift of the toppings and make your "smörgåstårta" in tirangular shapes.... and you have something very familiar, right? ;-)
Ok I recon its a rather posh variant of that triangular thing, but yet.. somewhat similar... 😀 Smörgåstårta is something that I eat maby once a year, if I'm invited to some event or someone where it's served.
hahaha great thinking Zirie!
When it comes to the sauna i think you need to ask a Finn, as far as i know the whole thing comes from Finland.
Finland will probably put us to shame when it comes to all things sauna :)
Regarding hairdressing: it is a skilled trade and you are paying for their skill, not their time. Would you be happy to pay more for an inferior hairdresser because they would take longer?
You also pay for the high tax on labor. There is not much left for salary after tax, insurance, rent and other expenses for the hairdresser. 250kr sounds very cheap.
I don't mind paying the price so much as not getting the cut I want. Have asked the last five hair dressers to leave my from bangs long, and they still wack it off so the scar on my forhead doesn't show. Yes, I have shown them photos, hair style sketches, and shown the length I want on my self.
good distinction actually!! but taxes definitely play a role too I would think!
@@MrGunnar69 that's a good point actually! this plays a bigger role than immigrants to Sweden like me think about!!
@@lindatisue733 hmmm interesting Linda! I've experienced that to a lesser extent too! I wonder why🤔🤔
I do not belive that the thing with the flags are patriotic. It's more about tradition and that a flagpole is a very sad sight without a flag in it. New build houses rarely have flagpoles.
good point actually! nobody wants to see an empty flag pole, so its better to have something there than not!!
@@JustaBritAbroad Maybe you are living in Stockholm and they are feeling more swedish, maybe its a local culture.
I was thinking that he's somewhere in a smaller town because I rarely see the flag in Stockholm.
Gonna try .y best as a swede to give you my input. :)
1. A haircut indeed are high priced, but then again it's just as nails..The person trimming you don't know what you're gonna do before you get there and if you sit there for 30-60min just to trimm the edges instead of doing a full treatment and color etc.. it's kinda the same thought of why we don't tip as much in Sweden.. The people are thought to be paid well in any position but at the barbers they may not -therefor the price is higher.
2. Smörgåstårta, you ned to try it.. just think of it as a big sandwich. It's cheeper than a cooked meal and still fills you up. As it first came around I guess it weren't as fancy as today but I've read a story from Africa where they had a wedding where they served sandwitches instead of other meals because they still wanted to feed their gusts..I think this were the beginning of the Smörgåstårta as well but it became bigger and with better fillings after time went by.
3. I think along this process.. some drunk swede or norwegian/finish person were hot one day (and perhaps drunk) and said "damn it's hot in here.. I need to cool down!" and then went out to the snow.. one day the snow had meter but they were still too hot so they just went to the lake.
This together with #4 still confuses me as an native swede but then agin.. I really like saunas and cooling down so I've just accepted it..
5. Flags.... I don't understand it but I'll support if you want to have them.
Don't unddrstand the rules or them and when to not flag them.. I'm with you on this one.
Now due to the fact that you WILL get the likes and will have to ett a Smörgåstårta I would like to prepare ypu that they come in many shapes.. most common is the seafood one but there are alternatives with rast beef and those that combine the toppings with fruits. If possible, have a tasting with them and find your favorite (or the one you like more from the alternatives).
They vary from area to area but I think that the seafood one is the most common. Love to see you try it. :)
Just don't think of it as a "cake".. think of it as a meal.. it's an error in translation to call it a cake (even though we call it "tårta".. we' were just stupid when we named it) :P
The concept of smörgåstårta itself is pretty simple. It's the worlds best sandwitch. And it's huge. Also, it kinda looks like a cake.
haha true! what's the best flavours for me to try?!
@@JustaBritAbroad My favorites are shrimp and/or salmon :)
@@JustaBritAbroadif you buy one, avoid the fruit in the first bite. Important! 😄 Fruit on a smörgåstårta is most of the time just plain decoration. Same with roe.
And buy different sorts of smörgåstårta (one without sea food for example). I love seafood tho :)
@@JustaBritAbroad Reindeer!
Oooo! This is gonna be interesting and amusing, I'm sure! (starting the video)
When it comes to haircuts and colouring well... I did it before, but pretty often I just cut my own hair. I'm too impulsive to wait and to lazy to pick up the phone and call to make an appointment. I know, sounds weird huh, yep. We do save some money though. And I like cutting my own hair. It's a bit wavy and curly (probably frizzy), so if it's not even to a fault, nobody really cannot see it. Btw, I like your hairstyle! You look great!
I have no idea how smörgåstårta came to be. But it's very popular and too much to eat (I love it, but jeez... my stomach!). My mom made such great smörgåstårtor and I had to go to bed and take a siesta because it was simply too much. Or I ate too much...
Oh no no no no no! Abso-f*ck*ng*-lutely not taking a dip in ice cold water! Never have and never will do. And I will not be rolling naked in the snow during or after a sauna either. I'm so not that kind of Scandinavian. Hahaha!! Neither is my husband. To my defense; I'm adopted! From another country! LOL! To my husband's defense: eeeeer... he so typical Swedish I don't have any.
A really hot sauna and alcohol just cannot be good for your health. But - been there, done that, so I cannot say nobody should do it. Besides sweating myself silly in the sauna, I also of course, got tipsy. Very tipsy indeed. And when you are tipsy, you probably shouldn't go swimming in ice cold water. I mean... i en jäkla vak! Sorry, couldn't find the English expression for that. Btw, I feel just like you do. Sauna is too much. The heat. The sweating.
Flags. Yes. They are everywhere. I think I haven't thought about it that much because I grew up here and I live here. Funny enough, I did notice how many flags there are in the U.S. though. But maybe it's actually equal here in Sweden and the U.S.? Not sure.
Thanks you so very much for an amusing video! And you just have to try the smörgårdtårta. The traditional one with shrimps on. Looking forward to that video very much! :DDDD
I think you just got hung up on the fact that we happen to call it "tårta". It's not a sweet cake, it's food. Just think of it as a really fancy sandwich. 😊👍 Try to pry out that pesky word "tårta" out of the equation. 😜
Yeah, I fully agree. Just think of it as a decorative multilayered sandwich…
This is what I was going to say. We just call it a cake (tårta), but it's not something that comes to mind when someone wants cake.
@@Raskian
Exactly. If someone says "Jag är sugen på tårta!", they literally never mean smörgåstårta. 😜
I think you're right Sara, time to let go of tårta😆 challenge accepted!!
@ ooooh sounds funnn Örjan😱😅
You forgot one more rule about flags. If you rise a full flag it’s done at sun rice (or lates at 9 am) must be hauled down at sun fall.
When it comes to sauna, go to Finland to experience real classic sauna, not too hot, max 80 Celsius, but massive load of stones on the heater where you splash plenty of water on. The door should not go all the way down to floor, leaving 5-10 cm opening air gap along the floor. Plenty of air flow and not overheated keeps your brain working, and you regulate the burn on the skin with splashing water on the stones. Then you can stay with pleasure in sauna all night. Save your beer after until you sit outside under the stars and cool down slowly. At that moment the beer taste as best.
yeah good point! I actually didn't know that Sonny, how interesting! thanks for sharing🤗 I didn't know that rule about needing t leave the door a little open though, thanks for the information!
I just went for a swim today, in the Baltic sea, October 13th, in 9 degree water. It was refreshing, remember, You never regret a swim! A swim always improves your day, no exceptions.
About the flag thing. I think a lot of Swedes associates having your own flag pole with Swedish summer and therefor like to fly it. You can fly the full flag any day you want but you have to take it down at sunset and raise it again at sunrise and it can't touch the ground and needs to be folded a certain way and it's a big hustle. That's why we use the triangular one instead, the "vimpel" (pennant/pendant/streamer/banderole/bannerol). It's just a lot simpler.
Yeah, my mother in-law does the icecswims too, but them complains about how cold it is inside if the room temperature is below 20°
you did?!😱😱 wow I'm impressed!! but you make a good point, perhaps its a bit like the effect of exercise and getting the endorphines running!
@@lindatisue733 really? impressive😅😅
Intressanta tankar!
Kallbad är ett sätt att använda årstiden effektivare och utmana ens rädslor!
Ha en fin vecka!
bra poäng Sina! det är ett kul och annat sätt att uppleva alla säsonger kan jag tänka mig! tack för att du tittade och jag önskar dig en trevlig vecka med!
1 timme i het bastu, sen ut i isvaken och ligga där länge
I think sandwich cake or smörgåstårta in swedish has more to do with shape than something sweet. I think it was first made in the sixties but I am not sure. I think it was very popular with sandwiches in those days. Landgång is a name of a long sandwich wich also used to be very popular.
ahhh you're right Marianne! that makes a lot of sense! I didn't know that it was such a recent invention as the 60s though, how interesting! do you know how it came to be?
@@JustaBritAbroad I made some google research and it seems like the origin of smörgåstårta is a mystery. However the official sandwich cake day happens to be November 13 so that might be a good day to experience a first bite.
@@JustaBritAbroad It originated in a bakery in Norrland in the 60's and got popular fast as a practical way of serving food at less formal events. I like an open house for a birthday, or a funeral party,
I think it became a hit because there are many occasione when we celebrate in Sweden where you do not ecactly know how many people will attend, and when they arrive. It is a dish that can look fancy but it is practical because it is quite compact per serving, not complicated to transport, and you can also store it in a regular fridge over night. At the event you do not need to heat anything or keep warm, you do not need a lot of servers. One single person can hand out the portions, or guests can serve them selves. Also the portion size can be completely individual = less waste= more economical, which we like in Sweden... 😋
Smörgåstårta is like big boy version of landgång, that how it got started. Ice bathing was more common up North were Saunas was more common due to being closer to Finland. Finland was part of Sweden for several hundreds of years, so habits got mixed and exchanged. You need to be able to clean your self even in winter .Also you should be naked in a sauna.
I've actually not tried landgång either Hanna, but I'll have to add it to my list! is it good? yeah, I can totally understand how the history of the sauna came to be. makes a lot of sense from a sanitation point of view! do you use saunas a lot?
@@JustaBritAbroad I'm too Swedish for it... Finns uses saunas ( it is a Finnish word) more then us. The Swedish word is bastu, you can also see that in food, like basturökt skinka, yes the sauna was also used as smoke house. How ever there is Bastuförening here in the area, maybe I should join..
So...basically, there's three-four variants of smörgåstårta. There's shrimp, salmon, liverwurst and lastly roast beef. However, any combination is allowed. Which...weirds me out sometimes. Combining a salmon and roastbeef smörgåstårta is just strange. But it helps to think of them as giant sandwiches.
My favorite is actually one my sister used to make for parties when she couldn't be arsed to cook much - basically, cream cheese mixed with grated parmesan, arugula, prosciutto, olives and sundried tomatoes. It's amazing.
You are absolutely right about the costs for a "regular" haircut with no extras - it´s just insane! They charge as if it´s something extra... count on the hourly rate.... more than a car repair with all their costs for a garage, tools and computers!
About the first point. All that money you pay for the haircut doesn't go to the hairdressers pay. 25% goes to taxes, 25% goes to rent of the salon and other expenses, like 25 goes to the salary of the hairdresser and the rest goes back into the salon. If it's like this, it goes well for you.
Flags everywhere? What? I'm so confused. I'm in a suburb to Stockholm and I almost never the flags here or in Stockholm, except on busses when it's a holiday.
Many companies offer sandwich cake because they are more like a meal and many like them. Of course, there are people who do not eat them.
oooh interesting Christer! I've never thought about taking it as a lunch before!
Well, if you find it difficult breathing after just a short time in a sauna, try leaving the sauna when you start feeling that way and jump directly into the nearest lake. Dip your hole body in the water just long enough to stop being ”heated up”. Now you are ready for the next round!
And what ”smörgåstårta” is concerned, there ar several different kinds. Personally I prefer those made out of brown bread and not with too much mayonaise. Try this with beer or tea - not coffee…
good advice Jörgen! I'll keep it in mind :) with beer?! that was a shock haha!
Because dipping in ice cold water and having a sauna right after makes you feel amazing.
Haircut: No idea why it costs so much either. Rent, or possibly a demand issue?
Smörgåstårta (sandwich cake): This is actually a main course, not a dessert. It's actually pretty easy to do for many people, so very common on weddings and corporate parties that want cheap & easy festive food.
Icy dips: You Sauna, you get really hot, you bathe in the lake, you get really cold, you warm yourself in the sauna again!
Sauna parties: Eh, just another way to socialize. *shrug*
Flags: Actually, not common at all where I live unless it's a national holiday.
thanks for sharing your take on things Per! partcularly that the flags aren't so common where you are, interesting!
@@JustaBritAbroad this is the only one I disagree with, I rarely see the flag around where I live on the westcoast
You can flag on any day you want and for any reason. But it once it was forbidden to have the flag up at night. It's not illegal today, but the tradition is still strong. However the 'vimpel' could stay up at night, so if you dont want an empty pole and at the same time don't want to take the flag down every night and then put it up again in the morning, the 'vimpel' is a good solution.
really Kata? how interesting! I didn't know it was illegal in the past for it to be out in the evening. That's so interesting! do you know why? Was it seen to be a lack of respect or something?
@@JustaBritAbroad I've never really thought about it, but I suppose that's the reason.
@@JustaBritAbroad - In most Countries it's just "flag etiquette" based on the military and the poem by Laurence Binyon - "for the fallen". ( At the setting of the sun and in the morning...we shall remember them") etc.
A smörgåstårta is called that because it is made of sandwiches(smörgåsar) and looks like a cake (tårta). Simple as that.
the more you know🤩😅
About the hair cut thing. Remove 25% because that's just taxes. It's a common mistake with people from other countries to forget the product tax.
Still we surprisingly pay less then for example usa on some stuff
yeah good point about the impact of tax! is a haircut so expensive in the US though I wonder? interesting!
@@JustaBritAbroad maybe not a haircut.
But I talked with an American about this and we found out that in Sweden with tax a cheeseburger from McDonald's cost little over 80 cents while they pay 1 dollar with no tax in usa.
Kinda funny example but still interesting
20% of the price
I've read some of the comments and I think your hairdresser issue has been quite well explained. The only thing is miss in their calculations is the rent for the shop. A not too qualified guess is that it is rather high, even for a barbershop that is more like a hole in the wall.
Many have already explained what smörgåstårta is about. The traditional toppings are quite fat, so if you must try one, see if you can find a smörgåstårta that is less fatty. One comment remarked that "everything is cold" and it was as if we don't want to cook. It depends on the time of the day. Tårta with coffee or tea is suitable for afternoons and same goes for smörgåstårta. Apart from sweet vs less sweet, a smörgåstårta is also more filling and a beer with it (or a glass of white wine), instead of tea or coffee, won't hurt. If you are invited for dinner, at least one warm dish should be served.
Believe it or not, but I have a question for you to answer and that is what in the UK you find odd (I won't take "nothing" for an answer) or don't like or don't do? :-D
Conclusion: there are a number of things we don't fully understand or don't like, can't eat or drink but despite this, we seem to have a good life. :-)
thanks for the topping advice Staffan! and good question - nope, I wouldn't say that I find everything straight forward and clear in the UK either to be honest😅 need I mention that half of my countrymen and women voted to leave the European Union?! that's definitely not something I can justify😅 another good example is our approach to parental leave - guys get up to 2 weeks off by law and that's the ceiling, women can have longer but only get support for about 6-7 months. don't even get me started on the cost of childcare😱😱 but you're certainly right with your final comment - and these are also the things that make each country unique and interesting, so I'd say we should be grateful for these subtle differences!
Ill give you my thoughts about the winter bathing thing. The "Bastu" is very old in Sweden and in the old times they didnt have showers so they built the Bastu by a lake and used the lake to rinse off the sweat and cool down after sitting in the hot Bastu for a while. Remember this was the only way many people got a real cleaning in the old days. Consequently when the lake froze over and it was time for the Cristmas bath they chopped a whole in the ice and dipped there after the Bastu. Some people instead of jumping into the water rolled in the snow to cool off. :) Quite a sceene. Besides, what a boring thing if you could move abroad and everything were crystal clear from the start. Cultural clashes are fun and makes us evolve as human beeings I think.
The sandwich cake didn't come out of nowhere. It's an old (American!!!) invention that has gone through some iterative modification and became a thing in Sweden (where it also went through several iterations).
The sandwich cake entered the world as a "party sandwich loaf" in the US almost 100 years ago. It was a savory entrée. Sometime in the mid century it existed in Sweden as a "cocktail cake", as in type of stand in for canapés during a cocktail party. And it went from there.
I didn't really read comments, so sorry if I'm repeating same answers. 😅 Finns point of view here:
First sandwichcake: it makes sense because if there is sweet and salty cake in party they are balanced and you don't feel so yucky afterwards. That being said it took me 30 years to warm up to sandwichcakes even if they have been in all parties ever. So second try might not convince you yet. Also there is huge quality differenses on them. My mother-in-law makes best ones ever!
Second point, ice hole swimming: During the old times people just washed in rivers and lakes because it was easier than carrying water to home. And if there was ice, well you just broke it and washed yourself still. 🤷♀️🙂
I also thought about the price of a haircut in Sweden so I asked about it. This is the explanation I got: When beards went out of fashion in the 60s and 70s the barber training courses lost their appeal and were cut from the Swedish education system and has still not been brought back. So all prices are set according to women's hairdresser salon principles. They will charge more. The other fact are that the social costs in Sweden are way higher. That is the cost a company are obliged to pay into the social service system. the basic equation you can use is that half the cost you pay for a service is to cover these costs.
1 The equal society. The hairdresser also need to afford to eat, how does that even work abroad?
2 Richard Tellström explains it well, it is the middle ground between offering you fika and offering you dinner at a party.
3 It works well together with Sauna, you will understand it when you are pushing the extremes of ice and fire. The cold bath makes the sauna feel even warmer
4 I don't find it stranger than the bath-culture the Romans had. But well, if you periodically cool of in the frozen lake, you will be able to stay in the sauna for longer. Also the sauna is not as strict in what is socially acceptable in Swedish politically correct culture.
5 Back in the day there was laws regarding how when you were allowed to fly a flag. It only regulates the flag. The pennant may be risen at any moment, while the flag only may be risen at daytime, or on a ship while traveling.
Sweden has a few flag-days like the kings birthday that was law to fly your flag, but later is more of an official recommendation. I would say most people doesn't have a flag-pole, but you may be of a different opinion. But I do think if you bothered to get a flag pole you will probably want to use it.
Have you tried a warm sandwich cake? It's amazing and tbh I should make one soonish. I haven't had one in years, and it is wonderful!
The stack of pancaces @4:30 is called a "pannkakstårta" in Swedish.
Tårta is the same word as Tarte in French or English, but it does not have exactly the same meaning, and it's not directly translatable to "cake" either. It is something in between, but can also be used for food (and some other things) that consists of stacked layers like "smörgåstårta", or the above mentioned "pannkakstårta".
I reloaded the video after I clicked like, and it just turned 500. There you go!
years ago (been in Sweden 13 years now) I went to the local "Frisor" for a "trim up" = 350kr! After that I blew 500kr on an electric shaver and just give myself a "number 1" every 6 months. Then again, I'm past the "dating" age range now and not trying to impress anyone any longer! 😂
The food here has always baffled me. It's like they hate cooking, so everything gets served cold! I've given up.
Once I arrived and noticed the "flag thing", I ordered a full size flagpole and an 8ft X 5ft Union flag and flung them up in the front garden regardless! It apparently became somewhat of a local landmark .. "Drive up the hill then turn right just after the Brit's house" kind of thing! 😆 To be fair, I did want a half Union half Swedish flag stitched together but the GF was terrified we'd go to prison as it's "illegal to cut the Swedish flag", lol.
I live in Värmland, where a lot of Norwegians have houses (both living permanently or summer/vacation homes), and I estimate 99% of them have a Norwegian flag, the year around! 😁
I used to live outside of Stockholm, and for many years a Norwegian family had their flag🇮🇸, next to them lived a partly Finnish family, the Finnish flag🇫🇮, next to them a partly Danish🇩🇰 family. And further down the street a family of German ancestry🇩🇪. So the Swedes had no choice but compete about the LARGEST flag, which could fit the pole (It used to be regulations about length of flag, contra hight of pole. Some years ago all regulations about how to flag was eased, not as strict as they where before, when you could be fined for not follow the law if you missed to lower your flag in time.
Nowadays there are no other laws about the flag other than you cannot use a military or marine type of flag.
There are RULES, but no laws per se. But to respect the rules, is to respect the flag, the symbol of Sweden, in the extention to show the country Sweden respect.
Huh.. I better add to that, it was no politically aspect here! Isn't it tragic, when you EXPECT to have fifty comments on you being a racist if you mention "flag", "country" and "respect" together?? 🥴
But don't raise another flag than the Danish in Denmark. That is a legally crime.
Sauna party is probably more of a northern thing.
You wont see many swedish flags in Stockholm unless you're walking down a tourist street.
that's a good point Anders! I actually haven't spent much time in Stockholm though, so I didn't know that it was quite so different!
You know, I've had too many "sandwich cakes" in my life and I'm quite fed up with it 😄 You don't have to worry about it on my parties nowdays... 😁
I absolutely feel you on the sauna thing, it must be all the moisture in the air, it feels like I'm struggling to breathe!
The other thing is I get uncomfortable sweating if I'm not active, I'm super active for my job so it feels like I'm working even though I'm just sitting there trying to relax.
glad to hear I'm not the only one that finds it a little bit difficult to last long in a sauna Xavier😅 but good point about the impact and effect of getting sweaty when you're not active - especially for someone like you who spends the entire day active and dancing for work. perhaps its nice to spend some part of the day (i.e. when you're relaxing) not sweating your butt off😆 thanks for stopping by! hope you have a good day Xavier🤗
@@JustaBritAbroad you have a great video, too! Thanks for another great video 😊
Funny! :D You got us on most of these, but I'm not sure if I agree with the flag one. Maybe I'm home blind (hemmablind) or maybe it's not the same here in Stockholm. One type of place though that I do know flaunt their flags are (or at least in Stockholm) the archipelagos. Though, about the local flags. Some people up in Roslagen recently came up with a flag for Roslagen which has become very popular. It's reminicent of the Swedish flag, but with a deeper blue and a white cross baked into the yellow one (similar to the norwegian flag, but with different colours).
oooh good point about the archipelagos! but there's something quite charming about it, isn't there?😅
Silver bordering on gold?! That's a big no-no in the vexilliological world. Metal ("gold/silver"=yellow/white) should always border on tincture (other colours). Metal on metal or tincture on tincture is considered a bad choice.
@@JustaBritAbroad I agree. Especially during celebrations and such. 😊
@@dsludge8217 Interesting. I’ve never heard of that, though I wouldn’t concider myself much of a vexillologist. :) But why is it so? Is it a historic thing or a visual thing (like hard to distinguish between gold and silver)?
cold bath is if you want to be clean in the old days you cant be fuzzy about where and when clean up and take it in =)
I dont understand how any cant understand the consept of Smörgåstårta, (sandwichcake), its gods gift to humans.. 😁
Well if its spam on the smörgåstårta instead of ham well then i skip it...🤢🤣
time for me to get onboard by the sounds of it😅
@@krokodilen31 yeahh good point thanks, I don't want any spam!! of any kind
Great video and thanks for your thoughts much appreciated. And i don´t know why the sandwich cake were invented or so but there would probably be someone who knows.
thanks for your comment - glad to hear that you found it interesting!! I'll have to dig a bit more into the story behind smörgåstårta before its time for me to do the challenge trying it on camera I assume!!
@@JustaBritAbroad Yeah i agree but as far as i know smörgåstårta have been around when i was a kid. I have never done any research on how it was invented.
Hair looks nice. In California the cheap chain haircuts are up to $20 plus we tip here... and that makes no sense because I think the cutter gets paid per cut and not by the hour. So $25 per cut is what I pay but I let myself get shaggy between cuts. In Stockholm everyone looks like they should be in a magazine.
Pancake tower is pannkakstårta
Smörgåstårta is not replacing a regular cake, it’s replacing individual sandwiches at a reception. Much quicker to make
800-1000 SEK an hours is what yoy pay egen företagare who adhere to legal requirements of keeping books and paying taxes. They pay their own social security feed -and that’s a lot
In what part of the country did you see all those flaga? On a regular day or an official ”flaggdag”? To me it sounds like a 1960’ flaggdag (Christmas, queen’s birthday etc)
As for the sauna and ice dip - I skip it, too
Curious if its different from where you are located, or Im just to home blind. But Id have to say I hardly ever see a swedish flag so was a bit shocked with point 5
you don't? interesting!! could be either I guess. or maybe I'm hemmablind too and we have way more in England, I just don't notice them for the reason you point out though. interesting!!
I don't like too sweet things. I eat birthday cake when it's someones birthday. But it's tooo sweet for me. But Smörgårdstårta is so good! I can eat it for dinner, breakfast or just Fika when it's mine or someone else's birthday 😊 I feel like it's something you can eat through the whole birthday. I just hate that it's a bit expensive and I haven't learn how to make it my self 🤣 I know it's not that hard. Maybe it's my goal throughout 2022, to learn how to make Smörgåstårta 🤤
I think the reason we call it "smörgåstårta" is that it looks like a "tårta". I don't think it's much more complicated than that, but I could be wrong, of course.
The reason for the flags is in one way the opposite of patriotic. In the 80s and 90s, nazis in Sweden used the Swedish flag as their own. To reclaim in, and make more people feel welcome since there was a huge refugee crisis from baltic states at that time, people started to put in on their houses and in neighborhoods. Swedes were tired of the Swedish flag being dragged in the dirt so we reclaimed it and started to be proud of it again. It´s a flag of unity and celebration :D
interesting Josephine - thanks for filling me in!
The refugee crisis during the 90s was not from the Baltic states but from former Yugoslavia.
@@leifandersson8754 She obviously ment the Balcan states.
How can u not like the sandwich cake!! That's one of the best things we have in Sweden🤯
In Finland they have a wonderful sauna culture and there is where I learned how to have a sauna so that you really enjoy it. To enjoy a sauna you should neither be hungry nor full before you enter it. Also high humidity not high temperature is very important. Third, start out hard and reduce after every sitting. And lastly, don't go into the cold dip too early. You need to have an elevated body temperature to enjoy it. Sit in the sauna until your heart is racing and you are getting out of breath, then the icy water feels warm and cozy, nothing macho about it.
Finally in order to upset any finish viewer, sauna or "bastu" as we say in Swedish, started in what used to be the east part of Sweden, long before Finland even existed, so isn't it then a Swedish thing rather than Finish?
Swimming in ice-cold water though. That's just insane.
haha glad to hear you've not been converted yet lol
You already have almost a thousand "likes" ...Sandwichcake....Smörgåstårta It's delicious!! I love it!!
You’re right! And so funnily enough I’ve already done the video where I try Smörgåstårta! Well worth a watch if you’ve not seen it yet😆
@@JustaBritAbroad ...and...?
I'm a swede and I've never heard of a sauna party. I'm also living in Ireland and for the hairdressers , UK is cheaper in general I think, I go up to Belfast a lot, cause just the price difference between Dublin and Belfast is worth the trip. I'm not much for the sandwich cake myself, would never go to a cafe or to the shop to get one, the only thing i would eat in a sandwich cake is tuna with mayo, red onions and cream frech. Those shrimp sandwich cakes are awful.
For men it is usually cheaper to go to a Barbershop to get a haircut. The prices otherwise is base on popularity, location and if they have rented a chair at a place. When i went to a barbershop i got a haircut and a shave for 500 kr
lets invent pancake cake this year - You try to swim in icewater this year - 2: try iceskate on a lakebed on ice 3: try to find the nearest wolf living to your location and pay him a visit
haha nice ideas!! I've done the iceskating on a lakebed one, but the rest would be totally new to me!
Flags, proper ones, must be lowered between sunset and sunrise, the long triangular ones aren't proper flags so can be flown 24/7, the long triangular ones are also a marker for if you're home or away in your summer cottage, so don't come a-knockin' if not flown.
do you know what the reasoon is for the fact the flags have to be lowered after sunset? interesting!
Must be great for burglars! lol
@@danosverige I was thinking the same.
@@JustaBritAbroad Just old school respect of the flag as a symbol, I imagine the same exists in the UK.
@@danosverige But it doesn't mean I'm not home, with my axe...Just no visitors please.
Never really thought about prices at the barber but it’s ridiculous now that you mention it. A cut for me usually takes about 10 minutes and I pay 280 kr for that. I can kind of understand it if they want to have a fixed price but still…
Sandwich cake is hit or miss. All depends on what you put on it and the quality of the ingredients.
People bathed in the lake back in the day before plumbing. If you needed to take a bath in the winter, you would open the ice and take a bath. That's it. That's why 🤣
Wait where do you live, I've lived in Sweden my entire life and more or less NEVER seen any flags except for maybe when I've visited Stockholm or when they have flags on the busses during a national holiday? I'm so confused by this one thing because it is something that has always baffled me about the US in movies and such...
I totally agree with you on that first one about haircut prices.. I let my boyfriend trim my hair 🙈🤣
haha can't say I blame you Tessa! its a lot nicer on the wallet😅😅
No-one sits in a sauna for an hour! You have to go in and out to chill in the lake or a shower!
haha perhaps that's where I'm going wrong then Wenda!!
I am totally with you!! (except when it comes to smörgåstårta… Smörgåstårta is the best! 😋)
Their is a law regarding the flag. It’s called Lag (1982:269) om Sveriges flagga.
It does not say when to raise the flag or not anymore - but it used to. Nowadays those rules are just customs most of flag pole owners abide by out of respect.
The big flag can only be raised when it’s daylight but the triangular one can be raised all night long. Many ppl choose that one because it’s less of a hassle. ☺️
thanks Johanna, I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one... well, except for when it comes to smörgåstårta as it seems😅 but I'm convinced that I'm going to learn to love it eventually!
@@JustaBritAbroad I cry internally every time I get a hair cut… (Because of the cost! Not the result 😅)
I even get a huge discount because my hairdresser is a relative but it’s still 900kr every 6 weeks… 😐 That’s Stockholm prices though
The way icebathing was invented does not require alot of thinking. Keeping clean in deep the winter during the Iron Age (in the Bronze Age it was alot warmer), especially among poor people with limited supplies, did not give many options.
The sauna, like the Sibirian sweat tent, is a really old tradition in many parts of the world. The romans enjoyed saunas, just to name one example. Comparing it to current day houses is missing the historical background. The health benefits, along with the sheer enjoyment of walking into a hot room during the winter months, must have been even more appealing during the harsh Nordic Iron Age. Nowdays it is mostly an enjoyable tradition. For some, it can be more of an acquired taste, tho.
Smörgåstårta is excellent for events where you want to serve food but you have no time or staff to heat it. So do a cold dish that becomes better the next day. Then you are all set.
Good thing I don't have hair lol. I am actually looking forward to trying a sandwich cake, they look yummy. I want to see you try one. Let's make this happen : ) In the U S, there is what is called The Polar Bear Club in which people jump into the ocean in winter wearing just a bating suit, mostly older folks too. Per and I both have asthma, so we wouldn't be able to breathe very well in a sauna, but I have also seen people in the U S go from a sauna right into the snow. I have my Swedish flag proudly and love it. I'm still waiting for you to go to Söderhamn and give your thoughts hahaha. I've shared this on my Facebook to help you get that sandwich you know you really want LOL.
haha Herk, we're not far off me having to try one now!! love that you've shared the video to try and get me closer to going through this pain😅 I love it😅😅 I'm waiting until you move for the Söderhamn video though ;)
A smörgåstårta is just a large sandwich 😂 U dont HAVE to put shrimps on it :D I suggest you make your own smörgåstårta in a video :D with your preferred toppings :)
I would choose chocolate, whipped cream (with sugar in it of course!) and strawberries as a topping 😋
oh good idea Cat!! maybe that's what I'll do for the challenge then - let me know what toppings you'd recommend for me to try!!
@@CorvidLove oooh yum, now that sounds a lot more like a cake😆
I think it's something missed in translation between Smörgåstårta and Sandwich Cake. The word Tårta in many cases in Sweden actually is more associated to Layer Cake, instead of only cake that has a much wider meaning. In this case it refers to the layers of a tårta but used in the context of a sandwich.
The prices of hairdressers in Stockholm, don't know about the rest of Sweden, is crazy expensive to me. I usually spend about 3000- 4000 kr on a simple cut of the edges + highlights ( just light highlights, bm not anything fancy either).
There are cheaper places but still expensive and the quality of the highlights are usually much worse.
A friend started getting cuts from her mom and I let my niece cut me last time😅
I was shocked about the barber prices here as well. Back in Finland I paid usually around 17€ (but there's also more expensive barbershops), here in Umeå cheapest one would be around 320kr. So I decided to start trimming my own hair and in that way spare a lot of money. Ofc I'm no professional but it's anyways my own hair so I don't care that much if the outcome isn't "perfect"
20% of the price is tax
The price for a haircut is not just for pay the hairdresser, its include rent and products that is used
yeah for sure :)
If you do something in several layers it is often called a "tårta" but the translation is often cake that we in sweden call "Kaka", a fun saying in sweden is "Tårta på Tårta" (cake on cake), the meaning is to say (or do) something and then change something before saying (or do) it again but the result was the same or worse, but also to describe when adding something do not end up in a better result, "I was in a barbershop that costed me 800 Sek, but then there was two barbers cutting my hair, it was cake on cake, I wasn't happy".
The sandwich cake we have today was a result of the worst era in human history, the 80th; the idea had existed a longer time and was first written down around 1951, but in the 80th it became a bit of a trend to do quick parties that was supposed to be a bit posh and where the host stood for the whole cost without looking cheap, here was the sandwich cake great, it could be made a day ahead and most of it could be made with rather cheap products you can get in the normal stores and then was it topped with more expensive fish; and here is the smart part, many do not like smörgåsstårta, so they will just take small bits to be nice, they think the host is generous but would feel rude to say they do not like it, folk that like also think the host is generous for they can eat plenty of it.
Bad things come to stay a long time, stupidly bad things stays and becomes culture; that is the reason we still have that ***** in every ****** we *** go to :-D
Edit: The flagging have a reason that is forgotten. The royal family have a flag flying when that are in a castel and this tradition was adopted by the common man, when some went to their summer place they raised a "vimpel" (long triangular flag) to show that they were there, this tradition followed into the modern era when folk moved into apartments when it was common to put up/out a flag when you where at home, over time folk started to let the flag become rather permanent and at later times the flagging have got different meaning for different people. Many stores and fik still use flags to indicate that they are open, but today they use a flag with a brand symbol rather than the Swedish flag.
I should really watch the video before stating to spam the comment section with long boring and poorly spelled posts.
I can relate to everything you say. Especially the cost at hairdressers!!
glad its not just me😅
So. Let me see if I got this right. You can't call it cake unless it's sweet. Right? So you can't call a stacked panCAKE thing a cake? :)
And you should try the sandwichcake that has your favourite thing on them. If you like shrimp, take a shrimp one, if you like roast beef, take a roast beef one. It's that simple.
Saunaparties: The same as hot tub parties. Sitting down in a warm place, relaxing, while gulping down some cold ones. Amazing. There is nothing better.
EDIT: Think of how great it is to sit down and have a cold beer after you have been out working hard in the sun all day. With a sauna party you skip the hard work and go straight to the beer. :)
Or pancake makeup.
haha good pooint Jonas, you got me there! I'll be sure to give it a proper go in a video soon though! thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a great week!
Smörgåstårta, brukar man bjuda på när man vill erbjuda något mer likt mat, typ på en begravning, studentfest mm. Att det ska vara lätt att bjuda på(det kan förberedas före och det blir lite disk) Framför allt ska det kännas högtidligt att äta och snyggt att se på
"Cake" may be sweet by definition but obviously "tårta" don't suffer from that restriction.
good point!! linguistics ey!
250-350sek for 30 mins sounds reasonable tho. Cause thats not 100% profit for 30 minutes. Theyre paying rent for where they are, as well as bills, theyre paying for any cleaning or styling products they used for you, and even if youre only there for 30 minutes they still have to clean the area and their tools, plus paperwork/administrative tasks going into it. So for that 30 min haircut they are probably working for 1 hour, plus theyre likely gonna be paying higher taxes due to being a bussiness rather than a privately hired person. Say for example that they have rwnts and bills that amount to 20000 sek a month for their business, at 1 hour per client, thats 160hours for a 4 week month, like febuary, that means that they need to bring in 125 per hour just to break even, add in actually taking a profit that resembles a normal salary at 150/hour, thats allready 275sek, add on top of that a bunch of taxes and bussinesowner fees, and the easiest way to put it is (what atleast used to be) the reccomendation of livsmedelsverket that for a bussiness to be sustainable financially a product needs to cost 4x the cost of producing it. If we count the bills for the salon as cost of making it, not accounting for the time our hairdresser needs to get paid for, that commes out to 500sek/hour, and like I said, a 30 min haircut is more than 30 min work when factoring in cleaning and paperwork - such as taking payment and scedualing the appointment or even doing the bookkeping. The 250sek haircut is probably either underpaid or in a very low cost of living area where the rent for a salon and actual cost of bills and similar is lower.
What! Where do you live that has all those flags? I rarely see a Swedish flag anywhere in any town I've lived or visited.
Ok, so:
1. I suspect that the prices are higher in Sweden in the manual labour business fields because of the long and successful union work towards fair wages and to eliminate "svartarbete", aka unregistrered transactions. I am sure that a swedish haidresser would accept a lower pay in cash if it meant she or he could put it right into their pocket and not pay moms and taxes. The amount that you pay for 1 hour of manual labour is not even close to what the person gets on their paycheck for that hour. In best cases it would be 50% but more often even less than that.
2. As others have pointed out, the word "tårta" does not actually translate to "cake" but rather to "layers of baked goods" or something like that. Maybe a better translation into English would be "sandwich tower".
3. I an imagine lots of situations where people for a variety of reason have had to go down an ice covered lake. First of all, learning how to manage yourself of you by accident fall through the ice is survival 101 for ascandinavians. Before the age of roads, lakes were the most important means of transportation, either by boat or on ice sleds during winter. Therefore, scandinavians have had to know what it means to take involontary ice baths. And as always, there are That Kind Of People who sonehow found that experience positive for some reason so they just do ice baths because they like it. Which is of course, as you brits say, bonkers, but what can you do.
4. I fully agree that a sauna party is weird, but I can't agree that it is that common. Amongst my friends and family it has been suggested 0 times.
5. Regarding the flags, there are actually laws that stipulate that if you own a flagpole you need to follow a certain flagging regimen. The small triangular flag is the "standby mode" and it can be up 24/7, but if you don't replace it with the full flag on "allmänna flaggdagar" i suppose you could tecnically be fined or something. It is at least frowned upon by people who care about these things. You need to rise and take down the flag at a certain time and it can under no circumstance be up after sunset. It's a whole thing. Best is to just take down the flagpole so you don't have to bother. If you walk through a neighboirhood where everyone have flagpoles, you should expext flags because it is literally the law to have a flag on a flagpole.
I don´t know how the sandwich cake came into existence, but just note that there are variants with meat in them. Ham, meatballs and stuff like that. If you don´t like the seafood stuff, go for that as a tryout.
-Haircut in Sweden? How does it work?
Swedish hairdresser: Great! :)
I am a swede living in Scotland and I never understood the winterswim or sauna parties. The flag thing I've taken with me over here. I wish there were more flags up around here. Smörgåstårta I love but haven't had in years. However, I do understand your bafflement, it is all in the translation, as has been mentioned in previous comments.
Love watching your vlogs!
oh you haven't? interesting! but I can agree with you that there's a bit of charm that comes with the flags going up! thanks for your kind comments about my videos though! so fun to hear you're enjoying them. I've got a really fun one on the way for next week🤞🏻 have a nice week!!
@@JustaBritAbroad just watched your next video and that was a fun one. 😁
About the hairdressers price, many years ago there was a new tax on their work. It went from reasonable to CRUEL in one week. In the 90s I used to pay 130 SEK for a cut in Stockholm. Something happend and 250 (normal girl-price back then) went up to 500 in a jiff. And there we remain.
really? interesting! thanks for sharing - makes a lot more sense once you know the history behind it right
Well... Swedes call a pancake tower a "pannkakstårta", so I guess you could call a "smörgåstårta" a sandwich cake, if you want?
I meant "sandwich tower".
hahaha good point Ingvar, you got me there!
@@IngvarMattsson yeah I figured, thanks! have a great day :)
It depends on where you live in sweden. That haircut you can get for about 100kr at local drop-in barbers in Malmö. I have seen as low as 80kr for just trimming the sides as you did.
yeah you make a good point about the differences in regions Joakim! I live in a much smaller city than Malmö though, which is why I kind of expected it would be cheaper for me!
The flag may sit up in the dark if it is illuminated. You have to raise the flag every day. You can hoist a foreign flag. Only ONE national flag may be on the same flagpole. So the one in your movie with some company flag above is doing wrong. If you have three or more flagpoles with different flags, the Swedish flag must be on the outer, foreign flags or company flags on the inner flagpoles. Ships and leisure boats may fly flags around the clock when they are driven. Claims outside own territory.
interesting Johan, you're the first person whose mentioned that you can actually have a flag up at night if its illuminated. I didn't realise that! interesting, thanks for sharing the history!
Sauna in Sweden 🤣 Greetings from 🇫🇮
I think it begins with the other sandwich landgång. Landgång have cheese, some meat and leverpastej and some mimosa sallad and after a time they begin to build it in layers, look at Danish different sandwich
good point actually!
To be fair, the English have been horrified by the Scandinavian bathing habits since the age of the Vikings. ^^
haha never realised I was playing into age old stereotypes lol