Of course I saw a football match when I was in Sweden over the weekend. None other than Sweden's biggest game, the Stockholm derby, AIK Solna v Djurgårdens IF. One of my buddies that I was visiting, one of two brothers resident on the outskirts of Stockholm, is a rabid AIK fan and procured tickets for the four of us.
Three minutes in, AIK scored. The guy sitting between me and my other pal simutaneously elbowed me in the face and pushed my friend two rows down before jumping on him. I was just picking myself off the (seemingly lifeless) body of another prone black-and-yellow clad supporter when I was landed on from somewhere else. And then somewhere else.
Three minutes later, we examined the damage. The two Swedes were utterly unhurt. I had a broken pair of glasses and a nose that was spurting alarming amounts of blood. My poor Welsh pal that had been jumped upon was, unsurprisingly, completely immobile with severe back pain.
Never mind. I wiped the blood onto my jersey (red looks great with black and yellow) and continued singing except half hoping they wouldn't score again. End result: 1-1. Dodgy penalty ruined it all. Bloody good fun though.
Apart from all that, it was nice and relaxing. Was rather surprised that Swedes are not all as attractive as a glance at the avatars on blogs.se would suggest. Pictures on the internet telling lies? Never!
I was amazed at my friends' family life. Their parents are so wonderfully liberal, accomodating and generous. It was no problem for any of the four of them to change the language of familial discourse to English for four days, or to allow two greedy islanders to ravage their fridge when stumbling in after a good old-fashioned Swedish boozing session at four in the morning.
It was also perfectly normal for them to show each other lots of affection and speak freely about any subject (we had frequent conversations about sex and maturbation, in which everyone happily participated) - it stuck me that their interation with each other was more like that of friends than that of parents and offspring.
In my family, things aren't like that. We get on well, and I love them all very much, I would just never tell them that. I would also never sit snuggled up with my dad, or kiss my mother for no particular reason, or, under any circumstance EVER, discuss sexual matters with them. Not cos it would bother me, it wouldn't, but because it would bother them very much indeed.
Anyway, I had fun. Sweden, or, more specifically, Swedish people are wonderful. 
rowtheboat
Pro 
*makes mental note to wear contact lenses in Berlin*
Sounds fab - I'd love to go to Sweden. Another for the list!