Those crazy Swedes, what will they do
next? Well, what about sneaking a
foot-plus long machete on-board a plane. How’s that crazy for ya? Yes, according to this USA Today piece, Peter
"That’s Not a Knife, THIS Is a Knife" Svenberg, was visiting the US of A to allegedly make some kind of
welding repairs at a Stevenson, Ala., paper mill when they nabbed him trying to smuggle in a monster machete. Just
speculating here, but my guess is he thought he could get away with it because he imagined all the security personnel
were keeping their eyes out for dark-haired Arab looking fellas. Just my guess.
Dog Mushing in Sweden
Let
he who has never cried out mush! be the first to throw a snowball.
It’s a visceral reaction. Anytime a human is pulling or dragging something and you happen to be near,
the word invariably bursts from your mouth, usually accompanied by a few faux whipping motions.
To get a taste for the real thing, however, you have to find yourself some dogs and long stretches of snow.
I’ve always thought this was limited just to Alaska, but an interesting article in Wanderlust magazine chronicles the adventures of a first time musher in
northern Sweden. The unidentified author spent four days dragged by a team of three dogs across the arctic
tundra, hanging on for dear life and slowly learning the ins-and-outs of steering his canines.
The escorted tour began in Jukkasjärvi and
included a couple of nights in the town’s famous Ice Hotel, built with
30,000 tons of snow and 4,000 tons of ice. The mushers holed up in more remote lodges during their four-day dog
sledding tour. It seemed like quite an adventure, and a cold one at that judging by the number of spills the
first-time musher had to endure.
Word for the Travel Wise (01/02/06)
Last year smokers weren’t really feeling the love from the hotel and bar industries. Although some smoking traveler’s probably used the opportunity to kick the habit or cut back, others just wanted to have a nice long peaceful pull of smoke between a few beers at the pub or in the comfort of their own hotel rooms. In many places you still can, but there are several you can’t. Other options include taking it outside in the shivering cold, inhaling short, quick breaths of smoke while tapping away the remnants of a cigarette onto the street. What do I know? I don’t smoke.
This brings me to a Swedish word that may come in handy for the smoker while in Sweden.
Ett askfat – (pronounced eht uhsk-faht) means ashtray.
Even with the brief pronunciation guide listed I can imagine several smoker’s in dire need of the proper disposal of their ashes messing this one up. And in a bad way. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a sound clip for the word above, so I suggest consulting a native speaker. In picking this word it is not say it is a commonly used word in the Swedish language or that the majority of the population are smokers.
Phrasebase has a decent sound library for several language translations. The downside is I couldn’t find the Swedish equivalent to the English words we already know in written form. Maybe ett askfat might come up in a Swedish radio sometimes? One can find several stations listed here. As always there’s Lonely Planet and their handy pocket phrasebooks.