I hate to disappoint a lot of the men out there but the Swedish race isn’t perfect. They seem to be more concerned with their diets and are probably more active in sports but not all are perfect. Nevertheless, a lot of people doesn’t mean everybody. And, a lot of people is still a lot of people :-#

If you still want the advice, read on!

I asked my girlfriend (In this video) for five bits of advice to help improve a man’s chances of attracting a Swedish girl. This is what she came up with!

1) “Take an interest in the culture and learn a little about Sweden so we have something to talk about” That means following my blog more often!

2) “I really like it when a guy knows a few words. You don’t need to learn the whole language because that looks desperate! Just learn, hello, how are you? Or, my name is, and that will break the ice and get a Swede interested.” Leave a comment if you want to know the translations and I’ll put them on.

3) “Be fun and not stuck up. English girls think less of you unless you conform to the norm. Swedish girls are different, we like fun, spontaneous, different and a bit out there.”

4) “Take an interest in Eurovision, we LOVE it so it will always be a talking point and good for conversation. It’s not hard, just watch it and look up some facts about it on Wikipedia. I’ll get you started, we have won it four times and the last time was 1999″

5) “We won’t be impressed if you know rude words in Swedish so don’t tell us them. We also don’t want to be reminded of the fact that we have a lucrative porn industry over here. Both are no-goes.”

There you have them. Enjoy and please leave a comment to let me know what you think of the advice or if you have any to share.

A lot of the ideas for my blog come from my trips to Sweden or through my girlfriend who gives me ideas to build on.

For this reason, I thought I should include her in my blog. Enjoy and please leave a comment.

Sweden have always been one of the most successful countries in Eurovision, winning it four times since their first appearance in 1958. They also failed to qualify for the world cup, even though they have one of the best players in the world, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, playing for them. I haven’t seen him play much this season but he is amazing on Fifa and Pro Evolution so he must therefore still be at his best.

I have never visited a nation so enthusiastic about Eurovision before (they have Eurovision parties) and I know the people there are passionate about their footy; they must be devastated. If any consolation, England finished last in Eurovision but that’s different because we are proud of sucking at Eurovision and where it matters (the world cup) we are stronger than ever with Fabio Capello .

So tell me. What’s going on over there people? Defend your country! Or, just spend the summer supporting Denmark. (The team that helped to knock you out and qualify)

Gå Danmark!!!!!

Firstly, Ikea is huge.I felt like I was in an airport whilst walking around this superstore which seemed to have never ending pathways. It would not have surprised me if we were advised that the kitchen knives were in Gate 27 or if we were asked to show our passports before entering the bedding department. We had one of those airport trolleys to help carry the furniture and accessories we didn’t need but my girlfriend wanted. I was dreading the moment when I would have to tell her I wasn’t any good at DIY.

As we walked through the store my girlfriend made us stop at most parts of every section. She didn’t say anything, but I could tell by her excitement that she was for some reason proud that she and Ikea were both from Sweden. How can someone be proud to have a resemblance with a furniture store? I’m not proud of Marks and Spencer’s or John Lewis and I wasn’t bothered about the Woolworths’ stores shuting down.

Anyway, It got me thinking – Ikea is Sweden’s biggest retail outlet so it should be mentioned in the Totally Sweden blog. Also, how big is Ikea compared to other major outlets? Does it challenge as one of the biggest in the world? Why did I feel it had an uncanny resemblance to an airport? And, what other retail outlets are Sweden famous for?

Answers: According to the information presented by Retail Industry, The Ikea Group, is the 30th largest retailer in the world. H&M is the 60th and ICA AB is the 61st.

When looking at England’s biggest retailers there is Tesco at 4th biggest in the world and Sainsbury at 29th.

No one in England is proud to be from the same country that Tesco originated in. Why are Swedish people proud of Ikea? This is your opportunity to leave comments and defend the love you have for your store?

I don’t know why Ikea felt like an airport to me. I love airports because they generally mean going on holiday and I hated Ikea, maybe it was just the trolley.

If it is any consolation, Ikea may not be the biggest retailing store in the world but it is the biggest furniture selling store in the world.

To finish, check out these photos and a video of an advert Ikea made which was banned.

A tattoo of Ikea, really?

My judgement lacks any real substance because I have only visited Lund and Malmo and haven’t visited the capital. However, I believe that a lot of other English people share my ignorant views so I have decided to do a little research to see if Sweden can justify these ranking as the tenth most attractive country in the world.

Yes, the award has been justified, no questions asked. I think the poll should be conducted again and Sweden rated number 1.

…..just joking….

Below is a video which justifies Sweden’s number 10 ranking as one of the most attractive countries in the world. I wouldn’t rank the music in the video as one of the best video soundtracks in the world – probably one of the worst.

This experience not only left me looking like I lacked intelligence, it also make me look like I was ignorant of their culture. The latter, is at least true. My last visit to Sweden was four months ago and if anything I know even less of the language now than I did then.

This is a serious problem, the next time I visit they are going to expect me to be able to understand a variety of different words at least speak a few sentences.

So what’s the solution? I was running this morning in the gym and saw a commercial about Rosetta Stone – “It helps you to learn a new language naturally, the way you learn your native language as a child.”

The commercial looked pretty cool, it featured some kids throwing a ball about – Seeming a lot easier to use than the CD I currently have which pronounces words and then expects you to remember them. The problem is, the program costs £169, and that’s only for level 1.

I probably only need to master level 1 to gain approval from the parents – Is that worth £169?

For the value of a language program, I could buy: four nights out with my mates drinking; six Newcastle tickets for home matches and a balti pie to eat during every half-time; a years membership at my local gym; One copy of my University lecturer’s book, Online Public Relations, for £17.94 at Amazon and 300 cups of coffee from the University canteen to drink while I read it; one night at Aspers Casino or many other alternatives.

This decision is even harder than the one I had to make when choosing which political party to vote for in the general election.

Below is video advert for Rosetta Stone, pretty condescending I think.

Anyone know any cheaper language programs? Please let me know.

Their Scandinavian neighbours, Denmark, pipped them to a world cup spot by one point. Their exit comes down to the fact that Denmark beat them on their home turf – ultimately making it their own fault.

My girlfriend is gutted and she only pretends to like football – god help the real fans over there.

Many Condolences and a video to cheer you up  -  a very funny and bizarre moment which makes some great footage and helps the Swedes to remember that even in dire times they can still be successful.

There’s always 2014.

This post gives the reader the opportunity to explore both places themselves on an interactive map.

Take a look at some of the 3D images I took from Google Earth of Lund and Newcastle – feel free to look around the map and search out other landmarks.

For the Newcastle 3D map, I have focused the location on the Tyne River. You can see the famous, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, in the far right of the map and the Millennium Bridge is the furthest bridge away.

For Lund’s 3D map I have focused the location on their famous University. Swedish users please leave a comment of other locations and I will search them out and add them to future posts.

I appreciate this is bias because I have a better knowledge of Newcastle compared to Sweden

Enjoy, scan around the maps yourself and feel free to comment or ask questions. You may need to download a plug in for Google Earth, for full accessibility. Use the shift button while clicking on the map to change your view and double click your mouse on the map to zoom in.

Click the link to see the photo enlarged

Anyone can use this for any website and it automatically creates a word cloud of the URL. All can be seen on www.wordle.net

It is common knowledge in the poker world that Swedish players tend to  have more aggressive tendencies towards  their game compared to English players.

Is this a positive quality or could it be considered reckless play?

If Sweden’s population was as dense as England’s, would Swedish players be winning as many tournaments as their counterparts?

Below are the profiles of two famous and successful poker players, one Swedish and the other English.

Eric Friberg

Eric Friberg, 27, is one of the many established and professional Swedish poker players currently playing in the high stakes cash games and tournaments.

His style, typical of a Swedish player, is very aggressive. If you are not familiar with some poker terminology, the term ‘aggressive,’ in this context, means he likes to play a lot of hands, with a lot of chips, all of the time.

Friberg’s best accomplishment to date, is coming eighth in the 2006 World Series Of Poker main event. For this triumph, he took home just under $2,000,000 dollars.

Friberg also finished in 26th place in the Barcelona leg of the European Poker Tour and first in the Swedish Poker Challenge, earning $87,287 dollars.

Eric left his University studies to play Poker full time. He claims that it didn’t go too well at first but soon picked up. He has never had a proper job before and says he regrets not working earlier to help him appreciate the real value of money.

When asking him why Swedish players are so good? He replied: “We think a lot about poker and play smart”. He also explained: “There are many talented and skilled Swedish players with the potential to win an event like this. For example, the high-limit games on the Internet are owned by Swedish players these days.”

Dave Ulliott

Dave Ulliott, predominantly know as ‘The Devilfish,’ is arguably one of Britain’s best poker players and is definitely one of Britain’s best known.

Ulliott started out hosting his own poker nights and playing in other peoples’ houses. He rapidly developed his intuition of the game and was shortly taking his pals for reasonable amounts of money. He shortly found himself being excluded from games as his friends were sick of constantly losing their money to him.

He then moved on to playing in casinos and was a regular playing in the Victoria Casino in London. He liked to travel and play and was known to play poker in up to five difference cities in one day.

He grew up in a small council house in a working class area and throughout his early life spent spells in prison. At the height of his criminal activity he was part of a a safe-cracking team, targeting tobacconists, off-licenses and garages.

Ulliott won the first season of the World Poker Tour, outlasting 160 players and earning $589,175. He also finished third in the sixth season of the W.P.T classic championship event in 2007, earning $674,5000.

As of 2009, Ulliott’s total live tournament winnings exceed $5,600,000, making him  the highest-earning British poker player.

Both of these players are highly successful and still continue to make massive amounts of money.

Is Friberg correct in saying that Swedish players “own the online game”?

Which of these do you consider to be the most successful? One has more career earnings but the other is a lot younger and has a promising future.

Please state your opinions below in the comment section.