I suspect that this travel will be short and sweet much like this, my first trip to Sweden. Exhausted from the relentless travelling that my new job entails, my journey began on a plane. I was on my way to the Arklanda airport with the objective of handing over a mission dedicated to the Change Management of the largest contract in human resource outsourcing on the market. My six months working for Sara, the Swedish project lead, had come to an end and I had already been given a new mission covering the implementation of a shared service centre in the Philippines for the same contract.
I must admit that I was excited to have been asked to come to Stockholm in order to complete the knowledge transfer with the new members of Sara’s team. As I started to fly over the country I was instantly captivated by the lay of the land. When you see Sweden on the map, you would think that it is a solid piece of land, but it is in fact composed of over 4000 different islands. Even from the air, the landscape was stunning.
Once down on the ground, I was reminded of what my friend Bethany had said about her trip to Sweden, “Everyone is beautiful. It is just ridiculous!” I could not help but echo the sentiment. The women are blond with deep blue eyes, and oddly enough, they have been spared the English curse of pasty skin, and all have the kind of olive skin that you see around the Mediterranean. Bleach blond without the bleach and tan without the tanning salon, it is enough to drive Californian girls crazy. In addition, everyone is fit! The true descendants of the Vikings, everyone looks like they spend half their life in the gym.
The taxi ride from the airport to the office was about 40 minutes. I was still taken by the beauty of the landscape. Everything was so lush and green with rivers and lakes around every bend. Because Sweden is composed of so many islands, all of the land ends up being waterfront property. I was happy to see that our office building was no exception!
After work Sara really wanted to show us around. Her pride in her heritage made it a lot of fun. She first took us out for drinks at a little restaurant just outside the office. Again, we were on the water and the view was absolutely spectacular. Each island had an old church in the middle with a giant steeple and quant little bridges connected one island to another. As we began to talk about the history, Sara made it clear that Sweden was the leader of the Nordic countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Demark. From then on we made lots of jokes about how things were probably even better in Olso, Norway although none of us had ever been. 
From there, we went to another restaurant for dinner. While waiting for our table, we had another drink on a little barge that had been set up for the occasion. It was already nine o’clock in the evening and the sun showed no signed of setting. Sat in one of Stockholm’s most trendy restaurants, dinner was paid for by the project. The restaurant was composed of several different kitchens: Swedish, Japanese, French, etc. The kitchens were scattered around the enormous venue with elegant tables in between. We were able to pick and chose from any of the menus. I stayed with the Swedish kitchen, having salmon tartar and biff rydberg, a Swedish dish made famous in Stockholm. Everything was delicious! The salmon was so fresh and the beef had a tasty sweet and savory sauce.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel and it was then that I realized how much Sara wanted us to really enjoy being in her home town. The art deco Scandic Hotel had a lounge in the lobby that was functioned as a bar and hosted live bands. We stayed there for a while before walking down to another little bar for a final mojito. At 3:30 in the morning, the sun had made a meager attempt to set and was rising again; just in time for us to go to bed! It was about this time that I understood why all consultants are single and without children. Consultants are a strange breed that likes to travel and to make friends on the go.
Thursday, June 30
The next day everyone was in the office at nine, how I do not know. For lunch I had traditional Swedish herring rolls that were quite good. Incorporating so much fish into their diet is probably part of why they are so healthy. After lunch we went for a little walk. People were canoeing along the lakes and rivers and even working out in the grass with their personal trainers. I thought about alI the strange looks that I get in Paris just going out for a jog in the city and it was clear to me that I was no longer in France!
It was truly a shame that I could not have stayed longer, but I had to be back in the Paris office the next morning. More than pleasantly surprised by my trip to Stockholm, the city is now on my “Best places to visit in Europe” list along with Lisbon and Prague.
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