Sweden
Earth > Europe > Northern Europe > Scandinavia > Sweden
 Sweden | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Language: | none (Swedish de facto) |
| Capital: | Stockholm |
| Population: | 9,234,209 |
| Currency: | Swedish krona (SEK) |
| Hitchability: |  (good) to  (bad)
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| Meet fellow hitchhikers on Trustroots | |
| <map lat='63' lng='17' zoom='4' view='0' width='270' height='350' country='Sweden'/> | |
| Check out hitchhiking spots on Hitchmap | |
Sweden is a member state of the European Union as well as the Schengen Agreement. Many say that hitching in Sweden sucks. But it works very well! Moreover almost everyone speaks english which will increase your chances of learning from the meetings along the way. As anywhere in Western Europe, the motorways are the holy temples of car driving religion and someone standing on them is committing blasphemy. But you can hitch on the motorway ramps as well as on local roads. Better bring a good map, though, so that you won't end up in an unexpected place. If you travelling along the biggest highway, E4, you will not see that much of Swedens beautiful landscape, so if your biggest aim is to explore the country you should stay away from E4. But the highways are much faster of course.
Especially in northern Sweden there are only few main roads, which means that you might have a shorter time waiting and longer lifts. Be careful to stand somewhere where there is some sign of civilization. As especially in the north the roads are no real motorways and accessible for pedestrians, you can stop all the traffic, especially if you stand on something like a bus stop. When the streets are real motorways you have to take care a little on which petrol station you end up, as there are too much of them, with sometimes only little traffic on each of them, and as most of the petrol stations are one or two kilometers away from the motorway. On the other hand, cars can go faster on motorways than on small local roads and you can expect lifts to be faster.
Anick-Marie had no chance at all hitching rides on Öland in May 2005.
Contents
Cities
- Göteborg
- Halmstad
- Luleå
- Lund
- Karlskrona
- Malmö
- Mellerud
- Norrköping
- Nyköping
- Stockholm
- Sundsvall
- Trollhättan
- Umeå
Crossing the border
Sweden is in the Schengen treaty. This treaty is rather well respected at the Finnish and Norwegian borders but has stricter regulations at the terminals where ferries from Denmark port, or at the bridge uniting Copenhagen with Malmö. Stricter control and special attention is usually applied to those who look like "being of another race". If you are unlucky, you might be made to strip during their search. Keep in mind, though, that the personality check is not applied to everyone but only to some at random order so you have more chances to quickly cross the border than get stuck explaining to the officials that you are neither an illegal immigrant nor a smuggler.
Language & Communication
There is no special need of practicing your Swedish since almost everyone speaks English there. Although it can still be useful to speak a couple of words of Swedish for the few people who don't speak English – some immigrants for example, who are more likely to pick up hitchhikers even so. Check out the Swedish phrasebook. Hitchhiking means liftar.
Also, when asking for lifts at petrol stations, some people don't understand that you are hitchhiking and start to explain you the way as if you had an own car.
When people talk about the amount of miles they are doing with their car, it's acutally Swedish Miles, which equals 10 kilometres.
Camping
In Sweden, the wonderful Allemansrätt has existed for many centuries only as a customary law, but since 1994 it is part of the Swedish constitution. As in other Nordic countries, the Swedish right to roam comes with an equal emphasis being placed upon the responsibility to look after the countryside; the maxim is "Do not disturb, do not destroy".
The Allemansrätt gives a person the right to access, walk, cycle, ride, ski, and camp on any land - with the exception of private gardens, the immediate vicinity of a dwelling house and land under cultivation, and with restrictions for nature reserves and other protected areas. This means that you could put up a tent for free almost anywhere as long as it doesn't disturb anybody. Make sure to not leave any garbage in the nature – we should really take the responsibility for those future generations will have the same democratic right to the nature as we have, and of course have any nature at all.. Very welcome to enjoy the Swedish nature!
Useful things
Internet you can normally get at the public or university libraries for free. Sometimes you have to ask for a guest account.
There's a quite useful map ("vägkarta") which you can get at OKQ8 petrol stations. It's for whole Sweden and has all OKQ8 petrol stations on it, which can be quite handy when hitchhiking and looking for a good place to be dropped off. Here's another map that you can apparently order for free.
It is quite usual to send a thanksaying-message the day after a party or after a meeting − saying something like "Thanks for yesterday". When you enter a flat or an apartment, it is a must to take off ones shoes!
It is recommended to bring insect repellent if you hitch during the summer.
For the best chance of getting "lift", go to the petrol stations or were people stop for food along the road. Some Swedes can be quite reserved and for this reason it helps to introduce yourself (with a smile), instead of just being a stranger on the side of the road. Just a thumbs up will work, but might take longer. After 18.00 in the afternoon hitching is difficult here.
Links
- Skjutsgruppen.nu - rideshare network within the social networks. Also on Twitter: twitter.com/skjutsgruppen
- Samåkning.se - rideshare network (for Sweden and Northern Europe in general)
- [1] - facebookgroup for Swedish hitchhikers
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