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='62' lng='15' zoom='5' view='0' float='right' height='550'/> | |
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 too! 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 highway ramps as well as on local roads. Better bring a good map, though, so that you won´t end up in an unexpected place.
There is no special need of practicing your Swedish since almost everyone speaks English there.
Cities
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 of other races. If you get unlucky, you might be made to strip during their search. The reasons of such strict control derive from the Sweden's specific economic situation (incl. high taxes on alcohol, tobacco, etc.) which attracts a number of smugglers, and a high-standard social security system which is a target of illegal immigrants. 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.
Camping
There is a one night's law in Sweden which allows a traveler to camp one night anywhere he wants.
