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Below are a few titles on Scandinavian culture and travel to get you started:
Frommer's Sweden by
You'll never fall into the tourist traps when you travel with Frommer's. It's like having a friend show you around, taking you to the places locals like best. Our expert authors have already gone everywhere you might go -- they've done the legwork for you, and they're not afraid to tell it like it is, saving you time and money. No other series offers candid reviews of so many hotels and restaurants in all price ranges. Every Frommer's Travel Guide is up-to-date, with exact prices for everything, dozens of color maps, and exciting coverage of sports, shopping, and nightlife. You'd be lost without us! Much more detailed and complete than its major competitor, Frommer's Sweden captures all the highlights of this beautiful nation -- everything from sophisticated cities to medieval towns, the Gota Canal, summer solstice festivals, and Swedish glass factories. In this exciting new addition to the Frommer series, we'll give you tips on how to enjoy the best museums, shopping, and nightlife, as well as some offbeat experiences, like exploring the Orsa "Outback" by horse and carriage or kayaking the Stockholm Archipelago. With full details on a wide range of hotels and restaurants, detailed maps, and smart money-saving tips, Frommer's has everything you'll need!
In Cod We Trust by
Eric Dregni's great-grandfather Ellef fled Norway in 1893 when it was the poorest country in Europe. More than one hundred years later, his great-grandson traveled back to find that--mostly due to oil and natural gas discoveries--it is now the richest. The circumstances of his return were serendipitous, as the notice that Dregni won a Fulbright Fellowship to go there arrived the same week as the knowledge that his wife Katy was pregnant. Braving a birth abroad and benefiting from a remarkably generous health care system, the Dregnis' family came full circle when their son Eilif was born in Norway. In this cross-cultural memoir, Dregni tells the hair-raising, hilarious, and sometimes poignant stories of his family's yearlong Norwegian experiment. Among the exploits he details are staying warm in a remote grass-roofed hytte (hut), surviving a dinner of rakfisk (fermented fish) thanks to 80-proof aquavit, and identifying his great-grandfather's house in the Lusterfjord only to find out it had been crushed by a boulder and then swept away by a river. To subsist on a student stipend, he rides the meat bus to Sweden for cheap salami with a busload of knitting pensioners. A week later, he and his wife travel to the Lofoten Islands and gnaw on klippefisk (dried cod) while cats follow them through the streets. Dregni's Scandinavian roots do little to prepare him and his family for the year in Trondheim eating herring cakes, obeying the conformist Janteloven (Jante's law), and enduring the mú8rketid (dark time). In Cod We Trust is one Minnesota family's spirited excursion into Scandinavian life. The land of the midnight sun is far stranger than they previously thought, and their encounters show that there is much we can learn from its unique and surprising culture.
Popular major guidebooks are Lonely Planet, Let’s Go, Rough Guides, and Insight Guides. Guidebooks are good starting places, but the information is at least a year old, so be aware that costs and restaurants may change.
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