It's no secret that visiting a place like IKEA is a quintessentially Swedish experience. But I'd never experienced IKEA in full until I came to IKEA in Sweden.
It was practically an all-day affair, and due to the small children in our party, a visit to the cafeteria was first on the agenda. After dining on vegetarian pasta (and sneaking my nephew's leftover mashed potatoes), we made our way through the store, which wasn't as easy as those visits without three children under the age of six in tow.
Eventually we made it through, having found everything we needed, and were able to use the self-checkout, which saved us some time. That extra time was used up eating hot dogs, ice cream and chokladbollar... definitely well worth it.
So while this IKEA was just like every IKEA out there, it felt a little more special for me, because it was my first time at a real Swedish one. What a novelty! read more