Moving To Sweden

[Coatimundi]

I wonder what Swedish grocery stores are like?

Youtube has a couple videos of shopping trips to a supermarket in Sweden. One is to Willy’s and the other is to Super Spar (I think.) Unfortunately, the videos are raw, unedited footage so they make for rough viewing. Still, you can see what a shopper would see when making a trip to the store.

(There are some additional videos on related topics which might interest Crosscut as well.)

 

[GEddie]

We will definitely not be able to stay for more than a week or so in Sweden because its all our jobs/vacation time/money will allow. But there will always be an adjustment factor no matter where you move to. We are not going into this with the mindset that it is going to be the same as living in the US…we fully intent to experience a transition period.

But thank you for all the helpful info! I should look into H&M more haha! There are a few around the area that I live. And I only live like 15 minutes from the Mall of America and they have a huge one there.

Oh dang! Thats cool! I currently have a coiled water boiler but again, it might not make the cut to move haha!

This spurred another question, I wonder what outlets they use? Or what voltage everything is usually at over there? Isnt the typical in the US 280 or something? We might have to invest in a converter for the few electronics we may bring with us.

Electrical current in the US is 120V / 60Hz; in the European countries, 240 V / 50 Hz.

You need a conversion box, not just an adapter.

Some items that use batteries (laptops, iPods, etc) have chargers that can be purchased over there. You probably want to buy a mobile phone over there, in any case, as ours might not work overseas or be too expensive.

While the conversion boxes are not all that expensive, they are not designed to be used long term. I’d plan on acquiring any electronic gear you may need over there.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Crosscut]

It is very common in Europe to rent fully furnished apartments. I wouldn’t worry about this.

Not sure about 2nd hand furniture stores, but they probably exist. (Besides, there is IKEA if you really need to buy things.)

These are things you could ask on an expat forum, or find blogs that would have this kind of into on living in a country.

Fully furnished apartments? That would be quite easy! It would make my stress levels go down hahahaha! I am sure this is something you would talk to the immigration office about?

Youtube has a couple videos of shopping trips to a supermarket in Sweden. One is to Willy’s and the other is to Super Spar (I think.) Unfortunately, the videos are raw, unedited footage so they make for rough viewing. Still, you can see what a shopper would see when making a trip to the store.

(There are some additional videos on related topics which might interest Crosscut as well.)

Ill have to go look those videos up! I know its not like a completely different experience, but Im curious to see the difference in products or produce.

Electrical current in the US is 120V / 60Hz; in the European countries, 240 V / 50 Hz.

You need a conversion box, not just an adapter.

Some items that use batteries (laptops, iPods, etc) have chargers that can be purchased over there. You probably want to buy a mobile phone over there, in any case, as ours might not work overseas or be too expensive.

While the conversion boxes are not all that expensive, they are not designed to be used long term. I’d plan on acquiring any electronic gear you may need over there.

ICXC NIKA

This might stink a bit. Both myself and my fiance have nice gaming computers with lots of additional things. He was planning on bringing his computer with but I dont know how well that will bode with the difference in voltage. I dont want his computer to get fried.

 

[GEddie]

This might stink a bit. Both myself and my fiance have nice gaming computers with lots of additional things. He was planning on bringing his computer with but I dont know how well that will bode with the difference in voltage. I dont want his computer to get fried.

It would indeed fry if you wired it to the European grid via an adapter.

If this is a portable, there is no real difficulty. All that is required is a power-cable of the European type. You can probably buy one from the original manufacturer.

Power cables for laptops and the like already handle the step-down in voltage to low-voltage DC.

If it is a desktop, a conversion box would do the job, if kept unplugged when not in use.

ICXC NIKA