Friday, February 22, 2008

Politeness and funny bus drivers - a rarity in Sweden

This morning, when I had breakfast with a friend (who is also pregnant), we mentioned the fact that even though we're heavy as busses, no one offers us a seat on the tube.

My conclusion is that it must be the Swedish mentality. Us Swedes are just not very polite.

Example 1: If I hold the door for someone, there is always someone else charging through before the person I was holding the door for.

Example 2: Swedes rarely say "sorry" when they bump in to you.

We're not nasty people. We're just not very polite when it comes to those kind of things.

But today, when I took the tube after seeing my friend, someone actually offered me a seat. And even though I said "no thank you, I'm getting off two stops from now", it still made me very happy.

Just like it made me happy when I took the bus two days ago and the bus driver joked with every passenger that got on the bus. Because that is also a rare thing in this country.

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