24th June, 2013

It is about a week that we have been back in Hungary but we are still full of new experiences, thoughts about our stay in Sweden.

Sweden for me first of all meant security, peace and lack of stress. It seems to be a country where things happen without a glitch, where people are for providing assistance and help to the individual when needed - instead of causing frustration and even humiliation.

We learnt about Sweden back many years ago that it is a country of social security – and this came back to me several times when walking in the streets of Stockholm, when talking to people in the parks, when watching the sun-bathers in the middle of a metropolitan at the side of a water front (I never knew whether it was the Baltic Sea or a lake) with clean water that is suitable for bathing in the middle of a city (here in Hungary we cannot bathe in the Danube due to pollution in the countryside either!).

We learnt why there are so many children and pregnant women in the parks (whereas the population of Hungary is diminishing each day), why the pensioners look so carefree while walking towards the museums for a guided tour and a light lunch with their friends, we learnt that there is no such thing as cold weather only not proper clothing for the external circumstances.

We enjoyed the large extension of the parks and green areas as well as the water reflecting the buildings and bridges running at different heights all over Stockholm.

We saw the colourful bunches of flowers, flags and presents greeting the school-leavers who arrived by boat to the embankment to celebrate the great day in the circle of their family and friends, we met the tourists visiting the sights and palaces, we even had a glimpse at the royal couple on their way to the festivities on the National Day on 6th June.

We talked to Hungarians having arrived in Sweden some 30 years ago and Italians married in Sweden and living here as Swedish citizens, we met families with coloured children whose cousins were convinced that they were „white” like themselves, we were explained how the Swedish state ensures that cleaning women of different origins did not do „black labour”.

We learned some basic pronounciation rules of the language and some words but of course everybody we contacted spoke English (and in most cases a good English).

We experienced the high level of prices and tasted the typical Swedish dishes, examined the richness of the goods on the shelves of the supermarket and did not buy anything – besides transport passes and entry tickets – and we realised there are certain occasions when it is positive to belong to the „older generation”:  senior tickets are usually 70-80% of the original cost.

We are really grateful that we had this occasion to visit Stockholm and the countryside – without EU funding we would probably never have been able to afford such a trip.

Now we at least have some ideas how positive state policy can influence the individual s life, how society  can be humanistic, how the individual behavour can be positively effected by common welfare.

It was clear that we, Hungarians still have a long way to go...

Kate Fazekas

Hungarian coordinator