Addendum:

I know it's a couple days later, but a couple more reasons why Sweden is awesome (there are a lot) that I forgot to mention earlier.

1) Way better music than Denmark or most other countries of its size. ABBA notwithstanding, Sweden has a vibrant music scene, and in the past few years it has produced a steady stream of indie rock/pop artists to make the rounds on popular indie music blogs. Among them, a couple personal favorites: The Shout Out Louds; Lykke Li; Loney, Dear; Jens Lekman; Peter Bjorn and John; Jose Gonzalez; The Knife; the list goes on. Hell, even Eagle Eye Cherry was from Sweden, for those of you still clinging to the '90s.

As a matter of fact, doing some fact checking (I am meticulous) on Wikipedia (...Wikipedia, not that meticulous), I've discovered countless other popular bands from Sweden -- who knew? Additionally, "the Consulate General of Sweden states that they are the third biggest exporter of music in the world, after the USA and the UK." Cool. Nice job, Sweden -- you continue to impress.

Here's one of my favorite bands from anywhere, who also happen to be from Sweden (although their name would have you believe otherwise): I'm From Barcelona.



2) Sweden also rules because the Swedes run way better than the Danes. Unlike in Denmark, in Sweden, when people run, they run. Literally the first joggers I saw in Sweden were a group of three guys who were in their late 50s or 60s, and they were trucking. And when I say "trucking," I don't mean, "They were going pretty fast for a bunch of geezers" -- they were tearing down the sidewalk, clearly working hard. And good for them. In fact, as I thought about it later, of course everyone I saw running in Sweden would be running hard: this is the country that invented the Fartlek, after all. For those of you non-runners out there, Fartlek is Swedish for "speed play," and is a workout that consists of alternating intervals of hard, fast running, and intervals of slower, recovery running. The length, time, and speed of the run is entirely up to the runner (that is, unless your coach is in charge, and she gives you a death workout, as seems to happen more often than not), which is good for someone that really wants to get out there and kick their own ass. The Swedes rock.

This concludes the latest installment in the series, "Why Sweden is Awesome and Better Than Denmark." These reasons should do until I come up with more.