Stockholm

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Blown2CV

Original Poster:

28,697 posts

202 months

Tuesday 21st October 2014
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I've been asked if I'm interested in a project in Stockholm for 6 months over Winter. Good idea, bad idea? Not the work obvs but the location. Is it very expensive? Might have a bearing on my expenses limit! Might I expect a ton of snow, flight delays or do they cope well? General thoughts on food? I've heard they city is v attractive and a place to visit anyway.

Mighty Flex

900 posts

170 months

Tuesday 21st October 2014
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Blown2CV said:
I've been asked if I'm interested in a project in Stockholm for 6 months over Winter. Good idea, bad idea? Not the work obvs but the location. Is it very expensive? Might have a bearing on my expenses limit! Might I expect a ton of snow, flight delays or do they cope well? General thoughts on food? I've heard they city is v attractive and a place to visit anyway.
Stockholm is a great City. At it's best in the summer - it will be dark (but only equivalent to north of Scotland, and a lot less wet). It can be expensive, but doesn't need to be. I can't imagine you will be starving and bored. It might snow a fair bit, but it has to be exceptionally bad to be anything more than a slight inconvenience. Food is good - it's a decent sized city and you should be able to find anything to your liking - lunch at restaurants is great and good value. I have lived there for a bit, but not in the winter for anything more than a holiday. I am biased being half Swedish, but I would take it biggrin. I'm sure someone with some more relevant experience can come along and give you some advice you should actually listen too.

Blown2CV

Original Poster:

28,697 posts

202 months

Wednesday 22nd October 2014
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No it's all good advice thanks!

NRS

22,080 posts

200 months

Wednesday 22nd October 2014
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Been there a short time in summer and it's a really nice city. It will be pretty expensive, but compared to Norway then it's a bargain, hehe I'd probably want a bit of extra expenses compared to a British job to help cover the extra costs. Lots of good restaurants. Snow shouldn't be an issue and it can also help in winter since it reflects a lot more light and so makes it brighter than it would be with rain.

djc206

12,247 posts

124 months

Wednesday 22nd October 2014
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I've not lived there but I was seeing a Swedish girl for a while about 3 years ago and spent a fair amount of time here.

It's a bit more expensive than the UK but not cripplingly so. They do get a fair bit of snow but cope exceptionally well with it, the only thing that seemed to be troubled by it was the overland rail network outside the City. I never experienced any flight delays or cancellations. The food is good and varied. I'd go for it!!

GCH

3,984 posts

201 months

Wednesday 22nd October 2014
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Snow is just a normal day to day thing in the winter Nothing stops working, even for stuff that would see parts of the UK grind to a halt or the usual 'severe weather warning' plastered everywhere.

I don't find it expensive, certainly not compared to any other major city.
Food is superb - plenty of michelin places, quality local cuisine and produce, and lots of smaller places too - and very much a cafe culture exists.

Alcohol is restricted and only sold via the systembolaget. You would think this monopoly would make it very expensive, but I find quite the opposite in fact, and I normally find high quality wines that are sold far cheaper than the same bottle sells for overseas.

The subway works perfectly, is good value, and you get full phone signal throughout. If you want to escape stockholm and see some more of the country, the high speed trains also work very well and are not that expensive - especially when compared to the rip off trains in the UK!


It is also a very beautiful city. The only thing that sucks in winter is how dark it is, and of course it can be a tad cold!

Looket

688 posts

120 months

Friday 24th October 2014
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If you're in the city then snow isn't much of a problem. The first day or so may or may not be slightly problematic as the council struggles to get the ploughs out, and people get caught off guard (once again...) without proper snow tires. But after that it's fairly smooth sailing, people are used to it and society doesn't grind to a halt.

Food is generally more expensive than in the UK, but not extortionate and you can get by fairly cheaply if need be. Going out is far more expensive however, and you should expect to fork out an arm and a leg for a pint. Systembolaget (booze monopoly) don't have excellent opening hours but with a bit of planning they're actually really rather good. Prices do vary but you can make some real bargains and if they don't stock something you fancy it's very easily sorted by placing an order.

Obviously winter isn't ideal for visiting but it's not all bad.

As for flight delays, I think this picture sums it up quite well:


TwigtheWonderkid

43,248 posts

149 months

Saturday 25th October 2014
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Make lunch the main meal of the day and the money will go a lot further.

towser44

3,472 posts

114 months

Sunday 26th October 2014
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A good pastime is Russian Sub hunting apparantly

P1ato

340 posts

127 months

Sunday 26th October 2014
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Nice city, friendly, beautiful women, strong economy. Transport system works well, and there are great restaurants in the harbour area.

Kudos

2,672 posts

173 months

Sunday 26th October 2014
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P1ato said:
Nice city, friendly, beautiful women, strong economy. Transport system works well, and there are great restaurants in the harbour area.
Surprisingly, very few of them are blond!

It's a good spot, I worked there for a year. Loved it, but that was to do with a good bunch of colleagues.

The work ethic is certainly different.

Expensive, hotels aren't cheap and you can in fact find them all full if a conference is on.