To Sweden by car. Middle-income Russians driving their car in Sweden

Let's start with the fact that we really love traveling by car. In our archives - long trips in our own car to the south and north of Russia, but we did not travel abroad in our own car. But we had experience traveling in rented cars in Europe, so we knew how great it was, and we decided to drive our beloved Suzuki to Finland and Sweden. We are me, my husband Sergei (16 years of driving experience), son Stepan (10 years old) and daughter Lida (4 years old). I’ll tell you a secret that the youngest, Arinushka, was 14 weeks of intrauterine life.

Preparation. To make such a trip, you must:

collect documents for a visa (information on the website of the Finnish Embassy): take a certificate of income from work, take a photo, apply for health insurance and insurance (green card) for a car, book hotels online and print out the reservation sent.
Sometimes on the Internet there are questions: “Aren’t they finding fault with right-hand drive cars in Europe?” No, they don't find fault.

make a detailed travel plan. I usually do it in the form of a table. This is what happened this time:

19/06	Embassy of Finland: 119034 Moscow, Kropotkinsky lane 15-17
20-22/06	Peter
23-24/06
25/06	Transfer to Naantali. Walking around Turku. Overnight at Naantali Family Hostel: Opintie 3, 21100 Naantali
26/06	10-00 - 18-00 Mummy-dollar, Vyaski island 18-30 Transfer to Turku, boarding the ferry, departure at 21-00
27/06	Stockholm, Kolmårdens Djurpark, SE-618 92, Kolmården Overnight Angby camping, Blackebergsvaden 16852 Bromma
28/06	Stockholm, Djurgarden Island 1. 8.30-10.00 Vasa Museum, Galarvarvsvagen, 14 2. 10.30-14.30 Junibacken, Galarvarvsvagen 3. 15-00-17.00 Aquarium, Falkenbergsgatan, 2 4. 17.30-23.00 Tivoli Gränd Lund, Lilla Allmänna Gränd, 9
29/06	Stockholm 1. 9.00-10.30 Walk around Gamla Stan 2. 10.30-11.30 Boat excursion around the island of Djurgården runt Strömkajen pier (next to the Grand hotel) 3. 12.00-15.00 Skansen, Djurgarden 15.30-16.45 Boarding the ferry
30/06	Helsinki 1. Lego show Hakaniemi, Sornaisten Rantatie, 6 2. Serena Waterpark, Tornimaentie 10, Espoo Overnight Rantapuisto Hotel, Ramsinniementie,14
01/07	Helsinki Eureka Science Centre, Tiedepuisto 1, Vantaa

Usually such a sign also contains a third column, where I indicate the expected costs: the cost of entrance tickets, hotels, etc. But on this trip it was more convenient to calculate costs in a separate Excel file, for individual expense items: gasoline, hotels, etc. For each point of visit, I collected the necessary information on the Internet, printed it out and put it in a file folder. This is very convenient, because... on the road, moving to the next point, you can read all this out loud - to get a picture of the place you are visiting in advance.

Since travel is a car, then, firstly, you need to download necessary cards into the GPS system; secondly, it is useful to calculate the optimal route of movement. We used the AutoTransInfo system.

So, the documents have been collected, vacations have been received - let's go!

Cheboksary — Moscow. 640 km. It so happened that we set off on the road after work, at 19-00. But this road is already familiar to us, the route between Nizhny Novgorod And Moscow almost everything is illuminated, so at 5 am we already entered Moscow. Arriving at the embassy at 9:00 Finland, we were shocked by the long queue, but where to go - we began to stand. However, the line moved, the children played, and after 2.5 hours we were within the walls of the embassy. They accepted our documents in 1 minute, I barely had time to say that we need a visa as soon as possible, because... We are from afar and with children. In response, I heard: “It’s possible tomorrow afternoon, but for a double fee, 70 euros.” I was shocked a second time, because... On our first trip to Finland in 2001, we got a visa on the same day at the regular rate. In Moscow, after a sleepless night, we decided not to go anywhere, we went to see friends to sleep it off.

Moscow, Saint Petersburg. 720 km. Having received passports with visas at 14-00, we moved to St. Petersburg. Oddly enough, in Moscow we didn’t get stuck in any traffic jams, but in Solnechnogorsk and Vyshny Volochyok we had to hang around. The Novgorod region greeted us with broken roads, repair work, or newly repaired sections from which they “forgot” to remove the 40 km/h limit (naturally, at the end of these sections there were certainly traffic cops). But in Leningrad region were good roads, traffic is free, at 23-00 we entered St. Petersburg, managed to pass through drawbridge s, because our path lay in the village Fox Nose, to my aunt's dacha.

Saint Petersburg. The very first thing we did was buy ferry tickets. Viking Line Turku-Stockholm, Stockholm-Helsinki, which were ordered on the Internet www.paromy.ru to the Ferry Center. The procedure went very quickly, there were no hiccups, the polite manager completed everything in about five minutes, answered my questions in the same amount of time, gave me a bag of documents and booklets, so after 10 minutes we were already free. We had 3 days planned for St. Petersburg (but due to delays with visas, we had 2 left), because we simply couldn’t drive past this city. I have loved him passionately and tenderly since childhood and am glad that my husband and children subsequently shared this love. ideal for family travel: zoo, aquarium, dolphinarium, planetarium, boat excursions, endless museums and suburban palace parks. This time we chose a toy museum, a drawbridge, a night show on the Neva and Petrodvorets with fountains. The cultural program was successfully expanded by our faithful friend GPS, who “led” us to Peterhof by a short road through Kronstadt.

St. Petersburg — Joensuu. 400 km. We planned to spend the first 2 days in Finland in Joensuu, where my brother and his family live. The Brusnichnoe-Nuyama border checkpoint is 160 km away, the road is excellent, despite it being a Saturday morning, it is free, maybe because we prudently left early, at 6:30. We got lost a little near Vyborg, the GPS led us to some kind of country “single-track”, we returned to the highway and began to look for signs to Brusnichnoe or Nuyama. There weren’t any, but there were signs for Lappeenranta, and we later realized that we should follow them. At the border control there was a “queue” of 4 cars, border guards worked in three windows.

Despite the fact that we were driving our car abroad for the first time and had no idea what or how, we quickly got our bearings. It was necessary to fill out a declaration for the car in 2 copies (a laptop, cameras, a video camera do not need to be declared), one copy is taken by the border guard at the booth, the second must be kept in order to go through the checkpoint on the return border crossing. The declaration is completed upon presentation of the driver’s passport and vehicle registration certificate. After that, everyone got out of the car together to the second booth for passport control. Having received border crossing stamps in our passports, we drove up to the border guard, who glanced at the open trunk and opened the barrier. On the way to the Finnish border guards we stopped at duty free. The Finnish border guards asked about the purpose of our visit, we answered that it was to visit, the married couple in front of us answered “shopping”, no more questions, and did not look into the car (although we were carrying a canister with 20 liters of gasoline instead of the permitted 10 and “extra” Martini bottle). In general, 30 minutes after meeting the first border guard we were already driving across Finland. The road was absolutely flat and empty, according to the limit, we were driving 100 km/h, Sergei was practically immobilized behind the wheel. I couldn’t stand it: “No, how can you drive like that, no potholes, no bumps, nothing to go around, no one to overtake, no traffic cops behind the bushes - what kind of driving is this? We need an autopilot." In general, we drove 200 km in exactly 2 hours.

. This cute Finnish town is the center of “Finnish Karelia” and stands at the mouth of the Pielisjoki River. The main attraction is the Karelicum cultural and leisure center, unfortunately, it was closed this time (we arrived on the holidays, June 23 - Midsummer's Day). But we were not very upset, because... We were already there last time, and “hanged out” in the supermarket, because to our joy, along with the holidays in Finland, the season of summer discounts began. We spent the rest of the time in family communication: a sauna, beer and barbecue on the terrace of the house, the children rode motor boat, went fishing - in general, joined the Finnish holiday.

. 550 km. This route passed along busier roads, and we had to trail behind trucks and overtake them, so we no longer had to get bored while driving. What I would like to note is that driving around Finland is pleasant not only because the roads are good and drivers follow the rules, but also because at every gas station there is a clean toilet, a shop, and a cafe. But my brother, apparently, decided to “kill us outright” by organizing a stop at a gas station near the city of Jyväskylä. We had at our disposal a restaurant with a children's corner, a mother and child room, a supermarket and, apparently, there was something else there - there was no time to go around everything. The whole journey with a stop took 8 hours, by 18-00 we were in Naantali, accommodated in a pre-booked family hostel. Once again we were pleasantly surprised. A three-room suite awaited us: two bedrooms (each with 2 beds, a table, a wardrobe) and a living room with a kitchenette (112 euros/night, by the way, each bedroom is locked, you can book only half the room for half the price). The view from the window is cool: at arm’s length is a mountain with young pine trees. We quickly dropped our things and went to Turku.

. (16 km from Naantali). An ancient port city, the first capital, the western “gate” of Finland. There is something to see: Cathedral, an ancient medieval fortress, famous museum crafts, a nautical museum, you can take a boat ride on the Aura River, go to the water park. But we only had one evening at our disposal, and we just walked along the embankment. We had great fun. We were impressed by one of the symbols of Finland - the three-masted sailing ship "Sigun". For dinner we chose the hotel restaurant “Radison Sas” (second course 18-20 euros, children's menu - 6 euros), we really liked the spacious children's room adjacent to the restaurant, we were able to calmly chat and eat while the children played in it.

Naantali. Mummy Doll Park. Vyaski Island. Reading stories on the Internet, I got the wrong impression that Vyaski is part of Mummy Doll, but it turned out that these are completely different parks. And since it is difficult to visit both parks in one day, at the two-family council it was decided that mothers and daughters would go to Mummy Park, and fathers and sons would go to Vyaski Island. It’s not far from the hostel where we lived to the Mummy Train stop, especially since part of the route runs along a fairy-tale street (real one-story wooden houses, but decorated like doll houses). Naantali is a very nice, pleasant town. If you wish, you can come there for 5-7 days to quietly visit and walk everywhere. Mummy Doll is a theme park dedicated to the heroes of the Moomin fairy tales by the famous Finnish writer Tove Jansson (a ticket for both children and adults cost 18 euros for the whole day).

These Moomin Trolls in Finland are simply children's national heroes; Finnish children know fairy tales and songs from cartoons of the same name by heart; stores sell all sorts of things with their images, etc. Naturally, the Finnish children in the park are in piggy delight. Our children, in order to understand what is happening, need to at least read these fairy tales (at the most, know Finnish, because performances in the park are only in Finnish). Although even without all this, Lida received great pleasure from both the performances and everything else. She curiously examined the three-story Moomin house, typed there on a typewriter, made a cat mask in the clearing workshop, played with boats, threw pebbles into the water on the Moomin beach, found a way out of the Moomin labyrinth, climbed into a scary cave, climbed on high mountain, watched a mummy waterfall, rode down a slide - etc., etc., you can’t remember everything. It took us 6 hours to walk around enough.

Väski Island is completely different; knowledge of the Finnish language and fairy tales is not needed there. This is an adventure and sports park. Lucky on the island Pirates' ship, upon entering, an electronic bracelet is put on your hand, on which points are recorded after passing the next test. Then you can see your result on the website from home. Stepan scored a lot of points, although still not enough to take a prize that day. What he liked best was panning for gold, even though he didn't pan for anything. Climbing the mountain was impressive climbing equipment. I remember archery, bungee jumping, tightrope walking, stilt walking, various horizontal bars and much more.

The Kingdom of Sweden, or as we simply call it Sweden, is an amazing and Dreamland, the largest on the Scandinavian Peninsula. Everyone would probably like to travel around Sweden, but they find many reasons to put this idea aside only in their dreams. And even more so traveling by car to one of northern countries Europe, but still, we are going on a trip to Sweden.

There are two ways to get to Sweden - driving along the roads through Finland or taking a ferry to Stockholm. I won’t describe the route of the trip along the roads to Stockholm, I don’t think anyone takes this route, it’s a very long time. But the ferry is another matter. There are two options to get there by ferry. The first is to drive to Helsinki and take the ferry there, and the second is to go from St. Petersburg directly to Stockholm.

From St. Petersburg to Stockholm you need to choose a ferry, for example the St. Peter Line company operates a direct flight. This is a Russian company, where all the staff on the ferry speak Russian. It is also convenient to start your trip on such a ferry the day before the visa opens, for example, board the ferry on the second, and Schengen will only open on the third. While on the ferry, you are on the territory Russian Federation. The ferry travel time is almost a day. The departure and arrival times are almost the same, but two hours are lost during the journey. If the ferry departs from St. Petersburg at 18:00, then it will arrive in Stockholm at 18:00 the next day, and the time in Stockholm is 2 hours behind Moscow. Registration for the ferry begins approximately four hours before departure. You can register for just one person, you don’t have to all attend. Customs goes through quickly, tourists, as a rule, are not asked for declarations, and the car is inspected symbolically. The machines are locked during the trip, so don't forget the things you need while traveling on the ferry.

When booking ferry tickets, you must take a car package for the car plus a cabin for the driver and passengers. If you are returning back by ferry, then immediately take care of your reservation for the return trip. Usually the ticket price includes Buffet. The cabin has a shower, toilet, table, chair and bunk bed. There is a children's room on the ferry, concert hall. You can listen here live music, drink a cup of tea overlooking the sea.

It takes 10-15 minutes to clear customs on the Swedish side. The customs officer himself takes the passports and stamps them. That's all. Welcome to Sweden!

Services for tourists that will allow you to save or get more for the same money:

Aviadiscounter – metasearch engine for cheap air tickets from all sources, information about airline sales;
– the journey begins with choosing the best insurance; the service allows you to find the best option according to your requirements;

So, February 2016, the decision was made, we are going to a triathlon in Sweden with a further trip to Norway. We have a Lada Granta car, a liftback, manufactured in 2015, purchased at a showroom on Khilokskaya, mileage just over 20,000 km, about 150,000 rubles in savings and credit card with a limit of 250,000 rubles.

To be honest, at first I was very doubtful. Is it worth going to Norway? What is there that I haven’t seen on Kola? Could there be more beautiful mountains there than the Pamirs or the Caucasus? The photographs in other people's reports seem to be beautiful, but not amazing. But why then did everyone who visited have such delight? Why is there a whole clan of “Norwegians” who return there again and again? Well, anyway, in the middle of summer there are not many options. It's hot in the south. In the west there are only cities, but you want nature, in the east - the price of air tickets discourages any desire to travel, or to stay behind the wheel of a car for the entire vacation. Was not! It's decided! Let's go see the fjords and look for trolls!

Route: Moscow - Tallinn - ferry - Stockholm - Malmo - Kolding (Denmark) - Amsterdam (three hours) - Baarle-Nassau (Belgium/Netherlands) - Colmar (France) Switzerland Liechtenstein Austria (transit in one day) - Obersdorf (week in Alps) - Cesky Krumlov - Karlovy Vary - Prague - Nuremberg - Reims - Paris/Versailles - Mont Saint-Michel - Deauville - Rouen - Bruges - Copenhagen - Stockholm - ferry - Pärnu - Pskov - Moscow. We just wanted to travel a little further than 100 km from home. Down with purchased tours, when the entire route and all the hotels are specified in the contract and, by and large, everything is predictable and predictable! You give freedom of choice and the spirit of adventure!

After long discussions, on the one hand, a compromise was born, and on the other, a multifaceted expanded route: through Karelia to SLokean, then back through Finland, Sweden and Norway, visiting three capitals. The route promised to be so interesting that the argument about the budget for the trip was immediately lost somewhere. A low-budget trip to Karelia turned into a trip to some of the most expensive countries(or the most expensive?) in already expensive Europe. Estimated costs were multiplied by two by ambitious travelers.

Route: St. Petersburg - Turku - ferry - Stockholm - Lyssefjord - Stavanger - Hardanger fjord. Countries: Finland, Sweden, Norway. A trip to Norway for the “June holidays” is becoming a good tradition. This time we are heading to the southern and central parts according to the most popular tourist places. The format of the trip was a “homeless tour”, which significantly affected the conditions of the holiday, but did not in any way affect the impressions received.

The most magical ideas come by chance. For example, on the way from the supermarket on a dreary winter evening. That's what happened this time. Traffic jams and the gray St. Petersburg sky suddenly made me think about escaping to some distant and fabulous lands. For example, on the other side of the Baltic Sea. And what's in there? It’s close, but so unfamiliar. In such a situation, the main thing is to have a person nearby who understands you perfectly and shares your sometimes delusional ideas. And fantasy began its flight... So, so, what do we know about the geography of the Baltic? Yes, St. Petersburg, yes, in many ways, the famous and close Finland. But there is also Sweden, the Baltic countries, Poland. And there is the most European piece of Russia - Kaliningrad, where a friend has been inviting me to visit for a long time. Yeah, with the Baltic Sea everything is clear, from the larger one. How to go? Where to start? And nearby there is also Norway, the northern country of the Vikings, a must visit - definitely!

This summer we decided to go on our third trip to Europe, this time the route was laid around the Baltic Sea - we have long wanted to visit the Scandinavian countries and see the Baltics. I had a visa from last year, they applied for entry again green card and health insurance (which no one checked anywhere). To move along European roads We have a TomTom navigator model Start 25. This time, given that we are going north, we added autumn jackets to the usual things that we always take on such trips. And, as it turned out later, it was not in vain.

Written on June 3, 2012 – 20:25 | by MipH |

A story about a trip of 14 people in 5 cars to Sweden ski resort Ore from Moscow to New Year holidays 2012. Through Riga, in New Year's Eve we took the ferry to Stockholm. An amusing trip. Almost 4 days there, 3 back and 2 weeks there. I alone managed to go to the Norwegian city of Trondheim for a day, while the rest were riding snowmobiles on a frozen lake and snowy hills.

You can find all the detailed reports I made during and after the trip, including videos, at . Here I tried to summarize the main points and links about the trip.

Cars

We drove 5 cars: Subaru Legacy (3 liters, all-wheel drive, Velcro), Subaru Tribeca (3 liters, all-wheel drive, studs), Honda Accord (2.5 liters, Velcro), Nissan Qashqai (I don’t know, but 2 liters, it seems to me, spikes), VW (1.4 liters, turbo, Velcro of the 3rd season).

We were happy with the fuel consumption of the Golf. At some point, I “lowered” it to 5.7 liters while driving evenly along the highway at a speed of about 80 (2 people + clothes). In other cases, the consumption remained in the region of 6 - 6.5 (speed 100-130). Considering the cost of gasoline at 75 rubles, this consumption was a big plus.

We left Stockholm in very difficult weather conditions: It was night and everything was covered with heavy wet snow. The further north you went, the more wet it turned into normal. On the highway, the first driving Subarik Tribeca sometimes accelerated to 120 according to GPS, and it was scary, because my car is light, moreover, only with front-wheel drive and on not the freshest tires, it was difficult to clear all that mess and snowdrifts on the road on such speeds So I asked to limit it to 100 according to GPS. But the all-wheel drive Legacy seemed to feel at ease. Otherwise, it was very comfortable on the small turbo engine behind these three-liter monsters.

It’s difficult to drive through cities in a convoy of 5 cars, because at traffic lights you don’t always have time to get through them when you’re 5th (it seems like I got through 4 traffic lights in a row on the yellow-red one).

The only thing that annoyed me while driving was the worn-out front tires, especially the middle part of the tread (this happens when overinflating, but I checked several times and it seemed that the pressure was normal), where the depth during the trip became less than 5mm and constant slipping on porridge or the snow began to strain. And as I was driving early in the morning, when the Moscow snowfall began, at 130 km/h, I even became scared after, when I saw the wear of the front tires.

By the way, in Sweden, for the most part, the roads are not flooded with anything, but are only cleaned in a timely manner and, in cities, on difficult climbs they are covered with stone chips. Therefore, it is always clean and, most importantly, beautiful. But upon entering Norway, I immediately found myself on a dirty highway filled with reagents. True, all this was quickly covered by snowfall, so on the way back I was already spitting from the snow =)

Visa information

- Schengen visa through the Swedish consulate: http://www.swedenabroad.com/Page____78583.aspx
— instructions for filling out questionnaires: http://www.swedenabroad.com/Page____49156.aspx (block on the right “Files of related topics”)
— tickets to: Service Center http://www.77msk.ru
— accommodation (apart-hotel Brunkulla): PAC Group http://www.pac.ru (you can use a direct operator http://www.skistar.com/ru/are/)
— medical insurance (ROSNO): http://www.ozon.travel/insurance/
— green card (ROSNO, but not earlier than a month before the trip and only in the office)
— photos: Firm Plus 7 http://maps.yandex.ru/sprav/1128637485/

Passport delivery:
- at 9.30 at the embassy there were already 45 to submit documents! and this is only November 14; Some people are accepted for 5 minutes, and others 30... I stood there for an hour and a half, there were not enough seats. After 10:00 there were almost no people coming (the total numbers reached 55, it seems). The closer to NG, the more people It will be according to the security.
— it’s better to have exactly 1400 with you for collection, there may be no change, then you will simply be sent to the “shop to change.”

Receiving a passport:
— receiving a passport from 16 to 17. At 15.50 there is already a line on the street of almost all the people who want to pick up documents that day. Therefore, whether you arrive 30 minutes before opening and freeze outside waiting, or arrive exactly at 4 pm and wait half an hour inside is up to you to decide (after 4 pm almost no one came). 20 people took the documents in half an hour (this is in addition to other people like couriers or “businesses” who have their own queues).

Let's go there

4 days of travel and we are there (day + night - Belarus, night + morning in Latvia, day in Riga, night on the ferry, day in Stockholm, evening + night - to the motel, morning and a little afternoon - to the destination in Are, Sweden). Difficult, almost 3,300 kilometers from Moscow (including the ferry), a lot of emotions, difficult in Sweden during snowfall and then ice, long attempts to find a motel for the night (we had to spend the night somewhere on the way on the night of January 1-2, there were no places or it was expensive), a tour of Stockholm.

Yes, there’s a lot of things, it’s complicated and there’s probably no need to write anything. Some may be wondering what New Year's Eve was like on the ferry. I don’t know, at 10 local time we met “in Moscow”, but I didn’t make it until 12 present, I passed out, because after a sleepless 2 days of travel (we ended up in Riga at noon somewhere, there was only time to eat and rest). I can say that this way to meet is certainly better than a feast in front of the TV, or even alone, but the second time I would think about whether it’s worth it if you are not a social person or you are tired of long parties, and on New Year’s Eve the noise lasted until the morning.

We stood for almost 8 hours on the border of Belarus and Latvia. It was something! No toilets, no explanations, everything is very slow, a couple of transport checkpoints. If the Latvians are still civilized, then the Belarusians are a real scoop and you can’t say anything else. Although the Latvians seemed to slow down more. But the service there is better, there are convenient restrooms, everything is lit, there are explanatory signs everywhere.

Stockholm

To be honest, driving outside the city at night is more beautiful and pleasant in general than during the day. Because during the daytime in winter everything is gray, sometimes there is snow, and sometimes there is none. And all around there are fields and gas stations, nothing interesting. ( we're talking about about the motorway)

By the way, the city has underground roads, or rather, they pass under the houses, which greatly facilitates movement. An interesting and compact solution. This road can only be distinguished by the entrance and exit, but there are just houses there and that’s it. To travel around the city, it is convenient to sit in a special tourist bus, they ride along 3, it seems, routes, inside you can take headphones and listen in Russian about the sights they pass.

They said (and we observed) that wooden houses were preserved in the city (history). They are prohibited from being demolished or rebuilt, and the owners are required to maintain them in good condition. Caring for tourist attractiveness. Otherwise, it’s an ordinary European town, in which, as it has repeatedly turned out, there are some more problems with getting out of the underground parking lots on your own, rather than by car (it’s not obvious where the exit is). There is no snow at all in winter this season.

Apartment Brunkulla

We lived in the Brunkulla apartments almost in the center of the town of Are (Village), you can walk in all directions to get to the ski lifts, but how difficult it is to do this in the morning, carrying everything on yourself, and sometimes uphill, and by the time you get there you will be sweating. I have never lived in such good apartments, but my experience is modest, only 2 times. Large living room and 4 rooms for 2 people each. In the large hallway, under the bench, there are special flexible hoses that need to be inserted into your boots so that they dry overnight. Nearby there is a large drying cabinet for clothes (heating and ventilation quickly dry wet clothes after rolling or washing). 2 full rooms with toilets and showers, one of which has a Finnish sauna, which someone uses almost every evening.

The kitchen has everything: refrigerator, coffee maker, microwave oven, dishwasher, toaster, kettles and all utensils, extractor hood. The building has 3 floors, an elevator, parking under the windows and free.

Lots of windows, warm and cozy. The second eight people have windows overlooking the very lake, behind which the sun peeks out from behind the mountains in the morning. There is internet for 500 rubles per week via wi-fi, which we partially divide among the rest through distribution from laptops. There are heated floors everywhere, a vacuum cleaner, a mop and all other accessories. Large plasma TV.

I don’t know, but it seems to me that there is one large supermarket right on railway station for the whole city; As it was written in the guidebooks, alcohol is sold only in one special store. Prices are hellish for everything. In the morning we arrived on the slope, next to which there was a gas station. Gasoline cost 14.60 CZK. In the evening after the ride it costs 14.70, which is more than 70 rubles.

P.S. On New Year's Eve, a funny thing happened: the prepared New Year's gifts remained in the car, which was parked on the parking deck, to which access was closed while driving. I had to hand it out somehow unsightly later. I also received several gifts, which was nice. I rarely participate in any celebrations and rarely receive gifts.

P.P.S. Alexander O., my boss, one might say, and the technical director of our company, who has been shouting for the last six months how he will always be ahead of me on all the slopes (in the context that the level of his skating is very high, and I’ve become attached to some kind of sucker 😉), in the end, he doesn’t even see me, because I’m either in the woods, or he and his girls are hanging around on the slopes while we’re rolling somewhere forward. Well, to talk about the level of skating... Well, yes, I learned something in 2 years, but why talk about it, everyone has as much as they need, some more, some less. I’m sure I would skate better if I had more strength, more muscles, more endurance. But I have exactly what I have, and I try to make the most of it.

Trondheim

As a result, someone said that they would never return to Sweden: the price-quality ratio is not in favor of the Swedes. I can say that if we put this component of the question aside, the place is quite good and, more importantly, sincere. Therefore, I would return, I would even say that I would really like to return. Sincere, few people, no crowds or queues, beautiful northern nature, especially in clear weather.

The Kingdom of Sweden, or as we simply call it Sweden, is an amazing and fabulous country, the largest on the Scandinavian Peninsula. Everyone would probably like to travel around Sweden, but they find many reasons to put this idea aside only in their dreams. And even more so, traveling by car to one of the northern countries of Europe, but still, we are going on a trip to Sweden.

From St. Petersburg to Stockholm you need to choose a ferry, for example the St. Peter Line company operates a direct flight. This is a Russian company, where all the staff on the ferry speak Russian. It is also convenient to start your trip on such a ferry the day before the visa opens, for example, board the ferry on the second, and Schengen will only open on the third. While on the ferry, you are on the territory of the Russian Federation. The ferry travel time is almost a day. The departure and arrival times are almost the same, but two hours are lost during the journey. If the ferry departs from St. Petersburg at 18:00, then it will arrive in Stockholm at 18:00 the next day, and the time in Stockholm is 2 hours behind Moscow. Registration for the ferry begins approximately four hours before departure. You can register for just one person, you don’t have to all attend. Customs goes through quickly, tourists, as a rule, are not asked for declarations, and the car is inspected symbolically. The machines are locked during the trip, so don't forget the things you need while traveling on the ferry.

When booking ferry tickets, you must take a car package for the car plus a cabin for the driver and passengers. If you are returning back by ferry, then immediately take care of your reservation for the return trip. Usually the ticket price includes a buffet. The cabin has a shower, toilet, table, chair and bunk bed. The ferry has a children's room and a concert hall. Here you can listen to live music and drink a cup of tea overlooking the sea.

It takes 10-15 minutes to clear customs on the Swedish side. The customs officer himself takes the passports and stamps them. That's all. Welcome to Sweden!

Services for tourists that will allow you to save or get more for the same money:

Aviadiscounter – metasearch engine for cheap air tickets from all sources, information about airline sales;
– the journey begins with choosing the best insurance; the service allows you to find the best option to suit your requirements;