Well hello there!
So last week I had the pleasure of travelling to Germany with work, to attend a 3 day meeting. Now normally I don't write that much about all my business trips, as they are not that interesting really...but this one was...but not for all the right reasons.
Firstly, is everyone else aware that Germany are light years behind when it comes to accepting credit cards?? In Sweden, you can pretty much do anything you want without cash. Even down to getting your haircut..yes, barber shops accept cards! But Germany was like stepping back in time! We got there, got a taxi...nope, no cards. Went for dinner...nope, no cards! Supermarket, 'of course we accept cards. What, you are foreign?? No, we only accept German cards' It was certainly an experience...and I won't forget to take cash next time!
However, I was in Wallau which is a really pretty part of Germany. We also went for dinner in Mainz one night, which is quite lovely! The restaurant was called "Heilig Geist" (Holy Ghost for those of you not fluent in German) and it is located in an old church. It is gorgeous inside, as they have done it all up and made it very pretty. If you want, you can check it out here. I had the schnitzel, and can highly recommend it!
So, after a week away, Saturday came round, and it was the final of Melodifestivalen. As I said in the previous post, the qualifying rounds have been very 'interesting' (pretty crap songs) but the final was a very pleasant surprise! There were probably 5 or 6 songs I would actually buy in there! Now maybe I am becoming too Swedish already, but I really do think the winner has a good chance to win Eurovision! If you want to check out the songs, just look for Melodifestivalen 2012 in YouTube. But if you want to narrow it down to the pretty good ones, look for: David Lindgren "Shout it out", Lisa Miskovsky"Why Start a Fire", Loreen "Euphoria" (the eventual winner), Ulrik Munther "Soldiers", Molly Sanden "Why am I crying" and Danny Saucedo "Amazing"
Maybe not really worth the 15 minutes of your life, but some good songs! Sarah and I were with the same group of friends, and we actually agreed on the top 3 (Loreen, Danny and David) so were quite happy.
Oh, and Lisa Miskovsky has actually been part of the Swedish Snowboarding team...talk about talented!
I also had an unplanned visit to a Swedish hospital recently, and with the current standing of Sweden being the best place for health care in Europe I thought it would be worth talking about.
To start, my friend doesn't have a Swedish Personnummer, and so needed to be treated under the European health insurance card thing. (for those that don't know, it lets European people get health care in Europe without having to pay the usual costs) So straight off we were asked if we wanted to pay right away, or pay by invoice. Yep, that's right, you can pay by invoice! (pay attention Germany!) The fee was 350 SEK (about 35 English Pounds, 39.50 Euro) and this is for anything that is needed while there! (I am sure there are limits, but we had a lot done for this)
All the staff spoke very good English, and were very helpful and communicative. Unfortunately, my friend has had an operation in England within the last 12 months, and so we had to be put into isolation as they might have carried the MRSA bug. Now we know that they don't, as the UK is very good at testing everyone in hospitals for it, but I don't mind them being over protective. The room was really clean, the equipment was all pretty new, and we really had no complaints at all! I think the number 1 spot is deserved to be honest...
Things I have learnt this week:
Germany do not like foreign cards
There are actually some good songs in the Eurovision song contest (at least 1)
The Swedish health care system is really good!
P.S. Never be sorry for wanting to be sure about your health. It is far better to know what is going on than to wait for it to get worse!
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