Happy Cinco de Mayo from Stockholm, Sweden

Today is the 5th of May. Cinco de Mayo if you will. Den femte maj if you really will. And we will indeed.

Unfortunately, in a stunning display of cultural insensitivity I saw no one celebrating Cinco de Mayo. Strange. What with Sweden being so close to Mexico and all. But so it goes. Apparently the Swedes aren’t so interested in celebrating the Mexicans victory over the French nearly 150 years ago. Silly Swedes.
I celebrated by going to work. And eating fried zucchini lovingly prepared by DCP. And then eating bacon and eggs. A glorious evening all in all.

But anyway, to the happenings in Sweden, because who are we kidding, my dinner, no matter how delicious, just isn’t that interesting.

And so I bring you the news. Gas prices in Sweden are on the rise. Because they aren’t very high already. About 13 SEK per liter. About 6 SEK per dollar. About 4 liters per gallon. That’s a lot of dollars per gallon. And now thanks to a strengthening dollar, and the continued rise in oil prices, and of course the normal summer price increase, Swedes can expect even higher gas prices.

Someone out there probably knows exactly what percentage of the price goes to taxes. I don’t. I’ve been told the number numerous times. And for some reason, despite it being pretty solid, I can’t remember what it is. But it’s a lot. And it seems gas taxes are something that most Swedes can agree on. Very seldom do you hear a lot of outcry against the gas prices being so high. Or the gas taxes being so high. It’s very interesting to me. Especially considering Billary’s plan to revoke the gas tax for a little bit during the summer. To ease the burden she says. Despite the outcry from economist’s everywhere saying it’s a bad idea. Unfortunately, to my dismay, people don’t always listen to the economists.

Anyway, the gas price phenomenon blows my mind. Because 13 SEK per liter is a lot. There’s no way around it. But no one seems to mind that much. I guess it just comes back to Swedes being very comfortable with the idea of paying high taxes. In contrast to the Americans.

But, in order to fully embrace my Americanness I’m still going to drive a bit this summer. Because damn it. I have a car. And an American driver’s license that is legitimate for a little while longer at least. And there is still plenty of Sweden to explore.

And in case you were really interested, a Swedish beaver attacked a four year old girl. Apparently she wanted to pet it.

Welcome to Sweden. Where gas prices rise. And beavers attack.