The Swedish experience!

AIK (Stockholm) 2-0 Jönköpings Södra
Swedish Allsvenskan
Sunday 15th October 2019

Depending on your age, when 'Sweden' gets mentioned the first things that will spring to mind will either be ABBA, Sven Goran Eriksson or mile-long IKEA stores that churn out cheap and nasty, flat-pack furniture like there's no tomorrow.

First-time visitors might have preconceptions beforehand that locals look like 'blonde-haired super models' capable of carrying themselves with great flamboyance, and that Sweden is a modern, lavish and 'upmarket' location with magnificent living standards.

Of course, whilst aspects of that may be true, there's more to Scandanavia than just the stereotypes - even though there IS a lot of IKEA stores in typical out-of-town locations!

For a start, from my own experience, it's expensive - more so than Denmark's capital city, Copenhagen - often compared to a sister city to Stockholm. It's also ridiculously cold, even by my standards, and there will be a late-morning sunrise and early-afternoon sunset during the winter months, when daylight literally lasts for only a few hours.

A deciding-factor in making this trip was the incredible Swedish music scene, which has produced various mainstream artists come over the years.

ABBA are the most notorious, but delve deeper and you'll find that Avicii, Swedish House Mafia, Andreas Johnson, The Cardigans, Basshunter, Loreen, September, and many, many others come from this part of the world.

So it's pretty damn decent!

I'd arrived in Sweden courtesy of cheap flights with Ryanair which cost £10 each-way from London Stansted to Stockholm Skavsta. Fares can actually go even lower if you search around, plan ahead and are flexible with your dates.

However, the downside of flying to Stockholm Skavsta is that it's in the middle of absolutely nowhere and a connecting coach service to the city centre will cost £28 (minimum, return price) and takes about an hour-and-a-half.

Nevertheless, I finally got to the city centre at around midnight - when the bars and nightclubs were very much alive and well, delivering a string of absolutely 'belting' tunes - and, admittedly, had one of those pinch yourself moments of 'What the f**k am I doing here?' as I made my way to my hostel.

As always, my trip was planned to coincide with a football match and the venue on this occasion was the Friends Arena; Sweden's relatively new national stadium which also plays host to AIK's domestic games.

With the Swedish Allsvenskan, unsurprisingly, played over the summer months due to the weather, the season was in its closing stages by the time of my visit. Both teams were in need of three points for differing reasons - AIK found themselves competing for a place in Europe, whilst Jönköpings Södra, their opponents, were caught up in a relegation battle.

Match tickets were easy to buy online and fairly priced with a standing ticket on the terrace situated behind the goal costing only 100 Swedish Krona (approximately £10). Seats, along with tickets for more high-profile games, were more expensive - but, all in all, in a country that isn't exactly favourable on the wallet this felt value for money.

Getting to the Friends Arena on matchday was straightforward with a train from the centre to Solna, followed by a short walk (through a shopping centre) to the stadium. Transport fares were expensive, compared to most mainland European destinations, and on a par with prices for getting around on public transport in London.

Despite being in the same section as 'The Ultras' which consisted of the usual array of masked men with smoke bombs, loud megaphones and partisan camaraderie, there was a more-relaxed atmosphere than in places in Central Europe. By that, I mean you could take photos/videos without the risk of disapproving locals threatening to rip the camera phone out of your hand, stamp on it, or punch you in the ribs - which is often what happens elsewhere!

Interestingly, with the stadium split between three tiers and having a capacity in excess of 50,000 - far more than is ever needed for 99% of domestic fixtures, a large curtain attached to the roof was used to shut-out the view of the upper sections in an effort to make the stadium more intimate. It didn't really work as the atmosphere still felt flat, despite the best efforts of a hardy bunch trying to make as much noise as possible in a vast, but largely empty, stadium.

The game wasn't the greatest and it was played on a terrible pitch, but unlike the drab stalemates which I witnessed in Bremen, Hannover and Grimsby in the weeks beforehand, there were actually some goals to enjoy on this trip.

Following a disappointing first 45 minutes, Alexander Jallow turned the ball into his own net to put the hosts ahead shortly after half-time, before Nils-Eric Johansson - the ex-Blackburn Rovers centre-back from the early 2000s, eventually doubled the advantage in the closing stages.

The loss proved costly for the visitors as they were relegated just a few weeks later, whilst AIK made it into the Europa League Qualifying rounds for the 2018/19 campaign.

With 36 hours or thereabouts remaining in Stockholm following the game, the next day was spent sightseeing and enjoying what Sweden's capital had to offer. Though the 'Gamla Stan' was picturesque and there were other points of interest around the city - including a boat trip/river cruise, on the whole it didn't quite live up to my expectations.

Copenhagen is definitely my preference of the two cities and probably offers more to the sightseer who wants to get a flavour of Scandanavia!