“Travels to a Different Time: 26June1975: Almhütt, Sweden: The Home of IKEA!

A wasp buzzed into my tent at 08:30 and that certainly is more effective than an alarm clock. I whipped out to a nearby store for some bread, sliced meat and milk. I ate, packed up and split. A gruelling walk took me to the highway heading to Stockholm. In a moment a lift from a vegetable salesman in a blue SAAB. He drove fast but well. He told me how bad hitching was in Sweden. Thanks for the encouraging news. He dropped me off at a good spot and then a lift with a beautiful Volvo sports car. It is the P-1800 which is what Simon Templar drives in” The Saint”. A short lift took me to Almhütt at about 16:00 and as it looked like bad rain so decided to take refuge in a youth hostel. I got the last bed in a room with 6 beds. I had a long walk into town and mailed two letters at 45 cents each! And the usual heart attack at the grocery store with hefty Swedish prices. Three times more expensive than in Poland. I bought a litre of milk to drink on the return to the youth hostel. A somewhat strange dinner of scrambled eggs, weird meat, canned mandarins, bread and water. Fresh fruit costs an arm and leg. Met two Swedish freaks and had a wide-ranging discussion including the plastic nature of Swedish society and its conservative politics. Pooped off to bed at 22:30. IKEA opened their first store here in the 1950’s.