Livre d'Or

The downside was paying over £7 for a shot and mixer (which I wouldn't have ordered if I'd known!) and over £5 for a beer. Apparently this is normal for Sweden, but eek!

I get the impression everything is expensive in Scandinavia, because they have a more socialist state than we do. The flip side of that is that there have been surveys recently which show that Scandinavian countries have significantly higher life expectancy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy) than the UK, that the people there are happier, that they have better perceived job security (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4443406.stm), that the indicators of the country's stability (http://www.fundforpeace.org/programs/fsi/fsindex2006.php?column=rank&#) are higher, and so forth.

Think of it like the way Americans boast about their country having a higher GDP (or whatever) than the socialist democracies of Europe: true, things are cheaper and people get taxed less, but the price to pay for that is very much less of a welfare state, and think about where you would rather live.

Which is not to say in the longer term you'd prefer to live in Sweden than the UK, but it's a useful way of thinking about it in terms of the higher prices whilst you do.