Swimming in Sweden

I've mentioned before that there's a great Olympic pool by our house called Valhallabadet. It's great. I love it. I also love the fact there's a big sign outside that says "Bad," which means "pool" in Swedish, but just makes me chuckle every time I see it.

The other amusing thing about swimming in Sweden is that the vast majority of people here only swim breaststroke. Breaststroke is the only stroke taught in school (do American kids even get taught swimming in school anymore??) and so you get a whole cadre of grown-ups who come to the pool with no intention of getting their hair wet. I routinely see people swimming with their glasses on. This picture is taken from the cafe next to the pool and doesn't do justice to the breaststroke-only phenomenon, but you can sort of get the idea. The other half of the pool is usually mostly empty because those lanes are reserved for "fast motion crawl" swimming. So I often get a lane to myself. Joy.