Sweden (Not Switzerland)

I kinda wish we&#x27;d stop try to oversell northern lights with overexposed HDR pictures. They&#x27;re nowhere near as bright or vibrant as they look in the pictures, even when viewed somewhere properly dark and far north.<p>Raising expectations too high means visitors come away with disappointment at the faint green-ish sky-snake, which is a shame, as it is pretty spectacular.

For those who are not from Sweden (or from Switzerland) this is a real &quot;problem&quot; that happens all the time, that people confuse the countries. And it is something we at least in Sweden take with a big smile :D And according to the comments to the video, those from Switzerland seem to do the same thing :)<p>Here is an example when Swedish Spotify was listed in the US on the Nasdaq stock exchange and they used the Schweiz flag instead haha. The list goes on :)<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;img-9gag-fun.9cache.com&#x2F;photo&#x2F;a47E046_460s.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;img-9gag-fun.9cache.com&#x2F;photo&#x2F;a47E046_460s.jpg</a>

Strangest I&#x27;ve experienced of this is one level deeper: someone I was with had the context that I’d moved to Sweden. They asked me how my French was coming along. Took me awhile to make the connection.<p>I wouldn’t have thought that someone who would know what languages were spoken in Switzerland would be the kind of person to confuse it with Sweden.

The names are particularly close in Spanish and Portuguese. So much so that in Spain I once impressed a blonde-haired blue-eyed Swiss person who told me to guess their nationality by getting it &quot;right&quot; the first time, although I guessed Sweden.<p>Spanish is neither mine nor her native tongue.<p>Also seems the Nordic governments have all hired the same PR&#x2F;marketing firm :D Similar (good) content coming from most of them. This gives me Iceland Metaverse vibes in particular.

Austria and Australia, certainly, but I don&#x27;t think I&#x27;ve ever heard of Sweden and Switzerland being mistaken for eachother.

I lived in Sweden for a few months in college and i would say a majority of my friends assumed I was in Switzerland.<p>As an aside, Sweden’s business record is impressive - IKEA, Volvo, Spotify, H&amp;M - is impressive. I loved my time there.

It’s especially confusing in Slavic languages.<p>Shvetsiya vs Shveytsariya

Weirdly even in Mandarin they still sound similar: Ruidian and Ruishi (with both using the 瑞 character for rui).

I&#x27;ve never confused the Swiss and the Swedes, but I sure have confused the Dutch and the Danes!

In Portuguese their names are pretty similar as well: Suécia (Sweden) and Suíça (Switzerland).

I think both countries are excellent places to visit and I think their flags are big plusses too.

Swaziland changed it’s name to Eswatini partially to avoid the same problem.

Not a country issue but in Canada there are town names that are similar and always getting mixed up.<p>called Sydney in Cape Breton Nova Scotia but also a town called Sidney with an i in British Columbia. More than once items or people meant for one end up nearly 5,000km in the wrong direction, or worse in Sydney Australia (worse as in it&#x27;s not in Canada...we love ya Aussies!).<p>Then here is the Saint John New Brunswick (NB) vs St John&#x27;s Newfoundland and Labrador vs Saint Johns Quebec issue. In NB it&#x27;s always Saint not St but NFLD it&#x27;s always St. in Quebec French doesn&#x27;t use apostrophe like the English language does for possession.<p>Even my own town Charlottetown has at least three others in this small region but at least we are a capital and somewhat known being the &quot;Cradle of Confederation&quot; (of Canada). A bit like Philadelphia&#x27;s fame in US history.

Having had the pleasure of visiting Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway I have to say I definitely underrated them for a long time. I had a great time exploring the cities with their public transportation and since all the capital cities are ports you can take ferries to nearby islands without paying extra. Their museums were also topnotch and the nearby landscapes are absolute beautiful with some world class hiking in the outer regions. My biggest complaints would be the food, yes the best restaurants were good but I was constantly spending $20+ just to sit down and eat some pasta, even kebabs were minimum $15. That said I highly recommend people to visit them in the summer or fall if you get the chance.

Related:<p>Salzburg Airport does not have a help desk for passengers who mistakenly fly to Austria instead of Australia<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;fullfact.org&#x2F;online&#x2F;special-desk-Salzburg-Airport-Australia-Austria&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;fullfact.org&#x2F;online&#x2F;special-desk-Salzburg-Airport-Au...</a>

I think it would be easier to keep these two separate if there was some info about the etymology of the two.

I really need to visit Switzerland ...

As a kid I was more confused between Sweden and Sudan

Switzerland is* equally in conflict with Swasiland.<p>Update: *was