Global reflections

One thing I come to think of when I am out travelling like this is, not very original, how small our planet has become. I remember when I was little, my grandparents and other adults, parents also, used to sit and talk about people from other parts of Sweden as very foreign and of a different breed almost.

'Those Skane-people, they are a bit loud aren't they' or 'Norrlanningar are a bit silent and difficult, after all, don't you think'? And my grandparents more or less talked about people from other parts of Dalarna (my home-county) like they were a bit of a different species too.

Ok, admittedly, my relatives may not have been the most wordly travelled, even for their generation, but I still think it's such a difference today. When I am out travelling like this, I am instantly drawn to and connected to any other Swedes, or even English people (although there are HEAPS of them) and other nationalities are doing the same. Who knows, perhaps our world is becoming so globalised that our children will be totally mixed with all sorts of nationalities and regard their own as one big group.

Perhaps this is just because I live in London, one of the most cosmopolitan towns on this planet, maybe people in my hometown of Borlange still think that their world is confined to Dalarna?