• neidu2@feddit.nlEnglish
    331·
    5 months ago

    Most favorite: Norway
    Least favorite: Sweden
    Completely objective and unbiased reason: I’m Norwegian

    As a more serious answer, my parents and I often went on summer holiday in southern Denmark and I loved it, so I guess that’s my final answer.

  • Suru@mander.xyzEnglish
    191·
    5 months ago

    I would probably pick Denmark as a favourite based solely on their legal right to hit ice-crossing Swedes with sticks. And Swedes suck balls (source: am Finnish).

    However, to be somewhat pedantic, Scandinavia either refers to Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, or just Norway and Sweden (the actual Scandinavian peninsula). Finland, Iceland, and the Baltic countries are not part of Scandinavia.

      • Suru@mander.xyzEnglish
        6·
        5 months ago

        By definition, if Finland is included, we’re talking about Fennoscandia and, if you add in Iceland, it’s the Nordic countries.

        Denmark is usually included in Scandinavia, but technically it isn’t part of the Scandinavian peninsula.

        However, I know that outside Europe the distinctions aren’t all that important.

  • Samsy@lemmy.mlEnglish
    111·
    5 months ago

    Most favourite: all of them

    Least favourite: Denmark

    I think all of them has some individual progressive Systems which other countries can learn from, for example: education.

    Denmark at the end because I heard their strong community has some trouble with people outside of their community. But I wouldn’t call it fascism, it’s more like a nationalism.

    • ciferecaNinjo@fedia.io
      21·
      5 months ago

      I’ve only been to Denmark but certainly concur with voting Denmark last.

      • society is designed to render people without a CPR № dysfuctional
        • could not check out a library book without CPR №
        • could not make a photo copy without CPR №
        • could not open a bank acct without CPR № (bank falsely advertised to expats the possibility to process paperwork before even arriving)
        • could not get student rate on trains until the CPR № was granted. Took a month to get the number, the clock of which only started ticking after finding a seemingly legitimate place to live. Not counting time sleeping in a classroom. No way to get the train fare difference back retroactively.
      • society is designed to render people without a bank account dysfuctional
        • many restaraunts refuse service to cash payers, including university campus snack shops
        • university events required electronic payments (someone has to use their personal bank acct to let cash payers participate)
        • someone could not simply do laundry
      • university e-mail outsourced to Microsoft, forcing everyone on campus to share their school-related email with a US surveillance capitalist
      • university itself used Facebook to announce events, thus excluding those who do not use FB
      • university forced 2FA on some academic resources, which then required SMS (thus denying students without a mobile phone or the will to share their number access to school resources)
      • university outsourced e-book service to a Cloudflare service (Proquest), who then blocks access to some demographics of people
      • banks themselves are cashless. If your ATM card fails because of some persnickety paperwork issue, you have no money access unless you visit a branch during opening hours, at which point a banker actually has to walk down the street to an ATM with you, carrying a special internal ATM card. So getting your own money out of your bank account is comparable to asking dad for money.
      • banks app can receive inbound international money, but cannot send outbound international transfers (only domestic)
      • housing crisis: the waiting list for an apartment is years; had to sleep illegally in a classroom and dodge night guards, or deal with lots of dodgy landlords exploiting the crisis. Had a landlord who was illegally subletting, who demanded cash payment (fine) but then refused to give a receipt.
      • severe shortage of on-campus dorms. Just enough to house foreign exchange students. All “dorms” for locals are scattered in private apartments. Getting one close to campus is a competition.
      • was denied a CPR № because the dwelling had more people than officially allowed on paper, despite some of the officially known people not actually living there.
      • expected this country with the world’s highest degree of income equality to be quite liberal, but the people & culture were ironically conservative. No concept of privacy.
      • cycling actually sucks. You might expect it to be the best place in the world for cycling, but the cycle paths are so popular they are like driving on a highway. Overcrowded. If you cruise along slowly a bicycle traffic jam becomes possible. Car driving stresses are there on the high traffic cycling lanes.

      That’s just off the top of my head. The nannying is endless.

      Can anyone confirm or deny whether many of these issues are replicated among Denmark’s neighbors?

      • EvilCartyen@feddit.dkEnglish
        4·
        5 months ago

        While that sounds frustrating, I also could not get a bank account in the UK when I studied there, and my wife had to go to maybe 10 different banks in France to find one which would open an account for a foreigner when she lived there for a while.

        We spent close to a year preparing to live in the UK as students for 8 months, emailing universities and city councils and so on. Moving to a new country is full of that sort of thing in general.

      • jwt@programming.devEnglish
        2·
        5 months ago

        Damn, for a second there I thought Danes were required to know cardiopulmonary resuscitation to get access to basic amenities.

  • intro@programming.devEnglish
    10·
    5 months ago

    Norway! The mother of Black Metal. She didn’t give birth to it, but she definitely raised it!

  • recklessengagement@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    5 months ago

    Iceland. Its pretty, it has an interesting history, the culture is very egaltarian, and the people are quite friendly. And I love the cold.

    Plus they make INSANELY good gin.

  • 😈MedicPig🐷BabySaver😈@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    5 months ago

    I’m from the U.S.

    I’ve finally connected with my extended family in Norway. I’ve been pushing hard to find them since 2016 during my first visit.

    I’m going back in October to attend a family gathering.

    I’ve met a beer buddy and his friends from Oslo. I made friends with a Paramedic up in Hammerfest. I’m friendly with the owner/brewer of Graff brewery in Tromsø.

    Can’t wait for my next visit.

  • Random_Character_A@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    5 months ago

    On a global level all Scandinavian countries are pretty much the same with similar people. If we talk about Nordic countries, like the picture suggests, Finland is the one that differs the most. But which is the best really depends what you like.

  • Wild Bill@midwest.socialEnglish
    6·
    5 months ago

    *Nordic country.

    Am Swedish. Norway and Denmark are superior. Finland is scary, cold, snowy, talking-in-tongues type of language. Iceland is good, too. Sweden is dead last.

  • Bronzie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    82·
    5 months ago

    1: Norway

    Source: Am Norwegian

    Dead last: Sweden

    I’d like to kick them out of Scandinavia and welcome the Finns instead. They can stay Nordic though. Pretty sure Denmark would support it.

    Seriously though, I think we’re all great. We’re just the best…

  • Meldrik@lemmy.wtfEnglish
    5·
    5 months ago

    If I can’t pick my own country, I would choose Norway as my favourite. One of the reasons being that they are not Swedes.

    Scandinavia is Denmark, Norway and Sweden. No offence to the rest of the Nordic countries, but historically that is what make the most sense.