6th June: National Day of Sweden

Today is Sweden's National Day. So here are 10 things you might not know about Sweden:

1. Sweden is home to the largest shopping mall in Europe (the Nordstan in Gothenburg), the world's largest hemispherical building (The Stockholm Globe Arena, which houses the world's largest scale model of the Solar System) and the world's largest royal palace still used as a royal palace (The Royal Palace of Stockholm).
2. Stockholm, the capital, has been called the “Venice of the North” because it is built around water and has 12 islands and 42 bridges.
3. In August, on the third Thursday, Swedish people traditionally hold Crayfish parties. This dates back at least 100 years when Swedish authorities permitted crayfish fishing in only two months of the year, starting in August. Other traditional foods include the smörgåsbord and Swedish meatball. On a more international note, Sweden has the highest number of McDonalds restaurants per capita in Europe, and the second highest in the world.
4. Sweden has the highest number of patents granted per capita of any European country, with 271 patents per million people. Swedish inventions include the pacemaker, ultrasound, safety match, astronomical lens, marine propeller, refrigerator, tetra pak packaging and computer mouse. Sweden also gave us the games Minecraft and Candy Crush, and the Metro free newspapers for commuters began in Stockholm in 1995. By 2009, there were 56 daily editions in 19 countries in 15 languages across Europe, North and South America and Asia.
5. The world’s first ice hotel was built in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, in the 1980s by architect Yngve Bergqvist.
6. Wooden buildings in Sweden are painted deep red. The paint is Falu Rodfarg, and it contains a natural copper preservative, which protects the buildings from the severe climate.
7. A list of facts about Sweden wouldn't be complete without a mention for ABBA, the fourth best selling music act ever (after Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Michael Jackson). Other bands from Sweden include Roxette, Ace of Base, Europe and The Cardigans. More famous Swedes: Alfred Nobel, who invented dynamite and instituted the Nobel Prizes; film-maker Ingmar Bergman; actors Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman; Astrid Lindgren, who wrote the Pippi Longstocking books; Stieg Larsson, author of the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (second best-selling author in 2008 and an extra bit of trivia is that he based Lisbeth Salander on Pippi Longstocking); tennis players Björn Borg and Stefan Edberg; Carl Linnaeus, who devised the two name classification of plants and animals, and came up with the name homo sapiens; and Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld, the second secretary general of the U.N.
8. IKEA is another famous Swedish name. It was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943, and the name is thought to derive from his initials and the farm and village where he grew up. It is perhaps not surprising that the northernmost IKEA store in the world is in Sweden. It opened in 2006. Other well known Swedish brands include Ericsson, the world's largest manufacturer of mobile telecommunications networks, car makers Volvo and Saab, Scania trucks and Electrolux.
9. All the Tsars of Russia were descended from Swedish Vikings.
10. Sweden has the most personal computers per person of any nation in Europe (500 P.C.'s per 1,000 people) and the highest number of choirs per capita in the world.