I'm deciding on whether to go on an exchange programme in Sweden.
Hi there!
I'm a university student from Singapore, planning to go on an exchange programme in Europe next year for the autumn semester. I have two universities in mind: one in the north of Sweden, and one in Hungary. For various reasons that i shan't elaborate on, i much prefer the university in Sweden. However, there is one thing i need to know that may change my mind.
I intend to do a fair bit of travel during the semester, perhaps on weekends. I'm not sure yet exactly where i'll be going, but i'm considering many of the major cities in Central and Western Europe. My instinct tells me Sweden may not be the best country to go on exchange to, then. Presumably it's not as accessible to the rest of Europe as Hungary is. I would probably have to fly a lot as opposed to, say, taking the train. Are my intuitions correct? Or will i find Sweden every bit as convenient as Hungary?
Reply to this Don't get me wrong I love Sweden, great people...beautiful....really expensive and far from the rest of the continent compare to other countries.
I love Hungary...very cheap great people...budapest is amazing with the great thermal bath. You are so close to a lot from there too. Think about it you are on an exchange...you will get most of the time just one or two day to travel by week..in hungary in 2h of train you can get to a very different place.
You should really make a list of plus and minus.
You should also consider the fact that everybody speak almost perfect english in Sweden
And when are you going there. I am canadian and trust me winter gets bad up north, just thinking of going somewhere like Sweden in vacation during winter time....aouch
Reply to this I see. Yes, that's very sensible. You've been to Hungary yourself?
Reply to this yup...spend two week this fall! great place...but like I said you need to find out what you really do of your time in europe.
If you dont mind spending a lot sweden is good...
if you want to visit prague well hungary is better.
Reply to this if you're in the NORTH of sweden then it'll cost you through the roof just to get down to stockholm so be prepared to stay put!
Reply to this Hi Kevin, one factor to keep in mind is where in Sweden you will be based. If you are in Stockholm/Uppsala area you have an airport (with cheap flights to everywhere) in the neighbourhood. If you will be in Lund you are very close to the continent anyway and will be able to reach some destinations by ferry or train. Also Copenhagen airport has lot's of flights everywhere. Elsewhere in Sweden you might find it much more difficult and expensive to travel. Hungary is in the middle of Europe, although if you want to travel to Western Europe you still need to fly, it will be too far to go to Spain or France or England by train (unless you love long train rides). But Prague, Vienna, and Berlin will be within decent reach. Indeed, winters in Sweden are long and hard it may of course be exotic for a week or two but maybe depressive if you stay longer. But Sweden has among the best universities in the world, of course it also depends on what you will study and universities are internationally oriented. Not an easy choice!
Reply to this @greek gal: Thank you. That's actually quite enlightening. I hadn't thought to consider that Hungary isn't actually west enough to take a train everywhere. If it turns out i have to take a plane either way, then i might actually be inclined to go with Sweden, though i will have to consider winter conditions.
I was actually considering a few universities in Sweden. One of them is actually Uppsala universitet. The university i'm considering in Hungary is Eötvös Loránd in Budapest. When you say that flights are "cheap" from Uppsala, what do you actually mean? Do you have a rough figure, or is there a website i can go to that gives me a good idea?
Reply to this By the way, the other universities in Sweden i'm considering are Lund, which greek gal mentioned, and Luleå, which does seem pretty far north.
Reply to this for flights check www.skyscanner.net
it will give you an idea of the cost.
the cheaper flight fly out from malmo if I remember which is next to Copenhagen.
Reply to this Uppsala is localized 35 km from the biggest airport in Sweden, Arlanda. It is the same distance to Stockholm from Arlanda.
One cheap airline is Norwegian (you can check out their website, the prices differ a lot depending on when you want to fly). Ryan air which is the cheapest of them all doesn't fly from Arlanda but from local airports which are much more difficult to get to.
Lulea is very far north, unless you like snow and cold I wouldn't advice to go there. Uppsala is a very nice university town, and you can get to Stockholm easily (less than one hour by train). Lund is also a smaller town, dominated by the university but very close to Malmo and Copenhagen (the capital of Denmark) so that is a good choice for you too.
Best of luck
Reply to this
Sweden is a Fantastic place . Both Goteburg & Stockholm are Class !! Being Irish , Sweden isn't sooo exspensive for me .
Accessibility: The one and only , ryanair.com (Cheap Airline) services 3 major cities in Sweden . Its quite cheap to go anywhere in Europe with them.
Skol
Reply to this Ah, i see. I'll take all of this into consideration and making my decision. Thanks everyone!
Reply to this Hey hey,
Yeah Sweden can be expensive and bad news is that all food is going to be going up 30% this year! It is stupid I know.. I am from Aus but my finacee is from sweden so we spend quite a lot of time there..
It is easy to get to and from sweden.. If on exchange I guess you'll be in either Stockholm or Malmo in the south which is served by airports very well.. It is a nice country but the winters can be quite long and cold..
Reply to this I wonder where you got the figure that food in Sweden will go up 30%? I read Swedish newspapers regularly and I haven't seen this mentioned - it would be a horrendous raise anyway, and hardly be tenable unless wages go up too. I know that some prices on wheat for example has increased considerably, but that is of course not only a problem for Sweden but for all countries, a lot of the food in Sweden is imported anyway so it follows the international price levels.
I am glad you like Sweden!
Reply to this Hi there. This deviates somewhat from the topic, but how does the cost of living in compare to that in Germany. Particularly, Stuttgart?
Reply to this Hi Kevin,
I don't really have the knowledge for this, but overall I would say Sweden and Germany has about the same cost level. But that is from the view of a traveler (hotel, restaurants, transport). Your highest cost will be housing and I have no idea. In Sweden students usually live in the designated student housing areas (I think the same applies for Germany), so you should check out what the current rent is for the various options. Sorry not being able to be more helpful
Reply to this Oh not at all. You've been so much help already =D
I guess i'm going to have to do more research on cost of living and travel costs. I'm thinking, the less i spend on living expenses, the more i can spend on travel. Then again, would it be possible that Budapest is far away enough that i may actually pay substantially more for transport, and thus may as well go somewhere more expensive but nearer, like Lund or Stuttgart?
Reply to this Germany is probably the cheapest place to travel to in western europe and Sweden is the worse after Norway
Food is really cheap in Germany and hostel too. In Sweden there is no hostel under 25 euro a night andfood is really expensive.
Stilllove Scandinavia, but it ain't a budget heaven!
Reply to this 'I wonder where you got the figure that food in Sweden will go up 30%?'
I got this information from friends I visited over Christmas and it seemed a little to high for me also..
I will have to agree with Synnott in that Germany is the cheapest to travel in West Europe so far less than Sweden.
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