Sweden is a mysterious country.
Tell me, really- what do you know about Sweden?

Chances are, not much.
Perhaps the Nobel Prize springs to mind.
And also possibly those tasty fish-shaped candies they make

True fact: In Sweden, you can have your chewy fish-shaped candy "Salmiak"-flavored.
"Salmiak" means "salted herring".
I am not making this up.

Luckily, you can count on my informative, fact-filled blog to tell you everything you need to know about this mysterious, salted-herring oriented nation.

So, here's what you need to know about Sweden:
Sweden is very cold. It is located mainly at the North Pole. They have lots of reindeer there.
And trolls.
They have lots of trolls*.

The towns of Sweden have humorous names like "Jokkmokk" and "Nykoping". This is to cheer up the Swedish people who sometimes get depressed because winter lasts nearly 11 months of the year there.

The only other really important thing to know about the wonderful, troll-filled Arctic nation of Sweden is that Valentine is there RIGHT NOW!

She packed her bag on Friday night:

Then she and her boyfriend caught the plane this morning, quite early. They'll be staying with Mat's grandparents in the mildly funny-sounding city of Uppsala. And they will spend 10 days visiting the various salted-herring candy factories and caring for his grandparents' massive reindeer herd**

Now you know all about Sweden and Tya's trip there.

You're welcome!
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*I know this is true because I read the following item in the India Times: "Author Jan Brett trolls Scandinavia for atmosphere. So she naturally headed to Sweden - home of all kinds of trolls - to research her new picture book".
See? I do serious research!

**This is possibly not entirely accurate.