This is down town Jönköping on a typical Friday afternoon. A middle sized city situated in the south of Sweden, famous for its many churches and the Husqvarna factory, though some would stop me right there, and strongly insist that the factory belongs to the town of Huskvarna.You see, there's this funny little thing about my home town - it's really two cities that have grown more and more close together. Nowadays, they're so close, that a stranger wouldn't be able to tell them apart, and the locals cannot agree where one stops and the other begins (this has actually been debated among my friends on several occasions). Somehow, it seems strangely important, and people who've lived in Jönköping very seldom move to Huskvarna, and vice versa.
Yes, there seems to be a strong sense of identity and loyalty tied to the respective cities, which has always been very weird to me, because really, why would it matter? Both sides of the town has their own character and I like them equally... ah, the charm of small city folk :)
/MrsHjort
Your town looks lovely. The town I live in used to be two towns and they became one, but people still ask where you live and I live in the part that no longer exists but they all know what I mean when I say so. My town is only 77 years old. We are too young and don't have any of those amazing cobblestone streets or beautiful churches. It is also small, and far away from any big city. Montreal is about 6 hours away by car. :-P
ReplyDeleteThank you. Jönköping is actually Sweden's 9th largest town, but it's really not that big - it has about 94 000 inhabitants and its quite spread out - so it has a small town feel to it. It was founded in 1284 and you can find a lot of history as you walk through town. Just a 10 minute walk from my house there's a street with preserved wooden houses from the 18th century :).
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