This morning we rode through Kingsburg south of Fresno. It had sign calling it self a "Swedish Town" which intrigued us enough to turn of highway 99 for a brief expedition into all things Swedish in California... and it turned out to be as real as Anna Anka. The first place we got to was a Swedish Creamery, an icecream bar. We got to speak to the owner who one of the employees said was a Swede. It turned out he was an elderly American gentleman of mixed English/Irish heritage. He told us that the Swedishness of the town was something that they had set up 15 years ago and then run out of money. He also tried to have us eat breakfast at his "German" place over the street but unfortunately we had already eaten.
We drove into the city centre and saw several Swedish flags and almost as many Dala-hästar, the famous Valley-horses from Dalarna in middle Sweden. The Kurbits-paint was not really as it should, but we could see what they tried to do. They had also rebuilt a water tank to look like an old coffee-pan. They also had the landscape arms painted on walls all over town but at places the language barrier just could not be negotiated as in the example of Bohuslän that had been renamed to "BOIIUSLAN". The word Välkommen was also used all over, sometimes with an A instead of an Ä. We did not find anyone Swedish to talk to and at the restaurant "Dalahästen" all the employees was naturally Latin. They were serving and preparing food so what did you expect?
On our way south we discussed the possibility of opening a "American City" in Sweden, try to get some Americans to live there and then when it does not work out just fill it up with Iranians. Might be something for the future.
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