Everyone who has ever lived abroad gets homesick every now and then.

Swedes, I give you a postcard from a Stockholm-centric, homesick expat. Non-Swedes, here’s a highly biased tourist guide.

The best thing about Sweden? My favourite Swedes, for sure. I miss family and friends a lot.

Other than that, hearing Swedish jazz live. Hearing Sakta vi gå genom stan and Flykten från vardagen live. Or if Glenn Miller or Fasching is too pricey, you could just drop by KMH and enjoy up-and-coming jazz, all for free.

Then there’s all the traditional Swedish music. It’s easier appreciating the music of Olle Adolfsson, Evert Taube and Cornelis Vreeswijk when you’re in Sweden. I tried listening to some Swedish classics while abroad, but pieces like Siv och Gunne just seemed kitsch.

There are also plenty of gems in student song books. Student inside jokes are the best kinds of jokes. Many pieces aren’t just witty, but also quite beautiful. Take O Gamla Klang och Jubeltid, for example.

In fact, only now have I come to appreciate Swedish student life. Valborg abroad was depressing. No Orphei Drängar, no champagne breakfast, no mösspåtagning. And to the best of my knowledge, you can’t attend gasques outside of the Nordic countries.

I’ve also become a big fan of Stockholm architecture. I find many areas of Vasastan, Östermalm and Södermalm very pretty. For example, consider the areas around Engelbrektskyrkan and Mosebacke torg. While I know little about architecture, I think there aren’t as many odd clashes between different architectural styles as in, say, Zürich or Berlin.

And ah, Scandinavian design! To be fair, Danish design is unparalleled. But Sweden also has a long tradition of good design. This means that your average interior design store has some really good stuff. In particular, you can get good design cheaply.

Maybe Scandinavian design is inspired by the water. In Stockholm, there’s water everywhere. Most cities are built around rivers, so rivers don’t really count. Stockholm is built on a little archipelago. It creates an entirely different city space.

For the best view of the water, head to Monteliusvägen and Ivar Los park. There’s nothing quite like having picknick with friends in Ivar Los park on a summer evening, before cycling home on near-empty streets (July).

Speaking of which, I miss sailing in the Stockholm archipelago. As a teen, I found it boring: stuck with parents for four weeks with no internet on a few square metres. But now I see the charm in it. Even the small, unknown islands might as well have been taken from a Zorn or Strindberg painting.

Finally, Swedish. Apart from friends and family, the aspect of Swedish life I miss the most is the language. I miss speaking Swedish.

There are so many lovely Swedish words that have no English analogue, besides the much-cited example of “lagom”. Consider “killgissa”. This literally means “guy-guessing”. Someone is guy-guessing when they sound knowledgeable but are really just bullshitting. Another gem: “käpphäst”, meaning “hobby horse”. In a figurative sense, a hobby horse is an idea you keep on bringing up in social situations. Another useful expression: “Nu är det dags att sätta punkt.”