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@opencage@en.osm.townThis week in #geoweirdness we head back to northern Europe to look at the geographic oddities of Sweden 
1/n
2/ Sweden is part of Scandinavia a geographic/cultural grouping that also includes Norway 
and Denmark 
. But some people also use the term to include Finland 
(or at least the Finnish territory of the Åland Islands 
) Iceland 
, and the Faroe Islands 
. This larger grouping is generally referred to as the "Nordics" which also includes Greenland 
. It's complicated
3/ Sweden is a member of the European Union (EU) 
but doesn't use the Euro 
. Nevertheless some border municipalities have in-officially declared the Euro to be valid.
A recent poll for the first time showed a majority of the country in favor of adopting the Euro.
4/ A very new Swedish geopolitical development is that the nation will soon be joining NATO - just as neighboring Finland recently did, thus ending a long tradition of military neutrality
5/ Sweden wasn't always neutral though - the Swedish Empire was a major force in the 30 Years War (1618-1648) and had territories all around northern Europe.
6/ One odd historical footnote of Sweden's territorial expansion is that the German 
coastal city of Wismar was legally part of Sweden until 1903 (though leased to Mecklenburg-Schwerin).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wismar#Under_Swedish_rule
For German speakers here's an interesting podcast about the situation:
https://www.deutschlandfunknova.de/beitrag/schwedenherrschaft-in-wismar-1803-der-pfandvertrag-von-malmoe
7/ For a brief period Sweden also had a colony in the New World in what is today the US 
states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. In 1655 it was captured by the Dutch 
, and then ten years later taken over by the British 
along with the rest of New Netherlands
8/ You may be surprised to learn that Sweden later had a colony in the Caribbean.
In 1784 France 
ceded the tiny island of Saint Barthélemy 
to Sweden in exchange for trading rights. One legacy of that time is that the main port to this day is named Gustavia after the Swedish king 
at the time
In 1878 the island was sold back to France (after first trying to sell it to the US and Italy 
)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_colony_of_Saint_Barth%C3%A9lemy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavia,_Saint_Barth%C3%A9lemy
9/ A famous odd Swedish border arrangement is with Finland on the uninhabited island of Märket in the Baltic.
The border, which was supposed to run through the middle of the island, was redrawn after it was realized the Finnish lighthouse was built on the wrong side of the island.
10/ Sweden and Denmark now share a land connection after completion of the impressive Øresund Bridge in 2000, connecting Copenhagen and Malmö
11/ Sweden's northernmost point is a tiny island tripoint where the country borders Norway and Finland
12/ Sweden has five digit postcodes 
, but the formatting is different than most countries: a space is inserted between the 3rd and 4th digit.
13/ Thanks for reading (and sharing). What did we miss?
If you enjoyed our look at Swedish #geoweirdness you will probably also want to check out our threads about fellow Scandos
Denmark:
https://en.osm.town/@opencage/110165216804473987
and Norway:
https://en.osm.town/@opencage/109692763601977891
We have more threads about specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc on our blog. Some still on twitter, but over time we are moving them to mastodon. Enjoy: https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads
There should be a link with France, too. Through Sweden's Royal family
@opencage it totally works without it, and half of the mail I receive doesn't actually have that space in the postcode
@opencage the place is called "Treriksröset" in Swedish, which literally translates to "the three kingdoms pile"
@opencage or nations, perhaps, as Finland isn't a kingdom...
@Eetschrijver @opencage much better, thanks!
@opencage
Clearly, there ought to be a state called New Sweden made up of the greater Philly metro area, South New Jersey, and the Delmarva peninsula.
@opencage I love your #geoweirdness threads. Staying in #Scandinavia have you done #Finland yet? I remain confused by the changes in its territory.
@geomannie Thanks for the feedback and glad you like the threads.
Haven't done Finland yet, but we will get there. You can find the full list of past threads here: https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads.
Enjoy and please share with others who may enjoy.