Thanks for the welcoming, all!
The piping life in Sweden, I'm happy to share my thoughts and I'll try to be precise.
First of all you don't see many pipe smokers.
There is of course the hipster phenomenon - younger-urban-middle-class vego-burger-web-designers who very much want to be lumberjacks and they discovered the world of pipes and tobaccos with great sudden enthusiasm.
It vitalized the pipe smoking community but it seems to be a fading trend.
The common 'tobacco store' here aren't tobacco stores as much as they are vendors for newspapers, lottery and postcards.
In our larger cities you can find a few dedicated tobacco stores with decent assortments, traditional brands like Rattray's, Dunhill, Peterson, Stanwell.
American brands like G.L. Pease and Cornell & Diehl are sold at maybe one or two places only, being introduced to the market quite recently.
Due to import fees and taxes you would have to pay 350 swedish crowns for a 57 g of jar Maltese Falcon, that's 39.5 USD.
Pipe smoking is niche or hobby for enthusiasts rather than part of everyday life.
Our swedish pipe club does a great job in maintaining interest and traditions.
We are close to Denmark which is a tremenduos country regarding pipe culture, so is Germany.
Have to mention some of our pipe makers.
Bo Nordh
Andreas Bennwik
Björn Bengtsson
Love and Sara Geiger
Lomma pipes
Albert Älfvåg
Vollmer & Nilsson
Sixten Ivarsson - actually he was a swede who immigrated to Denmark.
Smoking restrictions.
Restaurants and pubs became smokefree 2005, I don't have a big problem with this but it doesn't stop here.
Antismoking-campaigners want to prohibit smoking in outdoor cafe's, in apartments, on balcons, in parks.
Tobacco is the Devil and all they see is cancer-demon and devastation.
Hopefully my grammars will improve.
