It’s been way too long since I last posted about  Ridiculous Street Signs.

For those of you unsure of what I am talking about, here are a few details.

Have you ever seen a funny, strange or bizarre sign while wandering around, whether it be at home or while traveling? For me I tend to come across these kind of signs while visiting a new place. Many of the times it turns out that things just might be lost in translation. Either way, I like to refer to these sort of signs as Ridiculous Street Signs.

So why haven’t I posted on the topic in over a year? Well, it’s quite simple- I haven’t come across any funny or odd signs worthy of posting about while on recent trips. I also haven’t received any photos from you to share! (Yes, I do accept reader-contributed signs. More on that later.)

Over the weekend I was happy to receive a message from my friend and fellow BoardingArea blogger Rene over at Delta Points. While in Gothenburg Sweden, he came across a strange sign that he felt would be good to share.

Here are some details about a sign we’ll call Slang.

Rene: When I saw this sign I just had to send it to my friend Michael. In fact I always now look at street signs and signs in general more to see if I can find a “silly” one to send.

MW: Well thanks Rene!

I decided to find out some more about this sign so I sent Rene some questions.

1. When did you spot the sign? We were walking around Gothenburg on Nordhemsgatan and found this rather LONG uphill walk.
2. Where in Gothenburg is it located? Gotta say it is really neat with Google streets,  you and your readers can see exactly where I saw the sign and the street. The road is interesting as you can see from the Goggle street view it goes all the way out to the harbor.
3. What was your reaction / thoughts when you saw it? Like all “silly” signs this one made Lisa and I giggle. First off the word on the sign is “slang” and means hose. But notice on the sign the “hose” is a triangle. Really? Never seen one of those before. Have you? Next, the really funny part, there was no hose – just the sign and the cone in the middle of the sidewalk! 🙂
4. Do funny signs usually catch your eye? They do after reading your blog! I mean we all look at signs when we are traveling. Some of them are really fun because the wording can mean different things in the local language or even in your own!
5. Is there anything else of importance that you’d like to share? Well maybe not really important but in addition to all the other details so far the word “slang” in Swedish is much like the word slang in English- (from google): “a type of language consisting of words and phrases that are regarded as very informal, are more common in speech than writing, and are typically restricted to a particular context or group of people”. So, I thought, what could be the context for putting this warning sign here on the sidewalk with nothing else around it. Is someone missing their cone, having an “unprotected” hose somewhere is Sweden? And where do I go to buy a triangle hose I want to know. So many silly questions with just no good answers. Ah the things we see when looking for “silly sighs”!

I want to thank Rene once again for sending us this sign that he spotted in Gothenburg Sweden! I’d definitely say, ridiculous street signs sure do keep us thinking and asking questions!

Check out more of my Ridiculous Street Signs HERE.

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