For most Hoosiers, ranch dressing, yellow school buses and small-town diners are ordinary parts of daily life.
For 24-year-old Stockholm native Elsa Thora, they were everything she imagined America would be.
Thora arrived in Indiana on June 8 for her first trip to the United States before following the 2026 Men’s World Cup across the country. Although Indiana isn’t hosting a match, the Hoosier State became the Swedish soccer fan’s introduction to America, inspiring a social media travel diary that has amassed millions of views.
“I feel like I’m in a movie,” Thora wrote on Twitter.
One of her first discoveries came at The Lemon Drop in Anderson, where she tried ranch dressing for the first time and declared it was “like crack.” She also checked Twinkies off her bucket list after years of wanting to try the snack because of the 2009 film “Zombieland.”
The Swede screamed with excitement after spotting her first yellow school bus, calling it “iconic.”
Her Indiana itinerary included stops at Ivanhoes, Fairmount, the hometown of actor James Dean, and Fort Wayne’s Famous Coney Island, where she said the hot dog set the standard by which she’d judge all future ones.
Thora said that finally visiting the United States felt “surreal.”
“I think a lot of Swedish people kind of think of the U.S. as, you know, the land of the free and this big cool country,” she told NBC News. “And it does feel like that being here. It just feels a bit surreal.”
Thora is one of several international soccer fans documenting their travels across North America as they attend the World Cup, offering a lighthearted look at everyday American life through the eyes of first-time visitors.
A German fan who goes by Freddy has also gone viral on Twitter for sharing his own cross-country adventure, with posts celebrating everything from Buc-ee’s to Ella Langely’s music.
Thora has since continued west to San Francisco and plans to attend Sweden’s match against Japan in Texas on June 25 before heading to the New York City area to watch England vs. Panama on June 27, according to the New York Post.
But it was Indiana that made the first impression.
“Indiana is exactly how I dreamed America would be,” she wrote. “Thank you Indiana!”
Jessica Garcete is an IndyStar sports reporter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Swedish Men’s World Cup fan came to Indiana to experience America, and loved it