This post will be short on words and heavy on pictures.
Stockholm has pretty much everything an American traveler could want. It’s staggeringly beautiful, both in its natural setting and its layout and architecture. It’s got a really superior public transportation system, including subway, buses, trams and boats. It’s very tourist-friendly. There are a million things to do, both indoors and out. It’s populated by very attractive, friendly people who all speak beautiful English.
I’ve wanted to see the city for so many years, it’s surprising that it lived up to my expectations. But it did.
This waterfront street is Stockholm’s most expensive address.Through the porthole into the past.
But How Are The Mens?
Swedish men tend to be cuddly and/or buff Vikings with very well groomed strawberry blond beards. Not short, but not exceptionally tall.
Yes, this is a real thing.
Conclusion
I’d go back there in a minute. Particularly for a reason I’ll tell about in a later post.
Here’s some more pictures of lovely Stockholm and its archipelago:
I have no idea who this important-looking person is. I was too zonked that day to figure it out.
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On Galma Stan, the small island that contains the Old Town, there’s a museum dedicated to Alfred Nobel and his prizes. It didn’t sound particularly sexy, but hey, I had the Stockholm City Card, didn’t I? So I popped in, and boy was I glad I did. It turned out to be a very interesting place.
SHOULD HAVE WON
I took a tour with a tiny and slightly smarmy Swede who was very articulate and informative. I learned all sort of interesting things about Mr. Nobel, including:
He never married or had any children.
He was born in Sweden, but lived most of his life in other countries (including twenty years in Russia).
95% of his fortune was left to create the foundation for his prizes. His extended family members were not amused.
The awards, given in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, and Peace, were to be given to people whose work in those fields in the past year had provided the greatest benefit to the world.
Each prize is given by a different organization. Four of these are in Sweden, and as everyone knows, the Peace Prize is given in Norway and chosen by a Norwegian organization. Why is this? I had always wondered, and I thought, finally I’ll find out why!
Are you ready for the answer? It’s kind of awesome:
TOTALLY SHOULD HAVE WON
We have no idea. Seriously. Nobel offered not a syllable of explanation in the will. He simply ordered that the Peace Prize be given by Norway.
Of course, there are many theories, perhaps the most important being that Norway was more prominent in the international peace movement at that time than Sweden was. But still: We don’t know. I like that little bit of mystery.
By the way, Nobel did not provide for the Economics Prize. It was created later by the central bank of Sweden, given out “in memory” of Nobel, and the prize money comes from Swedish taxes, rather than the Nobel endowment.
When the tour was over, I approached our Pocket Viking tour guide with my particular pet peeve: The Literary Prize. That prize is given by the Swedish Academy, which happens to meet in quarters on the second floor of the very building the museum was in.
You could make a very good argument that he deserved to win.
“SO, ” I asked, “What do the folks upstairs have against writers who have actually moved a few books? I’ll waive the requirement that it be given to a work created in the year before prize; science and even literature don’t really work that way. BUT. Didn’t Nobel’s will specifically state that it was to be given to the person whose work had benefited the world the most? Wouldn’t that by definition mean the winner would be a popular writer? Why, instead, does the Academy use the prize as an affirmative action program for obscure writers from exotic places who haven’t sold twenty books, but whose politics the Academy likes and whose work they’d like to promote?”
P.V. Tour Guide was sympathetic to my point. I continued, “Vonnegut and Bradbury clearly did more good in the world with their work than the people the Academy hands out the prize to. It’s clearly in violation of Nobel’s will.”
Turns out that, regarding Alfred Nobel’s will, I’m a Strict Constructionist.
NOTE: The image at the top of this post is of a very sweet crowd that had gathered to greet me as I left the Nobel Museet, which is the background. After a taxing three hours signing autographs, handing out advice, and kissing babies and boyfriends, I had to beg off. One does need one’s rest and a modicum of privacy.
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On my first day in Stockholm, I purchased something called the Stockholm City Card. It’s a sort of open pass to public transportation and many museums and other attractions. Seemed like a no-brainer to me.
Now that my time in Stockholm is done, I have to say I have mixed feelings about the purchase.
The three-day version the card cost about $108.00 USD. With that price tag, I really felt compelled to use it like crazy! Every time I’d pull it out to use on another subway ride, or tram ride, or museum ticket, I’d recalculated in my head: “Okay, now I’ve used it six times. That means that I’ve paid $18 for each thing I’ve done. Is it worth it yet? Is it worth it yet?
I ended up going into more museums than I really should have, and spending less time just roaming around outside, which I love to do. And besides, one of the museums I was most interested in – The New ABBA Museum (judge me if you must) – wasn’t included in the card. Researching my next stop, Copenhagen, I learned that it has a City Card, too, but it also has a public transportation card as well, that’s much cheaper. Like $23 for a 48 hour pass. That’s what I’m going to do. Spend much less and simply enjoy roaming around the city. If there’s a museum I really want to see, I’ll pay for it. So there.
Update: Turns out I didn’t even need the transport pass in Copenhagen: I planned my activities so well I paid less than eleven dollars total for all of my running around.
Side note: Copenhagen is noticeably less expensive than Stockholm.
PROOF
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Here’s one of the things I most admire about Sweden: the constitutional right of allemansrätten , or “freedom to roam.” The concept is that nature belongs to everyone. In Sweden, you can basically pick wildflowers, berries, or mushrooms anywhere, except in a private garden or right up by someone’s house. You can also ski, hike, and ride bicycles practically anywhere, and fish or use an unpowered boat in virtually any body of water.
Can you imagine this being the case in the United States? Can you imagine Barbara Streisand having a meltdown because hippies were picking wild sage on her Malibu compound? Or a Texas rancher sitting by idly while a group of hikers traipsed across his land, saying hello to his cattle?
Map Boy goes where he wants.
I imagine this entire idea would sound terribly commie/socialist to many Americans. Perhaps that’s why I like it so.
And as long as we’re talking about how Sweden is different…
Check out this photo:
This beggar was energetically working all of Old Town the whole time I was there. Here he’s chatting with some children. Their parents are about thirty yards away. Now I ask you to imagine something.
Imagine this happening in the US.
Just think about it for a moment.
If a street beggar began engaging with a group of children in Dallas, or Boise, or Atlanta, the parents would absolutely lose their shit. There’d be screaming. There’d be threats. Cops and lawyers would be called. The children would be checked over for horrible poor person diseases and taken in for counseling. You know it’s true.
Why the difference? In America we fetishize fear. Fear and stupidity and ignorance go together like peanut butter, jelly and bacon. Swedes don’t think the loaf of bread is possessed by demons or that the beggar is going to eat their children.
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So my very favorite object in Stockholm is this astounding wooden sculpture of St. George and the Dragon. It’s in the 13th-Century Storkyrkan, or Stockholm Cathedral, in Gamla Stan (The Old City). There aren’t that many 15th century wooden statues still around these days; they don’t survive fire that well. This one survives because of its political, rather than its religious meaning.
This is one kick-ass 525 year old wooden St. George and the Dragon statue.
Yeah, at first glance it looks like the same old St. George we all know and love. You know, the Roman soldier of Greek origin who was born in Turkey or Syria, and once held a town in Libya hostage by threatening to unleash a dragon on them if they didn’t all convert to Christianity. That guy. But there’s a lot more to this fascinating piece than the tired old myth of St. George.
The statue was made by the German artist Bernt Notke and was commissioned to commemorate Sweden winning its independence from Denmark. Denmark had ruled Sweden for over seventy years until Sten Sture, the elected Swedish regent, defeated the hated Danish King Christian I at the Battle of Brunkeberg in 1471.
So this isn’t merely St. George and the Dragon. The heroic St. George (looking a bit like Helen Reddy, actually), is conquering the Dragon (which is really Danish King Christian I) while the young lady at the left (yeah, that’d be Sweden) looks on approvingly. Even cooler, the Pope sent a cache of saintly relics, including items of St. George himself, to be contained in the statue.
When Sweden went all Protestant just a few decades after this statue was finished, many Catholic relics and works of art were destroyed. The reason that this particular statue survived is mainly because of its great political significance.
But all THAT isn’t really what’s super cool about this statue. Here’s what is: Look closely at the dragon. Look at the spikes and armor? Look closely. Yup, they are made of MOOSE ANTLERS. Yes, you read that right. Actual moose antlers. They’re all over the dragon (see close-up).
I just think that’s so super cool on a double level. First, it’s amazing artistically. Second, it’s just so damn Swedeny, don’t you think?
The statue is so popular a bronze recreation of it was put up a few blocks away in the early 1900s.
The Copy
PS There is a story, which I am attempting to authenticate, that in some point in the misty past there was a period of rather heated anti-Catholic sentiment in Sweden. A young clerk or cleric or something at the Cathedral feared that the relics in the statue would be seized and destroyed, so he took it on himself to remove them and filed them in an anonymous spot on a shelf somewhere until the climate was safer. He then replaced the relics. Centuries later, another young man randomly found the relics. According to the story, this young man was August Strindberg.
Two more shots from Galma Stan, or Old Town:
Statistics show that young people in Sweden start having sex very early. But I learned yesterday that murderers get a jump on things, too. This little pixie of a killer is preparing to bury her latest victim:
CAKE or DEATH? Oh, I guess he chose death.
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After spending most of the night working on technical issues, I went back to bed at 6 am just for a nap, and slept until almost 10! While I was annoyed at missing my free breakfast at the hotel, I figured I needed the rest.
Happily, my gastric drama has not returned, and apart from a minor amount of lingering jetlag wooziness, I felt just terrific yesterday as I made my initial explorations of Stockholm.
Real Men Push Strollers
And in Stockholm, they seem to do it WAY more than women. I see three or four men alone with children for every woman I see with the little darlings. I wonder why this is?
Dude, Your Time at the Gym Has Been Well Spent
I don’t know how to say that in Swedish, but this is what I wanted to say to several buff Vikings that I saw today. Particularly the one on the Tunnelbana. (No, that’s not Eric’s little brother, it’s what they call the subway here.) He was wearing a long sleeve pullover shirt and you could still see the veins on his bulging arms. You know, through the shirt. Which would have made an impression on me if I wasn’t only and exclusively interested on what’s on the inside of a person. Everyone knows this about me.
Courage?
I don’t usually think of myself as a courageous person. True, I did see “Shoah” at an actual movie theater, by choice, and actually sat through the first four hours of it. But when it comes to real courage, I don’t think so. I’d be the worst soldier ever. I’d cry. I’d desert. On the first day.
However, I would posit that it does take a certain brand of something like courage to go to a foreign country, alone, where you don’t speak the language, and navigate the cities, hop on and off subways without getting lost, and just generally coping in an alien landscape without freaking out. And whatever that oddball kind of courage is, I definitely have it. It’s scary, but it’s a fun kind of scary.
♫ And people ride in a hål in the jord ♫
I’ve been doing it since my twenties, so I guess I’m used to it and have a certain confidence. This is my ninth trip abroad since 1987. I wonder if some people would find it so daunting they wouldn’t go. You know, like me facing the prospect of going to the movies at the Americana in Glendale.
HEY I’m on a boat!
Stockholm is a magnificent city built on hundreds of islands. There are fourteen major ones. It’s really like nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s like Venice writ large. You’re never more than a dwarf’s toss from the water here.
I took two delightful boat rides today! The first was to a tiny island where I had a lovely peaceful ramble for an hour.
Råy wik Birchentrøllen
The second was a circumnavigation of Kungsholmen (King’s Island), the island my hotel is on. Boat tours are peaceful and relaxing. I love them.
Town Hall just LOVES my wide angle lens.
Just How Many Spherical Buildings Are There, Actually?
Next I took a fun jaunt up to the top of the world’s largest spherical building. (Didn’t know there was a contest, did you?) It’s called the Ericsson Globe, and it’s a sports and entertainment venue. Very nice photo op on top full stop.
Lens-o-Rama
I’m already VERY glad I purchased the Sigma wide angle lens for the camera. It’s doubled my shooting potential very clearly, as the shots it can get are so utterly different from the ones I get with the Nikkor zoom. Today was a good day of practicing switching out the lenses. I’m getting better at it on the fly.
Exhausting but wonderful day!
Authentic Troll Door. My ancient Runic Swedish is pretty rudimentary, but I believe the first few words carved into the door are something like, “If the mountain’s a-rockin’…”
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Well, it’s been a challenging first day of my ScandiRAYvia adventure.
Before I go any further, let me reiterate that everything I’m going to recount here is very much a First World Problem. I’m extremely cognizant of the fact that I’m very lucky to be making this trip.
First of all, let me say that the Airbus A380 was everything I hoped it would be! It’s a beautiful aircraft, and my Economy Plus seat was very satisfactory.
It was a good thing I made sure I had an aisle seat. Eleven hours in the air is hard to take, and it helped a lot that I was able to get up, stretch, and even walk up and down the aisles. It helped keep me sane.
The First Challenge had to do with my connection. I was concerned when I first got my ticket that an hour and a half was pretty tight for an international connection at Heathrow. But the British Airways agent in Los Angeles assured me there would be plenty of time.
Well, there wasn’t. I had a huge journey from one gate to the other, and since it was international, I had to go through security again. At each bottleneck I very clearly stated that I was about to miss my plane. Happily there was a fast-track line to get to security.
Things got scary when I actually made it to security, though, as it was moving more slowly than meaningful immigration reform. I explained my hurry and got put into the front of the line, but I could still tell that I was in trouble, as the bags were moving unbelievably slowly. I found the security manager and explained my situation. Bless her, she grabbed my as-yet-unsearched bag, marched me down (in the direction of my flight gate) to the nearest security agent who was free and put my bag in her hands and explained my situation.
When I finally got to my gate, boarding was almost over. I was relieved and happy, but a little alarmed at the idea that if I had trusted the British Airways people, I would have absolutely missed my plane. It was only my own vociferous (but I hope, not impolite) insistence on my situation, over and over again to multiple people, that got me through on time. And hey, my bag made it, too!
The flight from London to Stockholm was much shorter than the first flight. But at least the woman next to me was sick. As in, barfing right next to me in her seat. Poor thing.
At Arlanda Airport in Stockholm, border control and customs were a snap. My bus into town was right outside the terminal door and was there in five minutes.
I finally made it to the hotel. I was tired, dazed, sweaty, foul-smelling, and as I expected after such long trip, barely human. I tried to get comfortable in the room.
I was considering going down to the restaurant for a spot of dinner when I realized that the woman next to me on the flight might have gifted me her sickness. Yay. What better way to start off your foreign vacation than bowing to the porcelain god?
My First View of Stockholm
I went to sleep around 8:00 p.m. local time. Happily, the sickness was a one-time thing (so far!) and I slept well for six hours. I got up about 2:00 a.m. and began working some tech problems.
I spent most of the rest of the night on the phone with Verizon and Time Warner cable trying to sort out issues with my mobile data and email. Yay!
The upside is all that time on hold gave me a chance to plan out my plan of attack for my first couple of days in Stockholm.
It’s now 6:00 a.m. I’m going to try to nap just a bit before breakfast.
Oh, and the weather? And the weather forecast for the next few days? I can’t even.
I hope my next entry will be jollier!
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So hear they are. My train tickets for one of the four rail journeys I’ll be making during ScandiRAYvia.
But these aren’t just any train tickets. Nope, nope, nope. This is my ticket to the Flamsbana, regarded as one of the most spectacular rail journeys in the world.
The trip from Oslo to Bergen itself travels through the highest rail altitude of any train ride in Europe. And the Flamsbana, which is a spur about halfway through this trip, which takes you down to the fjord, is one of the very steepest railway lines in the world on normal tracks.
Here’s the route:
I love trains. No, I love love love LOVE trains. I’ve loved them my whole life. Perhaps it’s because I’ve always believed I was conceived on a train. (Ew. Made you think about it.)
This train trip was one of the main reasons for putting ScandiRAYvia together.
It’s fitting that it’s almost at the end of my trip.
Now all I need is some good weather so all of those postcard-pretty mountains, meadows and fjords are presented in their best light!
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Why would I want to visit Scandinavia in the first place?
Oh, come on. It’s Sweden. It’s Denmark. It’s Norway.
I’ve been drawn to these places for as long as I can remember. There’s just something magical to me about all those beautiful storybook cities sprinkled across little archipelagos. The snow, the mountains, the lakes, the politics: It’s just always clicked with me.
There are a million reasons to go. Aside from all of the obvious ones, here’s a few really specific ones for me:
Trolls
I’m a documentary junkie, and one of my all-time favorite documentaries of Trollhunter, which tells the shocking true behind-the-scenes story of how the Norwegian government secretly controls the wild population of trolls. I hope to see some troll action while I’m in Norway.
Vikings
I don’t really have to explain this one, do I?
The Scream
The one by Edvard Munch. Okay, there’s four of them, but one of them is in Oslo.
Edvard Grieg
Peer Gynt. “In the Hall of the Mountain King.” (See Trolls, above).
Pining for the fjords
The Girl with the International Book and Movie Franchise
Did you READ these books? Did you SEE the movies? If they’re not enough to make you want to visit Stockholm, you’ve got no blood in your veins. And the Millennium Trilogy is merely the most famous of the exploding film and fiction genre of Nordic Noir. If you haven’t seen it, you should check out Headhunters, and read the book as well!
I already have my ticket to the Millennium Walking Tour! Gonna get my Lisbeth Salandar on!
Train Rides
I’m a huge fan of train travel, and I’ll be doing a LOT of that on this trip, including a very special journey that I’ll discuss more in an upcoming episode.
There are more reasons, but these are plenty enough to get started on.
Are YOU drawn to Scandinavia at all? What would you be interested in seeing there? Let me hear from you in the comments!
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