Delicious Pastries, Sunken Ships and Pregnant Moose in Stockholm

13 May 2009

Delicious Pastries, Sunken Ships and Pregnant Moose in Stockholm

Anna studied biochemistry in university, which, sorry Anna, has always been one of my least favorite subjects ever! She is now working at Uppsala University in a lab dealing with blood samples. There is always some PhD student giving their dissertation during which the rest of the department is expected to listen to the dissertation defense and attend a party in the evening to celebrate. Anna has one of these to attend today so I am unleashed on my own to explore Stockholm.

On her way to work in the morning, Anna walks me to the Uppsala train station and points me to the correct platform to wait for the Stockholm train. I lug my huge rolling bag suitcase into one of the train cars and sit amongst the Swedes on their morning commute to work. Stockholm is about a 45 minute train ride to Stockholm so there are many people who make this journey for work each day. Many of the travelers are working quietly on their laptops throughout the ride. I finally arrive in Stockholm in the large open central station. First I find my way to the train station lockers where I take the biggest one and leave my bag there. It costs about $7 but it is worth it to not have to lug around baggage all day. My plan is to see as many museums as I can in one day and later in the evening, meet up and stay with another Swedish friend of mine, Helen. Helen and I also met in England and actually lived in the same house in Brighton together. I call Helen to say a quick, “Hello! I made it to Stockholm safely!” and then I navigate my way out of the station.

Before I leave, however, I purchase something called the Stockholm Card. This card can be purchased to cover a few different lengths of time; I get one for 48 hours. Now that I have bought this card, I use this for the subway, buses, and entrance to all of the museums in the city. When I finally emerge from the train station the sun is out in full force with barely a cloud in the sky. Stockholm appears to be a bustling city with Swedes and tourists alike walking through the busy but clean streets. I find my bus stop and take about a 15 minute ride to the Skansen Museum on the Djurgården island. The Skansen Museum is the world’s first open air museum founded in 1891 by Artur Hazelius. Hazelius went all over Sweden to collect actual buildings which he then transported to Stockholm and assembled into a museum. Basically Skansen is a miniature Sweden, the northern part of the museum grounds displays some typical northern arctic towns and so on. Different areas also house some of Sweden’s typical wildlife and the Skansen workers are in the appropriate traditional dress.

I start in the south of Sweden and work my way north. I visit a typical southern barn and home complete with Swedish ponies. I visited what would have been a Finnish colony in Sweden. These people lived in homes called smokehouses because there was no chimney to release the smoke from the fire place. I went inside of the little cabin with two women in traditional dress and they explained how people lived there. Not having a chimney actually allowed their homes to be heated much more efficiently. One fire could keep the house warm for most of the day so excessive amounts of wood did not need to be used. The smoke settled on the low ceiling of the cabin so it was advantageous to stay seated when inside. I visited a traditional school house, town hall, and church.

Then I came upon the animal area, somewhat like a zoo, and full of Swedish school children on field trips. There were seals, bears, European bison, wild boar, ponies, foxes, and birds, to name a few. My favorite animal experience was the moose display. There was a female moose lying on her side in a bed of hay and she was furiously licking a baby moose. After watching for a few minutes, I saw her whole body go into a spasm and she lifted her hindquarters off the ground. I could see that her vagina was swollen and looked to be bleeding and then it was clear to me that she had just given birth to that baby moose! It was quite fascinating so I watched a bit longer and got to see the baby take a few of it’s first wobbly steps before plopping back down in front of its mother.

Finally it was lunch time, so I found a tiny little café located inside of an old house. I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich on chewy rye bread and had my pick of lots of homemade pies for dessert, I chose the mixed berries. A section of Skansen is set up like an old town with a blacksmith, general store, shoemakers and so on, everyone in their traditional dress. In this area, I found what would be one of my favorite spots in all of Sweden, the bakery! I found this place my following my nose to the scent of warm dough, cinnamon, and butter. Outside the entrance was a wooden sign that resembled a soft pretzel, and inside were an array of freshly baked pastries. It was all warm and aromatic inside the tiny bakery. The men working there were dressed all in white with chef’s hats on. There were two men in the back room rolling dough and putting pastries in the oven. After eyeing up each treat, I finally chose a cinnamon roll. I didn’t care if I had just eaten pie, I was going for round two. The cinnamon roll was warm inside the paper bag and it some butter was seeping through the paper. It was heavenly!

My next stop was the glassblowing studio. Sweden is known for its glass, both functional and artistic. Inside the studio, there were benches where one could sit and watch the artists blowing their glass creations. It is quite a mesmerizing and interesting process to observe. I picked up a few knickknacks and vases in the gift shop adjacent to the studio. I really enjoyed the shops at the Skansen museum, although I wished the souvenirs were a bit cheaper. There is a famous hand carved and painted Swedish horse from the northern areas that one will see in most tourist shops. They are colorfully painted and are actually a symbol of Sweden in general. I really wanted to take one home but I couldn’t justify spending $30 on one the size of my palm.

I could have spent more time at Skansen but I decided it was time to move onto another museum. A few blocks up the street I found the beautiful Nordic Museum. This building was constructed in the Dutch-influenced Danish Renaissance architecture style and founded by the same guy who made the Skansen, Artur Hazelius. The Nordic Museum (Nordiska museet in Swedish) pays displays the cultural history and ethnography of Sweden. There were exhibits on fine china, modern Swedish weddings, Swedish furniture design (picture the orthopedically designed Ikea chair), and the Sami people of Scandinavia.

The exhibit on the Sami was most fascinating to me and I took advantage of the free audiotour headset I was given. The Same people, also known as Lapps or Laplanders (a derogatory term), are the indiginous people of northern Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, Finland and part of Russia). Anthropologists have studied the lineage of the Sami and found they are direct descendents of the first Homo sapiens inhabitants of Europe and also share DNA with the Basque and Catalonians who were also early inhabitants of Europe. I guess the closest group I would compare them to would be the Inuits of North America. They have their own very unique language in many dialects and they inhabit some of the coldest parts of the world, living off of the land. They are a semi-nomadic people as they herd reindeer. The Sami also use fur trapping, fishing, and sheep herding to earn a livelihood. They have very colorful traditional clothing made of natural fibers, furs and skins. They have their own traditional music, festivals, beliefs and cultures. They used to practice a mix of Shamanism and Norse mythology as a religion before the Lutheran church became widespread in Sweden. The Sami were discriminated against at one point as an ethnic minority but today they are very integrated into modern Scandinavia even having their own Parliaments in the Scandinavian countries. The modern Samis are very proud of their heritage and keep their culture alive in art, language and music.

My finaly museum visit of the day was to the Vasa Museum (Vasamuseet in Swedish) located next to the Nordic Museum. The Vasa is a museum wholey devoted to one impressive ship. The Vasa was a warship that was built for King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden from 1626 to 1628. On its maiden voyage the ship sunk after only making it one nautical mile from the port in Stockholm. They believe that the ballast was not weighted enough with stones to prevent the ship from toppling over in strong winds. A good many of the ships crew perished along with the ship on that fateful day 10 August 1628. People tried to recover the expensive ship cannons over the years but failed. Finally, in the 1950s, an archeaolgists by the name of Anders Franzén wanted to locate the ship and attempt to recover it. With a gravity powered coring probe, he went out in a boat to where he thought he might find the Vasa and dropped the probe down. As luck would have it, the probe came back up with a chunk of wood inside of it, and so the excavation began.

I watched a great video about the recovery process of the ship. Lucky for the exacavators, the ship was basically in one piece. Divers worked to place steel cables under the hull of the boat, 100 feet deep in water, and eventually the ship was slowly brought to docks and lifted up in stages. On 2 April 1961 the ship broke free of the water for the first time in 333 years! It was still amazingly in almost perfect condition. The cold Baltic Sea is made up of brackish waters and this was the saving grace for the Vasa. There is a shipworm called Teredo navalis which inhabits warmer saltier waters and is responsible for destroying submerged wood. Over subsequent years the Vasa was restored by spraying it with hot polyethylene glycol and eventually a huge open museum was built to house the ship. People are not allowed to go inside of the ship, but there are many levels built around it so you can view it from different angles and heights. The ornate wood carvings are still impressively intact. It is really an amazing sight to see and the only ship of its era still intact today.

As I was finishing up at the Vasa museum, I got a call from Helen, she was finished with work. Before getting back on the bus to meet her, I took a quick stroll along the edge of Djurgården island, where I had spent the whole day. The views of the rest of Stockholm over the water in the evening light were beautiful. The city is full of colorful buildings, green copper peaks and docked sailboats. Helen and I met in the middle of the train station. It had been six years since I last saw her when she visited me in Hoboken. Of course I recognized her immediately; she looked just the same as before. She took me on the subway to the apartment she shares with her boyfriend, Jonas, in the Södermalm neighborhood.

The apartment was three stories up in a pretty old building. I thought it was quite spacious for a city apartment. Jonas’ sister and her friend were staying with them to take a cake decorating class in Stockholm so we had a full house. Helen set up a bed for me in the foyer and I settled in. Hungry for dinner, Jonas and Helen took me out to Thai restaurant in the neighborhood. It was a fun atmosphere with bamboo huts inside, background noise of chirping crickets and every hour an artificial monsoon passed through the area complete with thunder, lightning and rain sounds. We had a good time catching up on life and reminiscing about fun times in England in the US.

On the way home from dinner, Helen walked us to a lovely elevated point in Södermalm, called Katarinahissen, with awesome views of the city below. The city was full of light which bounced off of the surrounding waters. We took a stroll through the cute and historic artist district of Södermalm and I made a mental note to come back in the daylight. The city was quite full of life for a Wednesday evening and I decided I really liked Stockholm.

The oldest town in Sweden

12 May 2009

The oldest town in Sweden

I awoke the next morning at Anna’s apartment feeling rejuvenated from a good night’s sleep. We had another delicious Swedish breakfast of filmjölk, crispbread with cheese and caviar. Our destination for the day was a small town called Sigtuna, which has been named the oldest town in Sweden, founded 1,000 years ago. Anna and I walked from her apartment to the Uppsala train station. There is a special bike parking lot outside the station that is honestly bigger than the car parking lot! There are rows upon rows of bicycles locked up. Closest thing I have ever seen to this sight was the enormous bike lot in Amsterdam. From Uppsala, we took the train to the town of Märsta, and from there, another train to Sigtuna. It was nice to be a lazy traveler for a change, no longer having to navigate my way around, instead relying on my native friend!

It seemed that as soon as we arrived in Sigtuna, the clouds blew in and the rain came down. It seemed as good a time as any to stop for a caffeine break and Anna took me to an adorable little café. The house was small, narrow and tilting a bit to one side. It was called Tant Brun, named after a character, Aunt Brown, from a famous Swedish children’s book. The inside of the café had low ceilings and cozy booths with lumpy stucco walls. Anna had a hot cup of cocoa and I opted for the higher caffeine content of a cappuccino. Finally warmed up and with no more rain falling, we peeked outside the café and continued our exploration.

The town of Sigtuna is built adjacent to Lake Mälaren, the very same large lake that is home to the many islands of Stockholm. The first Swedish coins were minted in Sigtuna in the 11th century. It was also the location of a Dominican monastery, built in the 13th century, which produced many of the Swedish archbishops. It actually wasn’t until the 1300s that Sigtuna was surpassed in importance by the cities of Stockholm and Uppsala.

Anna and I spent the better part of the day wandering around this quaint, colorful little town. After our coffee break, we walked along the shores of Lake Mälaren admiring the large homes that overlook it, many of them made of red timber. We walked up and down the small streets of the town with all of the brightly painted wooden homes, so perfectly maintained that I might have guessed I was in Disney’s Epcot center. It seemed that each home had a flowerbox outside its windows full of perfect blooms. The inner windowsill of each window also seemed to be decorated with colorful bottles, miniature ships and other eclectic collectibles. We stopped in many cute shops selling everything from eyeglasses to children’s books to designer shoes. When the sun was out momentarily again, we were able to eat outside of a cute café on the main street. I had a lovely crayfish soup with thick granary bread and Anna ate prawns with mayonnaise and salad atop bread, I guess this is a popular lunch dish in Sweden. After that, I spotted a tiny little bakery and I had to try a dessert! The smiley Swedish woman working there, of course, spoke perfect English. I think I had her describe every single different pastry to me. I wished I could have tried one of each, but she assured me that all of them were delicious and home-made. Since I couldn’t decide, I bought about four different kinds, and they were wonderful. The Swedish sure do know how to make a good dessert!

On the backside of the town, we found the ruins of the aforementioned Dominican monastery. All that was left of it was a tall stone tower somewhat overgrown with trees and vegetation. In the same area, we found another rune stone. This was one was free standing, much like a tombstone, as opposed to the one we saw the day before on the side of a church, just another reminder to the Swedes of their strong Viking history. I really enjoyed my visit to this pristine little village, but after a few hours, we had seen it all and were ready to head back to Uppsala.

When we returned to Uppsala, Anna took me on a walk through the downtown shopping area. We stopped into a few stores that sell Swedish home and kitchen goods. All items were chic, stylish and practical. Anna took me to Systembolaget, or “System Bollocks” as her English friend liked to call it. Systembolaget is the only store in Sweden where one can buy alcohol and it is government owned. Essentially this government store has a monopoly on the alcoholic beverage market and can charge a high tax. At least I can say that they had quite an extensive selection of wines! As we were walking down the main pedestrian shopping street, we noticed a crowd of people was gathering in the street and looking upwards. As is human nature, we followed suite and looked up too. Perched in the tree above us, was a large owl, just hanging out on the inner branches. Over the next few minutes at least twenty to thirty people were congregating in the street to look at this owl. People took pictures on their mobile phones and cameras. One man showed up with not just a professional camera, but a lens the length of my femur all set atop a tall tripod, he was taking this owl sighting very seriously. Naturally, I had to turn my camera on him and snap a few pictures of this crazy guy! But it is quite unusual to see an owl hanging out in the middle of a city in broad daylight.

After the owl excitement Anna decided a good way to end the day would be with a visit to the botanical gardens where Carl Linnaeus catalogued many of his specimens. Unfortunately it was already closed for the day, but we wandered around the large bright yellow building. I could just make out the cacti and tropical plants inside. We also saw a group gathering for some early evening Tai Chi outside the gardens looking towards Uppsala Castle. With dinner time approaching, we started to make our way back to Anna’s apartment. Along the way, we stopped at a grocery store frequented by the Uppsala University students which got Anna reminiscing about her university days. We picked up a few items for dinner, and headed back to wind down another busy and fulfilling day.

I finally visited Sweden!

10 - 11 May 2009

I finally visited Sweden!

I am finally attempting to finish my travel stories! On Sunday, May 10th, after a delicious family lunch in Mountain Lakes, I am off to Newark airport to head back to Sweden after just returning from Europe 5 days ago!! I am starting to understand the traveling lifestyle of my dad, jumping across continents from week to week. I was going to Sweden to finally visit my good friend, Anna, whom I met in 2002 when we studied together in Brighton, England. After subsequent visits together in the US and England, it was finally time for me to see her in Sweden.

After going through the usual airport security routine, I was finally in like to board the plane. As we were all waiting, squished into the narrow airplane rows, the man in front of me turned around and addressed me in Swedish. I, of course, gave him a confused look and said, “Sorry!” He replied, “I asked you if you were going home. You look so Swedish I just assumed! You are going to have everyone over there fooled into thinking you are Swedish.” That didn’t sound like such a bad thing! This guy was an Australian married to a Swede living in Stockholm, so he was heading back home. When I arrived at my exit row seat, I met another guy, this one actually Swedish, blonde and quite cute too! He was on his way back from Atlanta to Sweden, having traveled abroad for work.

About eight hours later, my plane touched down in Stockholm Arlanda Airport. The weather was overcast and much colder than the 80º weather we’d been having at home! As I walked through the airport, I was already impressed by the Swedish interior design. It was reminiscent of Ikea—minimalistic but stylish. The people at the customs check reminded me of the Germans in their efficiency. Before long, I had my bags and I was heading to the Sky City train, as per Anna’s instructions. I got on the next train from Arlanda to Uppsala which would take just about 25 minutes. The Sky City train waiting area was quite subterranean in nature…I literally felt like I was in a mine shaft! Finally this huge, tall black and red train arrived. It looked sort of like an old fashioned locomotive with a huge grill in the front of the car. I settled into the first seat I could find. A few minutes after we left the airport, a blonde woman came through checking tickets. It was then that I realized I had never received a ticket from the automated machine when I put my credit card in it! I explained to her what happened, and in perfect English she responded that normally one should receive a paper ticket but it was ok!

I arrived in Uppsala, large university town about one hour north of Stockholm, feeling underdressed in my spring coat. I wrapped my Scottish wool scarf tighter around my neck and headed inside to the warmth of the train station. As I waited for Anna to arrive, I sat and watched the bustle of the morning commute in Uppsala station as the Swedes came and went with bicycles, coffee, and newspapers. About 10 minutes later, there was Anna in her red University of Sussex hoodie, wet from biking over in the rain. It was hard to believe after all the years, I was finally here in Sweden to see Anna! We said our hellos and she led me over to the bus stop so I didn’t have to drag my huge bag for a mile to her apartment.

We stepped out of the bus just across the way from her apartment building. She lives in a high rise building painted a bright orange color. Luckily I only had to carry my bag up one flight of stairs and there we were in her sunny studio apartment! We immediately sat down for a breakfast of tea, rye bread with butter and cheese, and yogurt. It was delicious but the caffeine barely made a dent in my jet lag exhaustion! We relaxed and chatted a bit at her apartment. I was feeling tired and in no rush to gallivant around the city, but eventually it was time to do some sightseeing.

Anna and I took a bus about 15 minutes away to Gamla Uppsala. Gamla Uppsala, which means “Old Uppsala” is an important historical area. It was town of significant importance as early as the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, known to be the residence of the Swedish kinds of the Yngling dynasty. People have been buried in Gamla Uppsala for about 2,000 years inside of burial mounds that look like small hills. This is one of the reasons people travel to this site today, to see the mounds. Most famous are the Royal Mounds, from the 5th and 6th centuries, are considered Sweden’s oldest national symbols. This is where three Viking kings were buried. As we explored the mounds and the Viking museum, the sun came out of hiding just for us! We also got a chance to visit the church at Gamla Uppsala built in the 12th century. It was a simple church made of stone. The walls and ceilings inside were covered in faded painted murals. We explored the cemetery around it. It contained a large red wooden bell tower which was very unique in design. There were numerous graves, on top of each one was loose gravel. The church staff apparently rakes the gravel into designs or patterns; I had never seen that before. On the outer wall of the church, a runestone was placed into the wall. Runestones were erected in the Viking Age (4th to 12th century) and look almost like rudimentary tombstones with inscriptions. These stones were used as property markers, to honor the dear, or to tell of important events. This one had a picture of a sea monster type creature on it.

Now that we had done some walking around, it was time for a little break. We had a snack at a cute old café near the church. I had a much needed cappuccino and we shared a chocolate cake. This cake was not what you would picture, it was only slightly chocolatey, more sweet with a hint of chocolate, and it had coconut shavings on top, no icing. After a jolt of caffeine and some sunlight, I felt so much more alive! We took the bus back to the center of Uppsala and walked around some more. Anna took me to see some of the important buildings if Uppsala University. We spent awhile inside of the Uppsala Cathedral which was much different from the average cathedral. This medieval cathedral was a rusty red color with black roofs. Its double spire was the truly unique part. It was quite a grand cathedral inside but yet more simple than many I have seen in other parts of Europe. It was also decorated with faintly painted wall designs and religious stories. There were many tombs and status scattered through out cathedral for kings and even for Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy. There was even a statue of Saint Olaf which had me thinking of the Golden Girls!

We wandered around the cute cobblestoned streets of Uppsala, with its colorful stucco buildings. We perused through a few of the shops and eventually decided we’d better have some lunch. We wound up eating at a little café on one of the main shopping streets where we had salad and sandwiches. After that, Anna took me to see the Silver Bible, or Codex Argenteus, a manuscript from the 6th century at the Carolina Rediviva library. It is a translation of the Bible by a Swedish bishop and is written in Gothic language. The letters are actually written in a beautiful silvery ink. After that, we walked uphill to check out the Uppsala Castle. It was already closed at this point, but I got to walk around this salmon pink colored castle. It seems that the Swedish architectural design in general is much simpler than much of the rest of Europe. I don’t think I ever would have guessed that the building even was a castle; it looked more like a town hall or some other functional building.

Since dinner time was approaching, Anna decided we should swing by the grocery store for some food. I love nothing more than shopping at foreign or unique food stores. I could have spent a good hour there looking at all of the different food items. I tortured Anna, making her translate all of the labels for me. The cheese section was quite extensive and unique. Unfortunately, Anna was not a cheese expert so I was left with many unanswered questions! I looked at row upon row of rye crisp breads, coolers full of fish eggs (kaviar) in toothpaste-type tubes, and special jams like lingonberry and cloudberry. I had to use a lot of self restraint to not buy a whole refrigerator worth of foods! We did get some food for dinner and a wedge of cheese, some flat bread, thin drinkable-type yogurt, and a Swedish special yogurt called filmjölk. Filmjölk is a Swedish mesophilic fermented milk product (according to Wikipedia) which is a thin yogurt with a sour taste, it was sort of a mix between kefir and buttermilk. I loved it! After eating dinner at Anna’s, we changed into our PJ’s and settled in to watch a little TV before bed. Just like that, my first day in Sweden was over already and I was more than ready for some sleep!