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Published: June 25th 2008
Twilight
Stockholm doesn't get much darker than thisSweden: land of endless daylight, beautiful people, and industrial strength coffee. Every morning at breakfast I have 2-3 coffees, and then the muscle under my eye starts twitching. It tastes really good though, and as quality coffee is hard to find in China, Emma and I are indulging our caffeine dependencies while we can.
Breakfast is great here: cheap by Swedish standards, at 55SEK (approx $10 AUS), you can get a massive buffet of meats, breads, cheeses, fruits, and muesli lathered in yoghurt. Swedish food in general is good, healthy food with lots of fish and salad, but extraordinarily expensive. This is particularly the case with beer as well, which is also 55 SEK (approx $10 AUS) in a pub. A beer in China can be bought in a supermarket for 4 CNY (60c AUS) or in a restaurant for about 16 CNY. No drunken binges for Toby and Emma here.
Lidö and the Wedding
We were in Sweden to attend the wedding of our friends Veronica and Stas, which was beautiful. We won't comment on it too much, because it is Veron and Stas' story to tell, but it really was a touching wedding, on a little island
called Lidö. You can see from some photos of the island that it is so clean and natural - there's no garbage, and the water is so clear you can see through it to the bottom about a metre under. The Swedes in general are very keen on natural beauty and being eco-friendly. They have recycling bins everywhere, and no litter on the streets I could see.
Being a Foreigner in Sweden
Being a foreigner in Sweden is a little different to the last 4 months in China. Firstly, everyone speaks English, which is quite handy. Secondly, you can READ things, even when they're not in English! This is very exciting for Toby and Emma! In China, you walk down the street and have to look in the window of every shop to tell what is in it, as we are only learning to read Chinese. In Sweden, you can guess what kind of shop a 'Restaurang' is, or a 'hotell' is. When you read a restaurant menu, a 'Llamburger' seems to be a burger made of lamb, and 'salladder' seems to be a salad. To say 'hello', you say 'hey' and to say 'thank you' you say 'tack'.
Cobbled Streets
In Gamla Stan, the old town. So easy! It makes us think that teaching English and living in Europe would make our lives much easier than in Asia, but it might take some of the fun away too.
The only thing that seems strange about being a foreigner here is that none of the locals seem to know it. I don't know how they would, seeing as we look pretty similar to them, but we are used to China, where we dress differently, we look bigger and whiter, and we sound different. In China we get stopped on the street so that we can have a photo taken with the locals. Here, people speak to us in Swedish and seem surprised when we say we don't know Swedish. So weird.
I'l stop comparing Sweden to China in a second, but the last little comparison I'm going to make is that people
don't try to rip you off in Sweden. In China, with a bargaining culture, you argue for what you get: if you don't like the deal on something, you have to ask to reduce the price. Here, we asked to hire two bikes for a ride around Göthenburg at 90 Kronor - this
price is published in the hostel information book - however the guy at reception said the bikes were not as good as they once were, and we only needed to pay 50. The bikes had a minimal amount of rust, with working brakes and gears.
So weird. The Lie of the Land
In my opinion, Swedish cities have two aspects: modern Sweden and ye olde Sweden. Ye olde Sweden is clean, with cobbled roads, minimalist architecture and cheery pastel colours. Modern Sweden is clean, with bitumen roads, minimalist architecture and cheery pastel colours. The entire place looks like it has been planned from about 400 years ago to be a seamless transition between old and new, and nothing looks out of place. The traditional buildings are simple with clean lines, like the older buildings we've seen in Germany. It may sound trite, but inside the more modern buildings, Sweden is IKEA-like; or perhaps it is just that IKEA is Sweden-like, I'm not sure. Simple furniture stylishly arranged, with an understated elegance.
There are some particularly good examples of Swedish interior design in Stockholm - we went to a floating bar on the river where you could wrap yourself
in beer blankets and drink until sunset (11:00pm). A cafe we walked past had walls that abutted onto the street directly, but with two outside tables and chairs recessed into the front wall, raised slightly above the level of the street. People sitting at the tables could peer down upon people walking about 30cm below them. It tempts you to flog the idea and start a cafe in Brisbane.
Nobel Museum
When Swedes get bored they build museums and fill them with stuff. I guess this is what people do when alcohol is too expensive to drink. Wikipedia claims that there are over 70 museums in Stockholm and Emma and I must have walked past at least 30 of them. One of the two museums I visited though was the Nobel museum, which was quite interesting. The Nobel museum houses all the information about past Nobel prize laureates, and how the Nobel prizes were begun.
Every scientific truth goes through three stages. First, people say it conflicts with the Bible. Next they say it had been discovered before. Lastly they say they always believed in it.
-- Louis Agassiz, quote published on the wall of the Nobel Museum The quick version of the Nobel prizes' history is that they were founded in the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor who made his fortune from
dynamite. After he died, the interest from his massive fortune was to be given every year to people who made the foremost contributions in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and peace. Later on, an economics prize was also given away every year by the bank of Sweden in the same ceremony, which technically isn't a Nobel prize, but a prize 'in memory of Alfred Nobel'. In practice, the prize for economics is just as prestigious as the actual Nobel prizes though.
The are plenty of big names in the museum, like Kofi Annan and Nelson Mandela who won peace prizes. There are also less well known, but just as important people like Frederick Banting and John Macleod, who won the prize for medicine with the discovery of insulin. Another controversial prize is the prize for medicine being awarded to Egas Moniz, who first used and popularised the lobotomy procedure. Ooops.
Vassamuseet
The last museum we saw is the Vassamuseet. It is a museum for a gigantic warship built in 1628 and both the boat and museum are simply massive. It was designed to be the flagship of the Swedish fleet, and so is about 4 stories high from the
deck to the bottom of the ship, and about as long as a football field. It was built with two gundecks and 64 guns, whereas most warships of the time had only a single gundeck. The overkill on guns proved to be the Vassa's undoing - there was two much weight at the top of the ship and not enough ballast in the bottom - so 28 minutes after being put to sea for the first time, she capsized and sank. King Gustav's of Sweden's loss was our gain though, as the frigid waters and low salinity of the waters she sank in preserved the ship very well. The Vassa is quite unique in this respect, as the shipworms that usually each wooden shipwrecks haven't even touched the Vassa.
There was cool stuff in the museum, too much to tell in detail. I did like picking up a cannon ball though, and the film on the raising of the Vassa was also interesting.
Reunions with Old Friends
We had the opportunity to see some of our friends from Oz again, which was fantastic. It was great to watch the football on TV with people who know what is
going on, and it was even better to kick the ball around again. We have to say thanks to Dave, Daz, Dyl, Jen, Christian, Kelly, Rhys, Sussi, Stas and Veron for making our Sweden trip that much better, as well as Dave H. and Brin who we met for the first time. We miss the old crew, and even though we've all scattered to the corners of the globe, you guys are never far away in our thoughts.
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lucia
non-member comment
where are the wedding pictures?
I'm very happy for your european trip and for your old friends reunion, but it's possible to see also Vero and Stas in their wedding dress? Please? Go Sumo-Emma!