Sverige

Our trip to Stockholm, the city on the lakes, has been long-awaited. It has been 2 years since Kristian and Oskar left New Zealand… Time has flown…

Monday at work went very quickly and I didn’t get much done. Met Millie at the train station and we set off on our journey from Gatwick Airport. We arrived around 10pm in Stockholm. Walking out of the airport, I looked to my left, and there was Oskar!! They still look the same! We spent the trip from Arlanda Airport to Oskar’s dad’s house trying to get used to driving on the right-hand side. There we met their dad, Mats, step-mum, Anneke, younger sister, Jessica, and cat, Nisse.

Tuesday we set off into the city to meet Kristian and his girlfriend, Johanna. It was so good seeing the boys again after so long! It went right back to normal, making fun of each other and cracking naughty jokes about Oskar’s cat porn (eh Oskar!).

We walked the medieval streets of Gamla Stan – the old town, where buildings date back to the 13th Century. We saw the Royal Palace, an old church, and the many lakes and islands that make up Stockholm and the surrounding archipelago. We visited Mats at work in the city and took in the views from the top of his building… Amazing!!

We saw the government buildings, a march on unlawful killings in Iran, tasted liquorice ice cream… Scandinavians love their liquorice!! Then in the afternoon, the four of us – Millie, myself, Oskar, and Kristian, hired bicycles and rode all over the city. The boys being boys, doing big skids and trying to ride up stairs... We rode around Djugården, one of the islands in central Stockholm; saw Trivoli the theme park, and more lakes and inlets, beautiful boats, bars, cafés and restaurants, and the stunning grand hotel. What an amazing way to see the city! And what a beautiful, clean and friendly city it is!! I would recommend hiring bicycles to anyone travelling to Stockholm!!

Wednesday we took a ferry tour around the waterways of Stockholm. We got to see some amazing sites from the water as we covered pretty much the entire area that Stockholm covers, from the city centre right out to the new suburbs. We also learnt more about Stockholm’s history which was really interesting!

Next we took a look at the museum of the creator of Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Långstrump) – Astrid Lindgren. I had no idea Pippi was Swedish… Then it was inside the Vasa Museum… Yes, there are a LOT of museums in Stockholm. The Vasa was a Swedish ship built for King Gustavus Adolphus, from 1626-1628. It was made of oak and boasted very beautiful carvings to make the king appear more superior. The ship sunk on its maiden voyage due to an error in weighting in the base of the ship. Over 300 years later the ship was found and resurfaced. The ship was then repaired and the surviving artefacts salvaged. This is what stands in the Vasa Museum today – a stunning ship!

On the way home we stumbled across a lovely little café, tucked away down an alley, below street level in Gamla Stan – a real old-town building. Then off to a great bar along Götgatan, where lots of great bars and restaurants lie.

Thursday we explored City Hall where they hold the Nobel Prize banquets, among other events. The building really is magnificent! Every piece of material in every room is impeccably thought out. The building consists of 8 million red bricks. The Blue Room is the most famous, though is brick, not blue, because the architect, Ragnar Östberg, thought it looked more beautiful that way. This is where the Nobel banquet is held on the 10th of December every year, the date of Alfred Nobel’s death. They host 1300 people for the dinner, and waiters serve them all in just three minutes. The room is not symmetrical, being wider at one end than the other, as Östberg wanted it to feel more natural. The short end boasts the graceful Else Stairs. Else was Östberg’s wife, whom he used to make the stairs perfect for women to walk up and down in high heels and ball dresses.

The Swedish council chamber is also housed here, in a room whose roof was made to look like a ship. They say it may be based on the fact that the Vikings, when having meetings, would turn their boats upside down to create sheltered dens. The ceiling is painted to look like openings to the sky, which the Vikings called “wind eyes” (translated to English).

There are other rooms such as the Wedding room, where couples are married in either a “long” ceremony taking a mere three minutes, or a short ceremony taking only one. Also, the ‘Man and Woman’ room, which is used for stately dinners and luncheons. But the most magnificent of all is the famous Golden Room where the guests of the banquets go to dance the night away… The room contains more than 18 million mosaic pieces made of glass and real gold. All over the walls are pictures in the mosaic depicting important Swedish people throughout history, the main feature of which is a woman representing world peace, ‘Queen of the Lake Mälaren’.

They don’t actually give the Nobel Prizes here - that is done in Stockholm’s Concert Hall.

Later that day we took a trip to Skansen, the zoo and open air museum showing old-style shops, a machine workshop and glass blowing workshop. Sweden is very famous for its glassware. We watched them make a vase and I bought a beautiful cracked glass bottle with an old Swedish coin on the cork. However, the main reason for the zoo was for Millie and me to see a moose, as we weren’t going to see one in the wild.

In the evening the boys took us to meet their mum, Eva in Södertälje, south of Stockholm, and elder brother, Johan. We also got to meet their lovely grandfather, Åke, on Tuesday.

Friday was a busy day. The morning was spent doing more tourist shopping and climbing the Gondolen, where a cheeky lift (‘hiss’ in Swedish) attendant charged us 10SEK (Swedish Kronor) each to ride it to the top. (£0.76 or NZ$2.15). We had a really yummy lunch in their café though! From the top you get such beautiful views of the city and lakes, where very mild salt water meets what they call “sweet” water (fresh). There are locks dividing the two.

The afternoon took us to the famed Ice Bar in the lobby of the Nordic Sea Hotel. It is a very small bar, equipped to hold 30 people at one time. Inside is -5°C and everything is made from ice – the bar, seats, tables, walls, even the cups. The ice was brought down from the north where the Ice Hotel lies in the freezing winter months. We got our cloaks and our Absolut cocktails, popped our thick gloves on and relaxed on the fur-lined ice couch. A definite must-see in Stockholm.

That evening we drove north with Oskar and his dad, Mats, to their batch on an island in Vettershaga. The island is called Lindholmen. They own half of the island, which was handed down through their family from 1895. They have the main homestead, plus a smaller cottage on the waterfront, then another building by the jetty containing another bedroom, tool shed and long-drop. They have electricity on the island, but no running water. Instead they use a well for drinking water. You can only get there by boat, which makes it a perfect holiday spot – you have your own space, can explore by boat the surrounding inlets, yet there are plenty of other holiday home owners on the mainland close by. The buildings are all painted brick-red, typical of Swedish architecture. The paint is made from copper powder, is inexpensive, and lasts a very long time.

The water surrounding Lindholmen leads out to the Baltic Sea where we saw cruise boats heading to Finland.

We left the batch the following afternoon so Oskar could show us a town he is very fond of, Norrtälje. We strolled around the town, looking at all the old buildings and decided to have desert on the Norrtälje boat on the canal. Delicious mum’s ship made creamy chocolate cake. Oskar and my favourite!! Then it was home to chill out with a couple of movies and a cider…

These ciders I discovered are called Xide. You can’t really tell they’re alcoholic, but they’re so yummy, with flavours such as mandarin & chilli, pomegranate & rhubarb, lime & cactus, and wasabi & lemon… Yum!!

Sunday we all got psyched to cheer for the boys’ favourite football team, AIK, a team from Stockholm. Myself, Millie, Oskar, Kristian, and Johanna, all kitted out in AIK gear, drove just over 2 hours in their eco-friendly Ford, to Örebro where they were playing a team of the same name. We were stood with the AIK supporters who were all cheering and chanting for their team. It was an excellent atmosphere, though a fight broke out among the hard-out fans belonging to the AIK firm (football hooligans). Apart from that, AIK won 4-1, so everyone was in a pretty great mood! We’ll have to learn more Swedish to chant with them next time.

Monday was our last day in Stockholm with the boys and we ate lunch together to say goodbye. Now we’re back in gloomy-weathered London…

We had such a great time catching up with Kristian and Oskar and meeting their family. We saw a lot of the city, but there’s still so much there to explore! From the beautiful, friendly, laid-back people, to their delicious food, such as liquorice ice cream – Pepe, cloudberry ice cream, lingonberries, crisp bread (knäckebröd), and the interesting caviar in a tube that I couldn’t quite bring myself to try. This country has a lot to offer!!

I learnt my vowels; å, ä, ö, as well as some basic words to work my way through menus and some shops, and ‘tack’ to say thank you. It’s such an amazing place, with almost more cyclists than cars. I will certainly be back in the winter when all the lakes freeze over, to skate and ski.

Thank you so much to Mats, Anneke, Jessica, and Oskar for looking after us so well! And Kristian for being co-tour guide. We’ll see you all soon. See my pictures and videos here.