I Think I Might Have the Stockholm Syndrome...

Well hello everyone! I just returned from a weekend excursion to Stockholm, Sweden! More on that in a second. First, I want to talk about Halloween.

Germans don’t celebrate Halloween. Why exactly, I’m not sure. I guess we Americans are just more paganistic. Just kidding.

Anyways, Halloween just isn’t a German thing. So, we Americans put together a Halloween party at one of my friends’ apartment. What was my costume, you might ask? Well, I really haven’t dressed up at all for the past few years. This year I decided why not. Have you ever seen the SNL sketch with Chris Farley trying out to be a Chippendale’s dancer? Well, that’s what I was. I wore a bowtie and black pants. It was a fun night.

Anyways, on with Sweden.

Ah Sweden, the land of such things as...

Ikea...

Abba...

...and death metal.

I had always wanted to go to Sweden, so when I found out earlier this semester that some friends had booked a round-trip flight for $40, I had to join in. We flew out of Basel-Mulhouse Airport on Thursday afternoon, and arrived in Stockholm around 5PM. It was pitch-black out. We boarded a bus called “Flygbussar” which I guess translates to “flight bus.” It was actually easy to translate some Swedish words, since Swedish is a Germanic language. That didn’t stop me from chuckling at such tram stop names as “Sockenplan,” Skogskyrkogården” and “Hammarbyhöjden.” So, we arrived at Stockholm’s main train station, and then took the local tram to our hotel. We stayed at a hotel connected to the Globe Center, where world-renowned musical acts have played.

It seemed like a rather upscale place, since our rooms had seating areas separate from the beds, as well as fancy bathrooms. We hadn’t paid much at all for the hotel, since it was offseason. We took the tram back into town and disembarked at Gamla Stan, Stockholm’s old town. Gamla Stan is actually an island, like many other parts of Stockholm, as the city sits at a point where the Batlic Sea meets Lake Mälaren. It also sits near a collection of islands called the Stockholm Archipelago. Anyways, we wanted traditional Swedish food, so we found a nice little restaurant off one of the main streets. I had Swedish beef steak with onions and garlic bread, accompanied by a Swedish beer called Klass III. Some of my friends dined on reindeer, which they said tasted like roast beef. What struck me most was the impeccable English spoken by the waitress. In fact, just about everyone we talked to in Sweden spoke remarkably good English, to the point that I wouldn’t have been able to tell they weren’t native English speakers (if their intense blond hair hadn’t given it away already). Something else even more impressive about Sweden was the policy on tap water. In Germany and most other European countries, one has to ask for tap water, which sometimes gets confused for “$10 bottle of still water” or is even frowned upon. In Sweden, tap water is given as abundantly as it is in the States. It’s the little things that sometimes matter the most.

The next day, we woke up around 8 and went to breakfast. Aside from the fact that the dining room looked straight out of an Ikea catalogue, the breakfast was amazing. In addition to the typical European breakfast buffet of bread with cold cuts and cheese, they had sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, Danish pastries, cinnamon rolls, and even Kellogg’s Sugar Smacks! Our first stop was a tourist center. At the gift shop we found Viking helmets and pretend to be Vikings for a few minutes. There was also a Brio train set, much to my delight.

We walked to the Swedish royal palace and took a tour of the Swedish crown jewels and Royal Apartments. Both were very cool to see. The Swedish royal family doesn’t actually live in the Royal Apartments. They were used in the past, but are currently only used for visiting dignitaries such as royalty from other countries or heads of state/heads of government. Each visitor received their own coat of arms, and it was cool to see the South African coat of arms when Nelson Mandela visited Stockholm. Unfortunately there was no coat of arms for the U.S.A., but I can understand if the Swedes don’t want George Bush to visit.

On that note, Sweden is such a wonderfully socialized society. The streets are spotless, the metro is clean and efficient, and all the old buildings are very well kept. Granted Sweden is one of the most expensive countries I’ve ever been to, but the social programs seem to be working quite well.

After the Royal Palace we went to the Nobel Museum, which documents the history of Alfred Nobel and the prize which bears his name. It was an enlightening visit. We then trekked down to the water, and took a boat tour of Stockholm’s canals. I got some great pictures of the parks and walkways which run along the river, and I even got a picture of the house belonging to a member of Abba!

By the end of the boat tour, we were getting tired. Although the weather was quite pleasant, it was indeed Sweden and the temperature was a bit cold. We wanted to go to the Vasa Museum, which houses a 17^th-century Swedish warship. So we walked to the museum, which entailed walking along the docks. There were lots of neat boats, ranging from river cruisers like we had ridden to personal sailboats, some of which dated back to the early 1900's. There were important safety signs along the way, such as my personal favorite, "watch where you're driving your car or you might fall into the river."

The Vasa was the pride and joy of the Swedish navy. It was built in the 17^th century, a time when Sweden was intermittently at war with its neighbors for control of shipping channels. At this point in time, Poland was the opponent. The ship first set sail on August 10, 1628. However, 20 minutes later, it capsized and sank. Sure speaks well of the Swedish navy, doesn’t it?

Anyways, the ship was raised in the 1960’s and is now on display. It’s in pretty good condition which made for some pretty cool pictures. After the Vasa Museum it was dinnertime, and we all had only one thing on our minds: Swedish meatballs.

After searching Gamla Stan for about an hour, we returned to the tourist center and asked. The lady pointed us to a nice restaurant off one of the main squares. It was a rather upscale place, but the meatballs were relatively inexpensive. The restaurant had a dance floor and a guy singing and playing the piano, which created a wonderful dining atmosphere. The meatballs didn’t last long, and two of our group had to depart for an appointment at the Absolut Ice Bar, a bar sponsored by Absolut Vodka Company that is made entirely of ice. The rest of us sat at the restaurant for a bit more, then went to, of all places, TGI Friday’s for a drink.

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and called it a night. When we woke up the next morning, the ground was covered with a thin layer of snow! Sweden just kept on getting better and better!

However, the rest of the day proved to be a headache. We got to the airport on time, and boarded the plane. It was supposed to leave at 12:30, and we pulled out of the gate, and then pulled back in. After about 30 minutes, the captain notified us that this plane would not fly. So we went back into the terminal and waited for another plane to be sent for us. It arrived 2 hours later, and then we departed for Basel-Mulhouse. We landed, and found that the next Freiburger Reisedienst, the airport bus, wouldn’t be for another 4 hours. So we ate a long dinner at the airport’s restaurant, and frolicked through the nearly-empty terminal to kill time. Finally the bus came at 10:30PM, and we arrived in Freiburg about an hour later. Nonetheless, it didn’t put a damper on the whole trip. This weekend was by far one of the highlights of my trip.

So what’s next? Paper writing, London next weekend, then Brussels, Luxembourg and Paris the week after that.

Bis später!

Dave