In the quiet moments that he wasn’t talking, I was able to admire the Swedish landscape. Almost the entire journey was lined with tall, narrow trees. I wish Patrick had been there to identify them, but I will assume they were just mature evergreens. The forest was so thick that I doubt a wall could be more effective barrier. It was daylight, but inside the woods, it was night. And the shadows were menacing. Beautiful, sparkling lakes and rivers would occasionally interrupt the scenery. The water came close to the edge of the train and we were so level with it that it seemed as if we were gliding right over a field of liquid diamonds. The moments were blissful.
We arrived in Stockholm a few minutes before 4pm. At that point, it was completely dark. As per usual, we had difficulty locating our hostel, which was supposed to be only 500 meters from the station. Once we settled into our room, we were approached by another strange person. This person, however, was an American who claimed to be a recent graduate of Cornell University. If his personality and conversation is any indication of his education, I’d have to say he was a pathological liar. A few minutes after meeting us, he was describing the “explosive diarrhea” he had suffered in Finland. After an interrogation of our lives, he managed to really rile me up when he said that John F. Kennedy Jr. “was a dummy and deserved to crash.” At that point, we did our best to stay out of the hostel room as much as possible.
We wandered around the pedestrian shopping streets to kill some time before dinner, but I wasn’t too engaged because it was a challenge to formulate the exchange rate. After a hearty McDonalds dinner, we made our way over to the famous Absolut Icebar. Admission to the bar was $27 and included one free drink, but it was on my list of things to do in life, so money was no object. The hostess helped us put on giant blue parkas with an attached pair of gloves, We had to enter several isolated compartments before entering, which made the admittance into the bar all the more climactic. Everything was made of ice,.. the seats, the cups, the counters, the walls, etc. Not the cash register, sadly. I’m not a fan of liquor, but I wasn’t about to go to the Asbolut Icebar and get a non-alcoholic cocktail, so I ordered the house drink. It turned out to be delicious, it’s a shame I didn’t catch the ingredients. My hands were frozen after ten minutes, so Krista graciously let me borrow her thicker gloves. I no longer felt the urge to leave. You’re only allotted a certain amount of time in the bar, so when our time came, I tried to prolong it as much as possible. I love times like that, when you’re completely conscious of a memory you won’t forget. I think they call it “living in the moment”, and I sure was.
The incessant rain and early closing times of the shops forced us to retire early. It was one of the first times that I can recall going to bed before midnight. I’ll admit, it was nice. The next morning, we started out with a walk to City Hall. I know that sounds dull, but Stockholm’s city hall is so impressive that they offer tours. It’s located right along the waterfront and overlooks a skyline of church steeples. It was beautiful with a grey sky, so I can only imagine the brilliance on a blue-sky day. We crossed a bridge to the island of Gamla Stan, the residence of the Swedish royal family. The palace is surrounded by a plethora of quaint little stores. One shop that sticks out is the Science Fiction Bookstore. If you can imagine a haven for geeks and nerds, this was it. I saw two fanny packs and a few shark-tooth necklaces. Two very cute palatial guards told us that the time for the changing of the guard had been pushed back, so we explored a cathedral and small little plaza with Christmas booths. A guy dressed up as Santa was riding around on a segway passing out almonds, and Krista took full advantage of him.
After the changing of the guard, we walked in the direction of the Vasa Museum. It was quite the distance, so we saw a good bit of the city and theatre district. Stockholm has the best shopping I have seen in Europe. Each store is unique and filled with its own curiosities, like a device you attach to a two-liter to make pouring easier. At first, I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of the Vasa Museum. I had heard that it was a Viking museum. I ate my words as soon as I walked in. The museum is devoted to a single ship, the Vasa, which sank in the Stockholm harbour only 1,500 meters after it started its maiden voyage. The majestic ship spent 333 years under the sea before it was brought to the surface in 1961. And now the ship rests inside the museum, taking away the breath of all its visitors with its splendor and size.
I’m going to tell you all about the ship because I personally think it is fascinating. If you’re getting bored already, skip ahead. The ship was ordered in 1626 by King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. The 30 Years War had begun and the Swedes were looking to impress and attack the malicious Poles. They collected the black oak timber in the winter and a Dutch master shipwright oversaw the construction until the ship was ready for launch in 1628. It took a minimum of 90 officers to control the ship, but 450 men were crammed aboard at the time of her sinking. Just after leaving the dock, the wind caught the sails of the ship and she leaned to the left, then corrected herself. A few seconds later, however, she listed too far to the port again and water seeped in through the gunports. She went down into the sea, flags waving and sails at full mast while her crew tried valiantly to save her. Fifty men died that day. Aside from a 17th century operation that successfully recovered some of the guns from the ship, the location of the Vasa was forgotten and unknown until 1956. Luckily for the Vasa, the Baltic Sea is less salty than the rest of the seas, and thus she was protected from the shipworm that would have inevitably destroyed the timber. To bring her afloat, divers plugged her holes and blasted six tunnels underneath the hull. Then they passed cable through the tunnels and used two pontoon boats to lift her. When she broke the surface, they pumped the water and clay out of the ship and she was eventually able to float on her own once more. Archaeologists preserved the ship and its contents and now we have the Vasa Museum. 95% of the ship on display is original, even the skeletons. The exhibits were amazing. We spent a few hours exploring the seven-story museum.
We had worked up quite the appetite during this exploration, so we decided to go to one of several TGIFriday’s listed on the map. I needed a piece of America. The last time I had chicken so good was more than three months ago, so I ate slowly and deliberately. It was November 20th, which meant one thing, New Moon premiere! Krista hadn’t seen the first of the series, so I filled her in on the storyline and we decided seeing a movie would be fun. I underestimated just how much fun it would be. We walked into the entrance and saw a throng of teenage blonde girls emerging from a theatre. It was overwhelming, yet exciting. We got in line and to our great fortune, they weren’t sold out. Unlike American cinemas, they assign seats, which makes absolute sense. The theatre itself was also unlike any other American theatre. It sat thousands and looked more like a concert hall than anything else. When the curtains opened and the previews started, the girls filling those thousands of seats screamed at the top of their lungs. Krista and I died laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.
The energy was intoxicating, and for a hot minute I didn’t care if I was 21 years old. Then the previews stopped and a worker came on stage with a microphone. She spoke some Swedish and started throwing out tote bags and soundtracks. It was temporary hysteria. This trend continued when the words “New Moon” appeared on screen, whenever there was a sexy or shirtless guy, or whenever characters kissed. It was fun to enjoy something so blatantly cheesy and I was disappointed when the credits started rolling.
When that adventure was over, we stopped and got some ice cream and tried to figure out our next move. That’s when we saw an ad for a vampire lounge. The ad said, “Come mingle with vampires.” I’m a sucker for creepy stuff, I’ll admit, so I desperately wanted to go. The lounge was located in a dark underground cellar with blood red furnishings. Just another one of the great things Stockholm has to offer.
The next morning our goal was to go ice skating, but we got to the city square and it was completely empty. I had learned a lot from the Swedish subtitles in New Moon, so I was able to decipher that there had been a problem with the machine and the rink was closed for the weekend. I was disappointed, but it did give us much more time to walk around the city on a sunny day.
All in all, Stockholm is nothing what I expected. The people are so friendly and they all speak English so well. I highly recommend the city to everyone.
