Stockholm

Ever since Allison left Linkoping I've been extremely busy with packing, coming home, settling in at home, and getting my job started. Finally, I'll get to comment on my two trips to Stockholm, Sweden's capital. I went once with my parents in April, and spent more time there later with Allison and Luca. Out of the four capitals I visited in Europe (London, Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm), I would have to say that, by far, Stockholm was the most picturesque. The city is essentially built on a collection of islands on Sweden's eastern coast, and the inlets against the typical Scandinavian architecture and landscape made for some pretty fantastic pictures.


Stockholm is often lost in the mix when it comes to European capitals, and I would have to say that it is by far one of the most underrated cities on the continent. Stockholm does not have as much to offer as, say, London, but what is there is pretty amazing. I'll start with my favorite attraction, the Vasa Museum. In 1628, Sweden was at war with Poland, and King Gustav Vasa ordered the construction of a massive warship to send to battle. The vessel sank in Stockholm's harbor about 10 minutes into its maiden voyage; it was too top-heavy and capsized while turning. In the 1950's, the ship was removed from the floor of the Baltic Sea, well-preserved due to the boggy nature of the waters. The ocean floor sediments protected the wood from decomposition. After years of cleaning, the ship is now on display.


Stockholm also has a sleu of beautiful, traditional Scandinavian churches. Most churches in Sweden were originally Roman Catholic. Gustav Vasa essentially United the three Swedish kingdoms in the 1500's, and the Reformation came to Sweden shortly after, at which time the Church of Sweden (Lutheran) was established. The majority of churches in Sweden today are Lutheran.

Riddarholms Kyrkan (Riddarholm Church), they charged to go inside, which we thought was absurd:

Domkyrkan (Stockholm Cathedral), next to the Royal Palace:


The German Church:



I also visited the Royal Palace, Nobel Museum, and the Historic Museum while I was with Luca and Allison. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside any of those.

The Nobel Museum commemorated the winners of the Nobel Prize and explained its history. The Nobel Peace Prize is still given in Oslo, but the others (Peace, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Medicine, Economics) are awarded in Stockholm. Much of the museum was also dedicated to human rights and included exhibitions regarding free speech and women's rights.

The Historic Museum was pretty interesting, it documented Sweden's history from about the last Ice Age to today, and had quite a bit of information regarding the Vikings. They are best known for their worldwide raids, and they were actually the first people to sail to the Americas (does Leif Ericsson ring a bell?). As a matter of fact, the only reason they did not settle in the Americas was their failure to set up a flourishing civilization in Greenland. When Leif told everyone about what we call "America," others thought he was a nut... looks like Scandinavia missed out on that one. Other interesting bits of information regarded the Roman Empire. Good ties developed between the Romans and the Germanic peoples after the Romans failed to conquer them. Many Roman-style utensils (drinking vessels, tools, etc.) are found in Germanic graves.

When I returned to Stockholm with Allison, it was raining, and so we went to the... Music Museum. Yes, there was a whole room dedicated to Abba, and Allison was singing along, loudly and proudly, to all of their greatest hits (I played along but really wanted to fall through the floor :-P and I didn't dare sing, since that would make everyone else in the museum want to fall through the damn floor). There were also plenty of instruments on display, all of which we could listen to samples of, and we could even try playing some of them. Definitely the most fun museum of the bunch.

Stockholm's Royal Palace looks somewhat bland from the outside, but has amazing architecture and wall paintings within. An admissions ticket got us access to the Royal Apartments, the Treasury, the Tre Kronor Museum, and the Armory. The Royal Apartments were simply fantastic. The Reception Hall was reminiscient of the one in Windsor Castle (see the London Post), and some rooms had awesome paintings on the wall and ceilings. One room had a ceiling painting depicting an individual from the four major continents (Europe, Africa, Asia, America) on each side, with Sweden in the middle (a bit self-centered?). The Treasury was a collection of crowns, swords, and other such artifacts; the baptism chalice for the royal family was also on display. The Tre Kronor Museum was dedicated to the original royal palace, which was destroyed by fire in the 1700's (only one wing remains). The Armory contained a collection of arms, coaches, and other royal artifacts.


This is the palace that the royal family uses as a "place of work" of sorts. The family actually lives in a palace outside of the city proper, which is not open to visitors :(


My discussion of Stockholm would be incomplete without mentioning the hostel. We stayed in the Red Boat Malaren... yeah, the hostel was on a motherf***ing boat (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtboQ8AZl4k). You could even feel it rocking in the water haha. The breakfast buffet in the mornings was awesome (and, of course, we stole lunch from it).


After visiting Stockholm with Allison and Luca was Norway... but I'll save that for another post.

Uppsala and Dalarna

In what looks like my last major journey in Sweden, other than Stockholm next week, I spent last weekend with my peer student, Martin, in his home county of Dalarna. On the way, I finally got to see Uppsala for a couple of hours. Like Linköping, it's another college town here in Sweden, with a large cathedral dominating the skyline.

Uppsala Castle was one of the major attractions. It was built by King Gustav Vasa in 1549, originally, but was destroyed by a fire that engulfed the city in the early 1700's. Much of the rubble was used to construct Stockholm Palace, and the castle was reconstructed in the French Renaissance style (I believe). There is an entire wing of the castle that was never constructed. The castle is home to a multitude of museums, but we were short on time and couldn't actually go in (bummer). Behind the castle was one of the most impressive botannical gardens I have ever seen.

Most impressive was Uppsala Cathedral, originally built in the late 13th century. Like the castle, it was reconstructed in the Renaissance style because of the fire in 1702. It is currently the largest church in Scandinavia and, while originally Roman Catholic, now belongs to the Lutheran Church. I guess it isn't too surprising that, on the inside, the church was strikingly resemblant of the Cathedral here in Linköping, though the outside was constructed of brick (most others are stone).

Like many of the churches here, there were many famous burials in the church. The most notable is probably King Gustav Vasa, who led the movement to liberate Sweden from Danish (Kalmar Union) control in the early 16th century. He is also famous for his reign during the Reformation, which brought Protestantism to Sweden, and constructing a ship that sank after 10 minutes of service and is now on display in the Vasa Museum in Stockholm.

After Uppsala, we went to Martin's home in Hedemora, a town of 6,000 people northwest of Uppsala. I was very excited to have my first glimpse at a typical Swedish home and typical Swedish family life. Small-town Sweden was entirely surprising to me; the rural towns seemed better-developed than many similar towns in the United States. Others have described rural areas of Europe to me as backwards, some even lacking internet and clean drinking water, but that's hardly what I saw (though Scandinavia has proven itself time and time again very different from the rest of the continent). Hedemora had a fairly extensive bus system, the entire town was serviced by city water, and I hardly felt like I was in a sparsely-populated, backwoods area. Even the small towns in Sweden are fairly concentrated, like the cities. For comparison, many rural towns in New England lack city water, public transportation is non-existent, and it's hard not to feel entirely alone at times.

While in Dalarna, I was able to witness first-hand the rich music culture of Sweden. Martin's brother is a talented singer, and I attended a performance with his family at the music-based community college in Dalarna that his brother attends. The performance gave me my first true taste of typical Swedish music. The show featured covers of songs by famous Swedish artists, including Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Coldplay, the Rolling Stones... OK, it was all American music. There were even some country and bluegrass numbers thrown in, genres that I had always thought were strictly American. The influence of American pop culture in Sweden is truly remarkable. Some of my friends back home have wondered why I haven't picked up on any Swedish artists, movies, etc... that's because they listen to the same music and watch many of the same TV shows and movies that we do in the United States. As more than one Swede has put it, "we're like a 'Little America.' " I thought I was nuts at first, when I thought that Sweden had so many similarities to the US, but Swedes that have visited the US have confirmed the cultural mixing between the two countries.

To reflect a bit, while the cultural mixing occurs, the lifestyle differences between Sweden and the US were well-highlighted in the small towns. In the US, while rural towns are marked by (sometimes) large, spaced-out homes on multi-acre properties, Swedish towns somewhat resembled miniature cities with, albeit small, "downtown" shopping areas, clumped, mid-size houses in residential areas, and frequent bus stops. While most Swedes drive to work, even with the public transportation, few people work more than a half hour from home. Martin's father's house is actually heated in the winter using geothermal energy, and a little bit of electricity to get it going, a trend that is apparently spreading in Scandinavia. In general, I get the impression that people live more economically in Sweden than in the US, but I have not quite figured out if it is the result of government regulations and energy taxes or just a difference in culture and upbringing. Likely, it's a combination of the two. Taxes on energy are indeed higher in Sweden than in the US, but Swedes and other Europeans have said that they just don't see the "need" to live extravagantly.

On another note, while the US is on its anti-carb craze, the typical Swedish diet is loaded with breads and potatoes, and Swedes are well-known for frequent coffee and cake breaks throughout the day. Just an interesting fact... and that pretty much sums up my weekend.

Valborg

Valborg is a public holiday in Sweden celebrated on the last of April, and I believe it is taken as a "Labor Day" of sorts. May 1, the next day, is a labor holiday pretty much everywhere in Europe and also a day for labor groups to demonstrate. The celebration traditions in Sweden vary by city, but just about every city has a large gathering on the evening of April 30 with a bonfire. I was originally a little disappointed that after weeks of talking to the others about attending the student festival in Uppsala, I ended up here in Linköping. But, I got to experience the holiday a little better without the party atmosphere and spend time with my corridor mates, so it worked out extremely well.

In Linköping, the bonfire takes place at the waterlocks, along the river just south of the central station. I didn't even know that there were waterlocks in Linköping prior to Thursday night, and I'll be sure to go back at some point because it was probably the most beautiful part of the city. The bonfire was actually lit on a barge in the river, but it was small and there were so many people around we couldn't really get very close. Hence, I have no close-up picture of it, and when I tried from a distance there wasn't enough light outside for a good picture. There were some fireworks afterward to top off the evening, and downtown was hopping for the rest of the night. I should probably note that the days are getting eerily long... the fireworks were around 9:30 PM and it was still dusk; it was odd to see them against a day-ish sky. You could actually still see the light from the sun on the horizon.

Other than Valborg, the rest of the weekend has been a time for me to relax... and reflect a bit. My three and a half months or so here have been so fast-paced and hectic that I tend to forget what I'm actually here for. I originally had a vision of meeting other American students and roaming the continent. Neither happened, and this has been a better experience because of that. Just because I haven't visited ten countries doesn't mean I've done nothing... I mean, where else but Sweden could I have dogsledded in the Arctic? I guess what's most important is that I've learned more about myself and the rest of the world and matured as an individual.

As a newcomer, Ryd was an ideal place for me to live. If there is one thing, however, that could have made this experience better, it would be to have lived among students in the city (an option not necessarily available). Ryd is a bit offset and is kind of a students' "bubble." While this has been great from a social and logistical point of view, I could certainly have a better sense of Swedish/European life than I do at the moment. This has, however, opened my eyes to how the United States has influenced Europe so greatly. Student cultures in Europe and the USA are not terribly different with the internationalization of the current generation. While older Europeans and Americans are holding onto their cultural roots, I get a sense of homogenization when I look at the European students versus, say, UCONN students, and this is probably because of the influence of American pop culture in Europe. Celebrities in the US are celebrities here, and American music, movies, games, etc. abound. In the US, we rarely get any of these from Europe... save for, maybe, Abba. As a matter of fact, I have met some Swedish students from the Social Democratic Party of Sweden that traveled to the United States to help Barack Obama campaign and recruit members for the Social Democratic Party in the US.

I suppose that's all for now. I guess it's time I do some homework... and work a little more on my medical school essay?

Visby

OK, so it took two weeks, but this post will be about my weekend trip with Luca to Visby. Visby is on the western coast of the island of Gotland (Sweden) and is considered to be one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Europe. Indeed, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The island was once valued by surrounding nations; it was taken over by Denmark in 1361 but was then conquered by Sweden in 1645. Russia even ruled the island for a couple of months in the early 1800's, but Sweden peacefully regained control. As a side note, if you're ever going to be in Sweden for more than a couple of days, this place is a must-see. It was like something out of a fairy tale.

Visby is most famous for its medieval ring wall, which was first constructed in the 12th century and then reconstructed in the 13th to its current height; over the next 200 years or so, towers were added.

Interesting to me were the saddle towers. Of the 22 originals, 9 remained, and after observing the pattern of damage to the wall, it looked as if many of the places where the wall had collapsed once had a saddle tower. Just by looking at a saddle tower, one can see that it can make the local area of the wall top-heavy. Some were being supported by steel beams, a preservation method that is actually controversial to the locals because no steel was used in the wall's original construction.

Of course, Visby wouldn't be what it is without a sleu of church ruins. At first, I thought that the damge to the old churches was natural. In reality, when the Lubecks invaded Visby in 1525, they burned down all of the churches except for St. Mary's Cathedral. Incredibly, the ruins were left largely untouched.

St. Per and St. Hans:

St. Nicholas:

St. Mary's Cathedral is the only one of Visby's original churches still intact today. It was originally built in the 12th century and gained its current appearance, with the three towers, for lack of a better word, in the 13th century. Luca commented that it was the most beautiful church he had ever seen... and he's from Italy.

While in Visby, Luca and I visited Gotlands Museum (the Museum of Gotland), which chronicled the history of the island. Gotland has been inhabited since the Stone Age, but obviously most of the recorded history is much more recent. The museum contained the world's largest hoard of Viking silver (Spillingsskatten) with silver coins and jewelry on display. Viking weapons and tools were also shown. There were a couple of rooms dedicated to church artifacts, and there were wooden carvings and sculptures from some of Gotland's earliest churches. Christianity first came to Sweden in the 12th century, ending the Viking Era and beginning the Middle Ages.

The battle of July 1361 is famous; King Valdemar of Denmark crushed the inhabitants of Gotland to gain control of the island. The museum had an exhibition of weapons and armor from the battle, and even some skeletons to show the types of injuries that typical warriors would endure. Cryptic? A little. Interesting? Totally.

Another interesting exhibit was the basement. The museum was in a very old building and likely had a typical Middle Ages foundation. The basement was laid out as a simulation of a typical Medieval basement. Really interesting was the relative modernity of their waste disposal system, which was pretty much an underground network to carry waste outside of the city walls. Most people got their water from wells, which were also often located in the basement.

There were also some interesting structures outside of the city walls:

St. George's Church:

Don't really know:

At the time we didn't know it, and there were no signs around for information, but this structure was actually the only remaining Medieval gallows in Northern Europe:

And now for some scenery:

London with Allison

Just as Allison did, I would also like to apologize for not updating in a while, truth is I just haven't found the 20 minutes to half hour to just sit down and write. My two-week Spring Break began with a bang as I got to visit Allison in London for a few days. We spent four nights at the Astor Hyde Park hostel in Westminster. It was easily the nicest hostel I've visited in Europe: clean, friendly staff, and complimentary linens and breakfast for 15 pounds per night. In Scandinavia you'll pay at least 25% more and you're lucky if you get linens and/or breakfast included haha. This hostel was also in an extremely rich part of town, as evidenced by the following photos:

For those of you who aren't Jason, the car on top is an Aston Martin DB9, the one on the bottom is an Audi R8. Some Bentleys and even a Lamborghini were also around. Allison was a little annoyed with my obsession with the cars and tried to get me to look at the buildings instead haha.

Day 1: Our first day in London was all about sightseeing. It must have been interesting for Allison to, as she put it, re-live her first time there through me. We've all heard about the British Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, etc. in our history textbooks and from our teachers, but to actually see these historic landmarks is surreal. We started off by taking the Underground to Westminster bridge. My eyes turned into quarters when I saw Big Ben staring me in the face when I stepped out of the train station. The London Eye, the world's largest ferris wheel, was also clearly visible across the Thames.

So, Day 1 of our trip was incidentally Palm Sunday. Just so we didn't feel like little heathen children, Allison and I decided it would be a good idea to attend a church service. Since we were in the area anyway, we decided to go to... Westminster Abbey. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside (no tourists allowed in services) but I can tell you that it may have been the most amazing church I've visited in Europe. The fact that such a large, and I mean almost intimidating, structure has stood a 900-year test of time made it all the more impressive. Evidence of preservation work was present all over the place, though, like the steel beams propped in the arches to prevent collapse. The stained glass and interior architecture were out of this world. We followed the entering processiioin behind the altar, so we got to see the entire church. It was laden with many former kings' tombs, including I believe Henry VII (somebody correct me if I'm wrong).

After church, we decided to take a 10-15 minute stroll over to Trafalgar Square. I really have to hand it to Allison on her navigation skills, she did a wonderful job showing me around. While heading to the square, we passed by a long, wide walking path flanked by flags, and took a left. Allison remarked that it looked like the walkway to Buckingham Palace and about 5 minutes later we were... at Buckingham Palace, because we'd gone the wrong way. This would prove to not be the only time that Allison screwed up, but then we ended up at something famous. As a side note, I believe the Mexican flag was hung alongside the British near the palace, for reasons I don't know.

We then returned to Westminster Bridge and strolled over to the Tower Bridge. We passed my Big Ben, Parliament, and the London Eye once again, and saw some other notables, including the London Bridge and Globe Theatre. All in all, the London Bridge was disappointing. I don't know much about it (age, etc.), but it really looked like just an ordinary bridge. It's probably like the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen- infamous, but slightly overrated. Tower Bridge, on the other hand... wow. We could also see the Towers of London from a distance.

That pretty much ended the sightseeing portion of Day 1. We found a pub near Leicester Square (the West End) and I got my first crack at bangers n' mashed, and HG brown sauce. Allison hates brown sauce, and the look on her face was priceless when I told her I liked it. Honestly, it wasn't terribly different from steak sauce, but I guess Allison is more susceptible to the sourness added by a noticeably high level of vinegar.

Day 2: Each day had a theme, so to speak, and the second day was Windsor Castle, the world's oldest and largest castle still in use. Shamefully, a fire destroyed a large portion of the castle in 1995, and much of it was either refurbished or reconstructed. It was incredible nonetheless. The sheer detail in the decorations was breathtaking. Stone sculptures and carvings (in the walls) abounded, and where there wasn't a piece of stonework to impress there was always a painting or wall mural. No pictures were allowed inside but I got plenty from the outside.

We also got to walk around the town of Windsor. Really, the whole town was an historic landmark in itself. Old-style architecture abounded, I was surprised at how well-preserved it all was.

The fun certainly didn't end in Windsor. When we returned to the city we went to St. Paul's Cathedral and the house of Dr. Samuel Johnson. This excursion also brought us to Fleet Street, which wasn't necessarily anything special and is only famous because of the play and the pub that Dr. Johnson frequented.

Day 3: Museums... period. Allison and I ran around London and were able to visit the Natural History Museum (right next to our hostel), the National Portrait Gallery, and the British Museum.

We were pretty much able to scour the majority of the Natural History Museum in a couple of hours. Inside was exactly what you would expect: skeletons and models of extinct and current species on display. There was a huge section on evolution, however, that I found rather interesting, and this model of a blue whale with the skeleton above:

No pictures were allowed inside of the National Portrait Gallery, but I'd have to say that it's the best art museum I've visited. The main focus, obviously, was prominent British political figures and the retrieved portraits of nobility. However, there were sections set aside to honor prominent scientists. After Allison explained everything about every king we saw (thanks to Allison, by the way, you made it interesting), I felt special, and nerdy, when we passed by John Dalton and I could say a few things about the Billiard Ball model of the atom.

The British Museum was by far the best museum I've visited... anywhere. The sheer number of exhibits would take days to absorb, and some of the artifacts they had were quite literally priceless. The Rosetta Stone, which allowed linguists to begin cracking the code of Egyptian Hieroglyphics, was on display with a sleu of other ancient artifacts. There was Assyrian and Roman art, as well as artifacts from ancient Asia (kind of has a ring to it, huh?), which I honestly know next to nothing about.

At the end of our museum day, we took the Tube to Hyde Park, with the intent of walking back to the hostel through the park. It was getting dark, and we couldn't pinpoint the station on the map easily, so we ended up just taking the Tube to the hostel. We did try to at least enter Hyde Park for a little while, and Allison led me through this gate:

The gate was Wellington Arch, and the entrance to Hyde Park was actually across the street (where we came from). So, again Allison, thanks for leading me the wrong way and ending up at something I may have missed otherwise :)

Day 4: With a few hours left to spare, Allison and I took a walk through Hyde Park and visited Kensington Castle. We didn't go inside the castle, but we got some great pictures of the castle and the garden from the outside.

We also visited the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. It wasn't a fountain in the sense of the tall, vertically-projecting stereotype. Rather, it was more like a small moat elevated on one side, with the water flowing in opposite directions on each side. Nice place to sit and eat lunch.

This pretty much ends the London post. You can check Facebook for all the pictures, and if you want to know anything else, just talk to me on Facebook or AIM (or Skype if you have it). This was an extremely watered-down account of the trip, even though it may not seem like it.