A Weekend in Stockholm

Hello All, Sven Here!

This weekend we travelled to Stockholm with a few people from the program!  We stayed in a hostel and got a chance to explore the capital of Sweden a bit, despite some inclement weather.  We did quite a bit of sightseeing because the city was much bigger than Karlskrona and yet very clean for a larger city.  The buildings had a very European look to them as well.  We did see a few people sitting on the streets asking for money for the first time since arriving.

Stockholm is also a huge shopping town.  There are malls everywhere including under the streets, with H&M stores as frequent as Starbucks is in the states.  Stockholm also is on the water and is surrounded by many islands that have various attractions including large parks, museums, and fishing. 

 

One of the places we visited was the Museum of Modern Art which happened to have the travelling Salvador Dali exhibit this month.  It was very impressive seeing how diverse this man was- from writing, to fashion design, artist, worked with Walt Disney, etc.  I happened to be walking in the museum past a huge ball, that I thought was some sort of artsy chair (you know those artsy people), it looked kind of fuzzy so as I walked by, I stuck out my hand to touch it.  Suddenly, a museum security representative wearing earphones and full gear confronted me.  Turns out this “ball” was one of the art pieces on display, had “Do not Touch” signs all around it, a black box on the floor of “Do not Enter,” and was painted with poison paint!  After a Swedish lecture on manners and how to act in a museum, I was escorted to the restroom to wash off any poison.

 

Finally, on Sunday, we visited a large park on a nearby island which was home to the Vasa Museum.  The Vasa was a Viking ship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628.  It was salvaged in 1961 and reconstructed in the museum as 95% the original materials.  It was splendidly adorned with hundreds of carved sculptures.  It was very impressive to see the craftsmanship that went into these vessels.  The ship was huge and they had exhibits all around telling of how the made the ship, about the Vikings, life on board, etc.  One scary piece of information was that punishment on the ship was performed by tying a person to a rope and throwing them into the water, then they would drag the person under the ship to the other side, if the person survived, they surely did not misbehave again. http://www.vasamuseet.se/InEnglish/about.aspx

 

Swedish Fun Fact: 

The hostel we stayed at in Stockholm was split into two parts.  The one part was a normal hostel building, the other half of the hostel was on a ship in the sea anchored right outside the building.  It is a bit more expensive to stay on the ship, and we did not book it in time, however, it is quite a neat idea for a hostel.

 

Swedish Dish:  Tunnebrod Rulleor

Tunnebrod Rulleor is a Swedish fast food cuisine that can be found in pizzerias or street stands.  It is a sausage wrapped in a flatbread along with mashed potatoes, lettuce, fried onions, ketchup, and mustard.  I think it is fantastic! However I typically get two, because it is not the most filling of entrées.

 

Swedish Culture: 

So I found out that if you want to go out to a nice restaurant, bar, or club for an evening, Sweden has a dress code.  This dress code is primarily based on footwear.  You cannot wear sneakers out because they will not let you in.  They want you to wear nice leather shoes/boots.  So I took the opportunity to get the cheapest, stylish boots I could find.  The “style” here is a looong tipped boot, so after your foot stops, there is still a few inches of boot until it forms a point.  This is fine and looks natural unless you have a size 13 US shoe, 47 European.  Adding a few inches makes my feet look like, as Spud stated, “Ronald McDonald.”

 

Picture of the Week:

- Matt (Sven)