So first up was some local culture, our chlaustrophobic-lover's cathedral, Uppsala castle and its botanical gardens, and my corridor kitchen (thus touching on all definitions of culture). It was also a chance for my fellow European buddies to test their ability to understand the kiwi accent with Sarah, and after 5 months of practice with me they more than lived up to the challenge. With only a week in which to cram the entire Swedish experience however, we parted with Uppsala and headed south to the capital and onto the island of Gotland.
The last supper with some fellow studentsThe first mission in Stockholm was to the massively impressive Vasa museum, which houses the massively impressive 17th century warship the Vasa that's made even more impressive by the pirates of the Caribbean theme tune which is running as background music in your head. Well, at least in mine. Ironically it's the impressiveness which caused the ship to sink in the first place, on it's maiden voyage, due to the massive number of wooden carvings which adorned her making it top heavy. The thing never made it out of the harbour before it keeled over in a slight breeze and sinking to the ocean floor, only to be virtually forgotten about until the 60's. It was then salvaged and dry docked and as it was the biggest and most lavish warship of it's time, and the only one like it in the world, it was over the years painstakingly restored. In order to preserve it once lifted out of the water, it was sprayed with glycol for 17 years and dried for a further 9 years, however the level of sulphur still present in the wood creates 100kg of acid a year which could eventually destroy it completely. Best go check it out while its still around.
The streets of Stockholm never host a boring exploration, and even in the cold and rain, my 10th trip to the Swedish capital was no different. So the last few hours before having to catch the train to the ferry port town further south were spent wandering the cobbled streets of the old city, and chillaxing on the waterfront. Walking through the whopping 35 inch wide Marten Trotzigs alley reminded me of being born, only this time round you either can't stop, or be collected by the next wave of perceptually-obese people navigating the steps behind you. Then beyond the alleys and cobbled squares adorned by slanting buildings is the Royal Palace - home to Sweden's King and Queen and a rather amusing changing of the guard ceremony (at least so Sarah thought). Its easy to be fooled by the perceived calm in the photos, but on this day (and only on this day) the new grads shattered that ideal like the glass from a spent bottle (you'll see the relevance soon). We learnt that when you graduate from gymnasiet (college) its custom to kit out a gravel truck with a sound system, pack as many students in as possible, fill up the empty gaps with bottles of alcohol, and drive the streets of the city from sun up to sun down. The convoy can be heard a mile off and as we learnt the hard way, make sure you give yourself a good 2m between truck and self to avoid getting as saturated in beer as the students themselves. Sweet idea for a party. And the irony was that we were making our way to the island of Gotland to see some Swedish friends of mine, who had a brothers graduation party the night after we arrived. So really Stockholm was just an introduction..
Sarah and me in Gamla Stan (old town), StockiSo the mission continued as we hauled ourselves through another 5 hours of traveling on our way to the island of Gotland to see my buddies Lotta, Cajsa, and Emilie, and the families and locals which make the island unlike any other.
(And in case you're wondering, the second slice of home is Gotland, where the abundance of hospitality, farmers, and sheep make it a mini NZ by itself).
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