Stockholm - the people you meet make all the difference!

Well the day after National Day in Norway I flew from Bergen to Stockholm. Not bad for $55 all-inclusive and flying to/from the major airports, unlike the budget airlines which usually fly to airports far away (1 1/2 hours) from where you actually want to go.

Stockholm was interesting, though I wouldn't say my favorite city. But the cool folks I met at the hostel more than made up for it! I rather enjoyÄ—d the free internet at the hostel, six computers in the basement and a free cappucino machine - just lovely! mmmm....another cappucino. Unfortunately I drank too much cappucino the first day and had trouble sleeping in late. ;) But not to worry, up early the next day to use more internet and catch up a bit on my travel journal...

bubble fight!!....and some questions are universal, no matter how poor or rich the government or the people are.

So anyway, on Saturday I did wander around the city and tried to make it to some tourist attractions. Unfortunately, the city was REALLY crowded and it began to feel a bit claustraphobic. In addition to the normal tourists and whatever else was going on (the hostels were all mostly full!), there was also a demonstration -- a group of people in wheelchairs and friends were on a peaceful march down a street, carrying messages about equal rights for all (in Swedish so I couldn't tell you exactly).

I did make it through the crowds and dodged the rain to go to the Vasa Museum, a whole huge museum built around this old ship. It was commissioned by a rich king or other important dude in power (sorry, gotta take better notes;), and had all kinds of intricate carvings and decorations. The rich dude was so proud of his ship and everyone gathered on the Sunday afternoon to watch it sail out of Stockholm harbor. Unfortunately, 20 minutes into its maiden voyage, a gust of wind came along, and it tipped on its side and sank. The designers were more interested in making it pretty and impressive, and forgot to make it seaworthy! doh! It was too top heavy. People speculated about what had caused the sinking (was it the Polish? the crew?) but it lay down on the bottom of the Baltic Sea for a while and it was forgotten about for many years.

Fortunately for us, the Baltic Sea is less salty than most salt water and so the seaworm that usually eats wood can't survive in the Baltic, which means the ship was amazingly well preserved. So this was great when an ambitious shipwreck hunter located the Vasa and raised up from the ocean floor. So now the museum displays this massive, gorgeous ship and tells all about its being built, sinking, being raised, and also about life back in the 1800's in Sweden. It was really interesting and neat to see, and my visit was well-timed to avoid the pouring rain. ;) I also took a boat cruise tour, saw an awesome rainbow, and just enjoyed wandering the city and taking pictures of cool stuff.

I also checked out the National Museum nearby the Vasa Museum which was interesting. I particularly liked the photo exhibit on display there, which was of different rural people from different areas in their everyday lives. Of course there were displays of old clothes and doll houses and toys and other cultural stuff. I found both the differences and some surprising similarities in cultures very interesting. They also had an interesting display on the "alcohol problem" in Sweden. In Sweden you can only buy alcohol in government-run liquor stores, and it used to be rationed and you could only buy so much, unless you had the right profession, lived in the right part of town or whatever and you could buy more. But Sweden may soon break down and become more liberal by starting to sell alcohol more widely than just the government stores.

Speaking of alcohol, I forgot to mention that on a train in Norway thru the gorgeous snowfields, I was sitting next to a Norweigan guy who was on his way to his mom's place in the countryside to help her graze the cattle (or something like that) -- a mini-vacation and springtime tradition for him. I asked him various questions about Norway, and at one point asked him why Norweigans seem to drink a lot - why I saw so many people around and about drinking. He seemed surprised that I thought Norweigans drank a lot, but his response was that alcohol is so expensive in bars that people can't afford to drink unless they buy their own liquor. And so they drink it outside. So I guess his answer was that Norweigans didn't drink more, but they were more publically visible. I'm not sure I agree 100% as it seemed like so many people drank so much, but it sounds like a good theory.

I also asked about national health insurance, as I had heard that Norweigans had their health insurance covered. Oh no, he assured me, it was not free, but very expensive. They had to pay the first XX kroners per year (which I calculated around $300) before everything else would be covered -- expensive. hmph. I told him that in the U.S. families can pay $1000 per month for health insurance and still had to shell out plenty of copayments. Quite a difference. I told him that I'd read that Norway has the best social programs (birth to death care, they say) as well as the highest taxes. He complained how the Norweigan government was cutting down all their social programs, though taxes kept going up and up. Where is the money going? What is the Norweigan government doing with all this money? hmph! Just goes to show these questions are universal, no matter how poor or rich the government or the people are.

So anyway, back to Stockholm. I met some cool folks at the hostel and ended up hanging around with them a lot. I met some Lithuanians and French speaking folks and we hung around and had lots of fun for a couple of nights. The first night the French speaking guys wanted to go out and I agreed since I hadn't been out on my trip yet, but it was a comedy of errors. Jean from Montreal and I were waiting for the guys from France (Ahmed and Karim), who had ended up in a random dorm room chit chatting. By the time I tracked them down and we were all together and ready to go out, it was a bit late for me so I wished them well and stayed in the hostel chatting with the Lithuanians who were really interesting. Turns out the French speaking guys didn't get back until 4am that night! It's funny; I would occasionally try speaking French with them, with usually not so good results. ;) ok, at least I tried.

The next day Jean and I followed Rick Steves' walking tour of Stockholm, well, more or less. It was fun. We toured the palace and all sorts of cool structures and neat throwbacks from the olden days. Near the end of the tour we passed by a supermarket but Rick's book said "don't stop at the market for picnic fixings yet -- go up the bridge and check out the lock blah blah and then come back." Which we did, but when we got to the supermarket it was about to close. Silly Rick! Had he led us astray?? Fortunately we were able to get dinner fixings before the market turned off all the lights on us. ;) And I tried mackarel for the first time which I actually rather liked.

That night we all tried again to go out and this time we actually did get out before midnight. It was the 3 French speaking guys mentioned before and their friends, a french couple (they went home a bit earlier than the rest of us). I didn't want to stay out too late, as I had a semi-early flight, but I did want to go for a walk as I hadn't seen Stockholm after dark. I told them I would walk them to the bar and back. We had tons of fun playing in a fountain that someone had added soap to -- a bubble fight! (we are all very young and playful at heart so we had tons of fun;) Then we got to the bar; hmmm....ok I would stay for 1 drink. But those darn guys! They were too much fun and we all ended up staying out really late. They kept asking me "what time do you have to get your shuttle bus for your flight tomorrow?" and I would say "9am! why are you more worried about it than me?" ;)

It's always fun to watch guys try to pick up women -- an interesting sociological observation. It's always more fun when it's the other women they are trying to pick up, rather than me. ;) At the last bar of the night Jean started dancing on the dance floor (errrr...more like a small space without chairs) and soon enough the whole place was dancing to rock and roll. It was tons of fun, dancing bodies everywhere! The guys kept trying to take pictures of themselves dancing with the hot women ;) But yep, we all had fun dancing and singing and laughing 'til the wee hours when we staggered home. Ok, I deny staggering ;) And I got up and made my shuttle bus to the airport just fine the next morning - with 2 minutes to spare!

In Sweden I had been trying this other social experiment that I started back in Norway. It's really radical -- you ready??! -- I smile a lot! I smile for no reason, just smile to smile and be happy. I'm sure people wonder what I'm up to. but it's been working well, as smiling does make you feel better and is actually contagious sometimes! Though I have to watch out when combining this with eye contact with men. But anyway, try it sometime -- just walk around with a big smile and see the reactions you get!

So that's Stockholm in a Nutshell! Ok, a little Norway too. ;) Just wait until my next update, when I will have more interesting tales to tell involving far more culture shock....

til then, be happy! seize the wonder in your own life!