Holy Week in Stockholm!

Though I arrived in the center of Stockholm in a cloud of San Francisco style fog, it was clear to me that this was a different type of city from Copenhagen. Larger, and more complex feeling because it is made up of islands and water is everywhere even more so than was the case in Copenhagen, Stockholm felt like the regal capital of Scandinavia that it claimed to be. I was starving, so grabbed some pizza in the train station and did some active people watching, and then set out to find my hostel. It was a pretty short walk to one of the coolest hostels I have stayed in. City Backpackers is located behind its own café, and is full of common rooms, very clean bathrooms, and little bedrooms named after various towns and regions in Sweden. The kitchen was huge – and seemingly always full of guys making pasta – the TV room was full of couches and chatty people and books to borrow, the WiFi was fast even in the rooms, and the beds were cozy. I met a couple of nice, but not particularly sociable, Finnish girls in my room where I dropped off my things and headed out exploring.

Down past the train station and across the water to Gamla Stan by way of the Swedish Parliament building, a beautiful building that manages to seem classical and modern all at the same time, and is situated right next to the royal palace. The spires of the old churches rose into nothingness thanks to the fog, making for some interesting vistas. The narrow alleys and cobblestone streets led me to things like the Royal Opera, National Museum, and plenty of monuments and churches along the way. I got a little lost, which was perfect since it let me explore and wander since I had no real agenda for the day and everything was pretty much closed since it was already 5 or 6 in the evening, and wandered my way around for a few hours until I found myself back in the center of the new city, and ducked into a mall for a cup of coffee and was astonished by all the Easter decorations – including a giant chocolate bunny and a chocolate fountain! On the way back to the hostel it started to rain, so I holed up with a book on my ipod and half paid attention to the movie playing in the TV room.

The next day was Holy Thursday, and I needed my umbrella on the hour walk to the Vasa Museum, which contains a ship raised from the bottom of the harbor that has been incredibly well preserved. On the way I circled the harbor, again resolved to return in the summer when all of the sight-seeing boats currently closed up and moored would be actively showing tourists around this beautiful city. The Vasa Museum itself is incredibly impressive even before you make it inside. Sticking out of the roof are replicas of the ship’s masts, reaching to their original heights. Inside the museum – you have to walk through about three sets of special doors due to the special climate control systems – the rest of the ship has been preserved almost in its entirety. It is impossible to capture it all on camera, and a rather indescribable feeling to know you are looking at something that was last seen some 400 years ago. The funny thing is that the ship was a failure, it sank on its first voyage because it hadn’t been balanced correctly, it just keeled right over. Since it was brand new, it was in pristine condition when it sank, and was preserved by the mud on the sea floor and the lack of wood eating worms in the less salty waters of the Baltic Sea. The process of removing it was quite the ordeal, cables were passed through tunnels dug by divers under the hull, and the ship was pulled in its entirety to a dry dock to be restored with chemicals to replace the water in the wood. It is an incredible achievement that they were able to restore the ship so beautifully, and the accompanying exhibitions about life onboard and in Scandinavia at the time were also very interesting and well done. I spent many hours in the museum, and by the time I emerged the sun was shining in a blue sky full of fluffy white clouds.
I walked back towards the center in a roundabout way through parts of the city I hadn’t seen, more residential feeling with an incredible amount of green space. Found a beautiful golden church where they were rehearsing for an Easter concert, the National Library, and museums of Music and the Military, as well as multiple parks and monuments, before my legs started yelling that I’d been walking for hours and my stomach reminded me that I had missed lunch and it was already early evening. I stopped in a book market just before it closed and bought the second book in the Millennium trilogy, detective novels actually by a Swedish author that take place in Stockholm, a friend had lent me the first one back in St. Petersburg, and then walked over to treat myself – or had madre and padre treat me – to a Caesar salad in honor of Holy Thursday at the TGI Fridays in the park by the Opera. I spent a wonderful hour or two reading and savoring every bite of romaine lettuce, and made friends with the Swedish family next to me when their toddler’s balloon went astray. Everyone I met spoke wonderful English and didn’t give you the slightest bit of attitude about not speaking Swedish, and were all very friendly and helpful. The waitresses were incredibly attentive, the ice water was wonderful and I’m sure from the tap, and no security guards had to throw out a bunch of old drunk men just because it was happy hour. Simply put, the perfect break from Russia. And did I mention they had romaine lettuce?

That night after I got back to the hostel I hung out with the German woman who had showed up in my room, actually I had moved rooms because that’s just how the booking had worked out, so we had a good time talking in a mixture of German and English about traveling and things, she just had the week off from work before the Easter holiday and had wanted to go somewhere new so had gotten a cheap flight from Munich. The next day was Good Friday, so I read until about midnight and went to bed early. I got up early to head to City Hall, which a friend recommended I climb to get the best views of the city. I was grateful for my time in Russia this winter as the brisk wind blowing in off the water – which still had ice in more than a few places – was chilling the bones of the Spanish tourists standing in line with me. The climb to the top was long and windy, through many twists and turns in brick corridors, but the view from the top was beautiful. It was fun to be able to place all the places I had been and note places I still wanted to go in the city. The park island of Skansen, where the Vasa Museum is located, is like a sea of green in the middle of the city, and the many church spires and hilly topography reminded me of Salzburg. After making my way down I walked across to the old city, watched the changing of the guard at the royal palace and then stumbled upon a Good Friday procession making its way through the streets of the old town. Though I had planned on making Good Friday a day of visiting all the beautiful old churches in the city, almost all of them were closed for work, or just closed, until June. Really need to come back to Scandinavia. It made for an interesting adventure of a day, however, and eventually led to my stumbling into the beginning of a Good Friday evening service in the Catholic Cathedral where I was planning on going to Easter Mass. Later I went on a night-time exploration of the city in a contemplative mood, and loved being able to hear the sounds of the water all around now that the sounds of the day had been quieted. It was a crisp, clear night, and I walked around for a while enjoying the fresh air and peacefulness that had descended on the city.

The next day I headed to Skansen to meet Deborah, the younger sister of my thesis advisor back in Athens, Dr. Weitsman. I was actually kind of nervous, Dr. Weitsman has told me I remind her of her sister a few times and I respect her so much I wasn’t sure what to make of spending the day with her sister and her family. But she got off the bus in a red Indiana University pullover looking quite a bit like her sister but maybe a little smaller, hugged me and introduced me to her husband, Akihiro, and her 5 ½ year old daughter, Hannah. Skansen is an outdoor park full of old-style buildings exhibiting Swedish village life and a zoo of Scandinavian animals, so the plan was to walk around and enjoy the weather, which we certainly did. Though happily interrupted often by Hannah, I had an amazing time getting to know Deborah and Akihiro, who had met in Japan while Debbie was teaching English there and married in the US while getting their graduate degrees. Akihiro holds degrees in Political Science and Anthropology, and has worked as a professor around the world including at the moment in Sweden and Germany two days a week. It was interesting talking about the different university systems around the world in relationship to different cultures. Debbie was very interested in what I had been up to, to be able to study abroad so often and we talked a lot about living abroad and how she ended up in the lifestyle she has found. She was more than willing to share her experiences, and walking around Skansen it felt like we had known each other for longer than just a few hours. In between all of these conversations I was seeing how far I could long jump and climbing on ‘spider webs’ with Hannah, who is a very outgoing five year old to say the least. She taught me a few words in Swedish, which was very entertaining, and reminded me how much fun spending time with children can be, something I don’t get to do much of here in Russia. She has already had some pretty great life experiences, and it was fun seeing them through her eyes as well as her parents.

Skansen itself was quite entertaining as well, from blue herons to seals and wild boars to buffalo lolling about and bears sleeping in trees, there was always something to see. The blue sky was incredible, and the day passed by quickly, running into a few of Hannah’s friends from school along the way and stopping for a pony ride at one point as well – unfortunately, I was too old ☺, but Hannah enjoyed it! At some point early on Hannah asked whether I was coming over after, to which we all responded that no, I had to get back to my hostel, for which we received a pout and a few minutes of protesting before she relented. A little while later, however, Debbie invited me over for dinner – with Akihiro’s laughing caveat that it was Passover, so it wouldn’t be gourmet. I had enjoyed the day immensely, spending time with such a welcoming family after almost a week on the road was an incredible blessing, and I couldn’t have said no to the little hand pulling on my arm begging me to say yes, even if I had wanted to. So I accepted the invitation, and was immediately hugged by Hannah who then requested a piggy back ride to the bus stop. So I carried Hannah to the bus, while Debbie carried my purse, and we piled into the bus where Hannah happily swiped my transit card and told me stories all the way home. We stopped at the store for some ice cream for an after-dinner treat, and Debbie made sure that one of them didn’t have chocolate in it since it was still Lent for me. That small gesture made me feel so welcomed even after spending the day with them that I almost hugged her right there, but was pulled off to look at the very interesting cereal selection by an eager Hannah. We also stopped in a department store for some socks, and Hannah gave her mom permission to go with dad, she was certain I could look after both of us. So we tried on nearly every headband in the store before we were ushered away to walk the final bit home, where I was immediately shown a Disney princess play tent and a book to read before dinner. Sometime during the tour I heard Debbie on the phone saying, “I have someone you know in my house”, which made me laugh and realize she was talking to Dr. Weitsman back in the US. About halfway through the book I was reading to Hannah we called her on skype, which was quite fun. I am incredibly grateful to her for being willing to introduce me to her sister and share her family with me, the day I spent with them was by far the best day of the trip and came at the perfect time when I was coming to realize just how much I missed my family over the Easter holiday. After a wonderful dinner, tea, ice cream, and losing about 10 games of Uno, I headed back to the hostel with a goodie bag for lunch the next day of the delicious lasagna we’d had for dinner and some fresh fruit. I was incredibly touched by their kindness all day, and as you can probably tell by the amount of space in this blog detailing Saturday’s events, I am still incredibly grateful and touched every time I think about it. I sincerely hope that one day I can repay them for their incredible kindness to me. I arrived back at the hostel very happy and exhausted, packed a little and collapsed into bed.

Easter Sunday dawned clear and warm, and I put my bags in a day locker since I was flying out in the late afternoon and walked over to the train station to meet a friend who had worked at the Cleveland Council on World Affairs when I had interned there over winter break. I hadn’t realized she was back in Sweden, but luckily Josie contacted me on facebook and we met for Easter breakfast before parting ways to go to church. It was great to catch up with her, she’s an incredible sweetheart with lots of fun experiences and just very easy to chat with, we had a great time catching up and laughing about AJ Roccos and the quirks of CCWA. It was a real blessing to start off Easter with her, and as she headed to go set up for her church’s Easter celebration I took my place in the Catholic church for Easter Mass in Swedish! The church is a large one, and was more than completely full with what seemed to be a very diverse congregation. Thankfully the only part that was really lost on me was the homily, since I could follow along with the readings in the Bible I brought and know the parts of the Mass pretty much by heart. It was fun to celebrate the holiday among a truly global family of believers! After Mass I did some last minute souvenir shopping since I had planned on doing it Saturday but ended up staying with Debbie’s family all day, and headed to the airport on a bus. Made it home to St. Petersburg without a hitch, and host mom had tea and chocolate and cake waiting for me in my freshly cleaned room, and I caught a few hours of sleep before starting class the next morning. And so, travel week came to an end and the rest of the semester began.