Before I start on my 'oh what a pretty city Stockholm is', an update on what I did before getting there.
Amongst other activities, I visited the city (town, actually) of Ostersund. It is known for...well....er....umm....actually nothing. There are only two places of note in that town - the state museum (which oddly enough, only opens on saturdays. So much for being tourist friendly) and 'Jamtli' - a kind of exhibition/farm that has been recreated in a fashion of of village of an era gone by. Given that this was the non-touristy season, I missed out on...
Before I start on my 'oh what a pretty city Stockholm is', an update on what I did before getting there.
Amongst other activities, I visited the city (town, actually) of Ostersund. It is known for...well....er....umm....actually nothing. There are only two places of note in that town - the state museum (which oddly enough, only opens on saturdays. So much for being tourist friendly) and 'Jamtli' - a kind of exhibition/farm that has been recreated in a fashion of of village of an era gone by. Given that this was the non-touristy season, I missed out on the people there who are dolled up in late 19th C / early 20th C attire. But the exhibition there on Nordic / Viking history was interesting (even though all the signs were in Swedish - the only signs I understood where the ones pointing towards the toilet and the bar). Having said that, it is really surprising that in Sweden there are hardly any signs in English (and that holds true for a well-trudged city like Stockholm also). And to make matters ironic, the lady at the ticket counter at Jamtli asked me where I was from. When I told her India, she seemed to be quite surprised. But you speak good english, she said (the word good was just about inserted in the sentence). I wanted to tell her 'Honey, more people speak english in India (and that too better) than the entire population of your country. Many times over." But then I remembered I was a visitor in her country and merely smiled.
Dinner was at an Indian restaurant (the only one for the entire town) and the food was surprisingly good - the place was run by an Indian / Pakistani / Bangladeshi trio who have to travel every week to Stockholm in their camper to stock up on provisions - I assume Garam Masala and Dhania are not easily available in Ostersund. They were more than excited to see me - there are only 8 people from the subcontinent in that entire town and they get few Indian tourists who are foolish enough to travel to back of beyond in Sweden.
One the outskirts of Ostersund is the Island for Froson which, surprisingly, is rather well-known in Sweden - the reason being that it has a 12th C church which is extremely popular for marriages - waiting lists apparently run in years.
"Honey, would you like to marry me"
"Why Sven, I thought you'd never ask. Ofcourse"
"How about in 2015?"
The Island has an extremely picturesque golf course - I can imagine it would be a pleasure to tee off with the lakes and mountains and snow-clad peaks as a backdrop to forget ones poor handicap or one's wife one married in the church close to the course. The lake (Storsjon) that separates the Island from Ostersund is also supposed to have its own monster (a la Loch Ness).
The biggest problem I faced, apart from language and the fact that I was the only one who did not have a beautiful blue-eyed blonde by his side, was that of late nights. No, I'm not taking about imbibing Akvavitas till the morning hours but the fact that since Are (the place where I stayed) was about 600 miles north of Stockholm, the sun used to set and rise at ridiculous hours. The first two nights I didn't have a problem since I was dead tired. Third night onwards I used to be up the whole night - even though the sun would set around 11 it would never get totally dark. There would be a hazy bluish light throught the remainder of the night till the sun rose. Looking out of the window one could clearly see the lake and all the mountains in the background. The fact that I was reading a 'thriller' written by a Swedish author ('The Fifth Woman' by Henning Mankell: for those who really want to know) which was about a series of killings in rural Sweden made it even more difficult for me to doze off.
Went for another drive towards Norway (surprisingly, it becomes much greener and scenic the moment one leaves the Swedish border to cross into Norway - I'm not being disrespectful to Sweden but am merely stating the truth). This is because the warm gulf stream keeps Norway hotter than Sweden - so whilst there was spring in Sweden, summer was in full swing in Norway. Driving along the fjord was, yet again, a pleasure. Btw, it is the law, in Norway, that one has to drive with one's car lights on even during the day (compare this with Chennai, where they refuse to turn on the lights even during the night). That day I visited the town of Steinjker (which was about as North as I've even been in my life). It predictably had no sights apart from a very unchurchlike church (photographs will explain). The people there seemed to be reasonably well-fed (as they would say in my part of the world "khaate peete khaandaan ka lagta hai". Suddenly, I felt as if I was transported into Scotland!. Though I found Sweden not to be very expensive (compared to the UK, atleast), Norway was clearly dearer. What costs 100 SEK in Sweden costs 100 NEK across the border - just a minor matter that 1 NEK = 1.5 SEK.
Now onto Stockholm - it is easily amongst the more stylish cities I've been to in a long time. The first thing that strikes the visitor is that there is so much of water all around. Naturally, for it is not a city but a collection of 14 pretty islands. Parts of it reminded me of Venice (but sans the stink, dirt, and paper and coke bottles and beer cans floating in the waters). The city (I'm now talking about Stockholm and not Venice) was an extremely impressive facade of beautiful buildings in the old style (baroque?). This coupled with a smattering of extremly tall-spired and elegant churches adds to the skyline. And the fact that every second person is a beautiful blue-eyed blonde dressed sharply leading their well-dogicured poodles, makes it a sheer pleasure to walk along the banks of the waters in the city. Stockholm is also a shoppers paradise with an H&M in almost every corner (I finally found out what the 'H' and 'M' stand for Hennes and Mauritz). Besides, there are a number of large departmental stores - the Harrods-equivalent being NK and Ahlens city. There is also a chain called 'Indiske' which sells, yes you've guessed it, Indian inspired designs.
As expected, affluence is in the air - and also in the waters - almost everyone seems to own a yacht with non-stop parties on them - straight out of the cigarette or alcohol ads - replete with champagne and stunning women in mini-skirts and bikinis (my almost 37-year old heart aslo skipped quite a few extra beats).
The touristy part of Stocholm has a very Former-Soviet-Republicky name - Gamlastan. It has a preponderance of antique shops and gelatarias. The square in front of the Nobel Museum (yes THE Swedish Academy building) is extremely mediterranean in appearance. A number of cafes jutting onto the street with coloured buildings all around and a fountain in the middle. Often during the evenings an orchestra plays there which makes wafting in and out of shops to the sounds of Chopin, Brahms et al a delectable pleasure. The Royal Palace (also on that Island) has a not-too impressive changing of the guard ceremony. The guards themselves looked rather bored as go about the ridiculous motions of replacing one another. But it is a tourist draw - the sight to behold is that of the cavalry moving from one part of the city to the other on horseback.
The weekend I was there, the Stockholm marathon took place - it is an extremely picturesque route as the runners struggled from one island to the other. It was some sight to see so many blonde beauties running (none of them after me!) with stunning baroque buildings, bridges, and churches in the background. The next day almost everyone (except me, that is) sported 'Stockholm Marathon'08: Finisher' t-shirts. Certainly made me feel out of shape!!! Maybe some day.
Stockholm has a number of impressive museums, though I opted to visit only a few - Modern Museum (which has a large collection of Picasso, Munch, Braque, Dali, Matisse, Kandinsky, LIchtenstein, Duchamp and Warhol. There I only stuck to names I knew - carefully avoiding the avant-garde (so-called) artists who consider placing a commode in the middle of a room as Art and expression of their inner feelings. The other museum was the National Museum which also had a number of works by Cezanne, Gauguin, Monet, Manet, Degas, Rembrandt, Reubens, and my personal favourite Renoir (whose 'La Grenouillere' is matched only by Monet's work of the same name). However, the museum that took the cake was the 'Vasa Museum' which is about a sunken warship. How can a museum about a ship be interesting, you would ask (some would ask 'How can ANY museum be interesting?'). But trust me this museum is really unique. On its maiden voyage in 1628, the warship 'Vasa' sank before it could cover even 1 mile. The sinking was due to a flawed design - the ship was top heavy. However, it was paintstakingly recovered from the waters in the 1960s (more than 300 years after it sank) - it was 'lifted' clean from the waters over a one and a half year period. Later it was housed in this innovative musuem.
One strange sub-culture that exists in Stockholm (and other parts of Sweden) is that of 'Raggare' which very roughly translates as 'pick-up artist' (yes, we're talking about picking up women here). The aresenal at the disposal of these Raggares are cars - V8-powered cars and other large american cars that are straight out of 1950s USA (such as the Fintail Mercedes, Volvo Amazon etc.). They go on their rounds of the city looking for opportunity to pick up women. The sight of these old cars is really common and immediately takes one back to the 50s. These Raggares also dress up in the Elvis or John-Travolta-in-Grease style - a veritable time machine. One is transported back even further by the trams of Stockholm (they seem to be the original 1940s issues). Stockholm truly is a timeless city (a cliche, I just couldn't resist).
PS: I was in Sweden for about 10 days and I didn't get to see any advertising or shops of Ikea. Only on my last day, on the bus towards the airport, did I see an Ikea store. Though Sweden has McDonalds, it has no Starbucks (thank God for small mercies).
PPS: More research has revealed that 'Vacuum cleaners' are called 'Dammsugare' (small pastry with a cover of green marsipan with the ends dipped in chocolate. Inside it has a mix of crushed cookies, butter, and cacao).
(May, 2008)
