Going Holm

Stockholm, 3 April

Nothing is ever easy, eh? Johanna and I were rolling our eyes this morning when our direct train to Stockholm this morning was cancelled and we ended up having to go to Malmo to change trains for the 5 hour journey to the capital. I was quite excited to see what Sweden is like, though. After visits by Mom, Bryan, and Pete in the last few years, I'm interested to see it for myself.

After aimlessly walking around the train station for a bit, we met May right outside. She and her husband Malcolm are friends of Johanna's parents from their days living in Montreal and they now live in Stockholm, where Malcolm works for a democracy promotion organization. They're originally from Glasgow but they and their four sons have lived all over the world, including three Canadian provinces and a nine-year stint in Lesotho, South Africa. They've been incredibly kind to let us stay with them for the past couple of days -- I've learned so much, not only about Sweden but also about their adventures living and working abroad while raising their children!


May gave us a bit of a walking tour of the city from the station to their flat and then back to the Gamla Stan, the Old Town. They call Stockholm the Venice of the North, which makes sense because it's in the middle of an archipelago in the Baltic Sea. There are bridges everywhere, and especially to Gamla Stan, which is its own island. It was great fun walking with May and listening to her explain some of the sights, the history, and some of her experiences here so far.

We capped off the day with a lovely spaghetti dinner and tried some krackebrod, Swedish crackerbread, with herring. As May says, the Swedish may overdo it on the potatoes, but they know their fish!

4 April


We reveled in the joy of preparing our own breakfast this morning, taking our leisurely time before walking to Djurgarden, the old royal hunting grounds. It's now a national park and contains an open-air museum named Skansten. It's an area containing authentic historical buildings brought in from across Sweden, as well as an extensive zoo. Johanna and I melted into ten-year-olds again at the sight of the wolves, brown bears, Gotland ponies, elk, owls, and foxes that they have. We didn't even mind that the animals were all sleepy (except the bears, who almost looked like they had bear ADD, hopping about in their enclosure) and that the owls glared at us when we took their picture. Oh, well!


Still sucking on our lollipops from Skansten, we headed to the Vasa Museet, which May and Malcolm told us we couldn't miss. In 1961, Swedish archaelogists raised an almost fully preserved 17th century war ship from Stockholm's harbour. They reconstructed it and built a museum around it. Walking inside and seeing it for the first time is haunting-- it's absolutely massive and in sheer foreignness, quite striking. It has a strange presence. And because you know it's not a film set, the reality that people lived and worked on it hits you. Perhaps that explains the hushed atmosphere in the museum-- you're looking at a ghost ship.


We spent a few hours inside before walking back to Gamla Stan. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon and everyone was out enjoying the sunshine in the tiny cobbled streets or at the wide-ranging docks. We meandered a while eating gelato before going back to May and Malcolm's for a yummy meal of salmon and salad.


The evening was wonderful too, listening to May and Malcolm's stories. They've both got the Scottish gift for storytelling and we had great conversations about every imaginable topic over a few cuppas and Scottish oatcakes. They've been so wonderful to us, even offering to walk us to the station tomorrow when we catch our shuttle to the airport. Going home... it feels like we've been travelling for so much longer than three weeks! After spending almost 60 hours on trains and going all the way from Hungary to Sweden, I'm not surprised :).