Well, not quite. Maybe my ad lib title reflects my memories of visiting the Historik Museet today, looking at old viking swords and the loot won with them.
I´m in a quiet Stockholm suburb called Älta.
I´m in a quiet Stockholm suburb called Älta.
I love searching for the Swedish letters on the keyboard `ö´ , ´ä´, and my favourite ´å´ (pronounced ´awe´) Once again the immortal verdict of Vincent Vega comes to mind. They got the same shit over there they got here, but there it´s a little different. Just three extra letters. My old friend Johanna maintains one good reason for not taking her husbands name (Stål) is that it has a Swedish letter in it. ´Causes so much hassle when you are travelling´.
I have been learning a very specialised set of Swedish vocabulary The words I´ve learned, Johanna reminds me, aren´t very sophisticated or even useful. I can say ´hut´, ´doggy´, ´blanky´and not a lot else. You might have guessed - I have been spending quite a bit of time with her one year old.
I thought Norway would make me a bit homesick. It actually made me feel comfortable, it was so like New Zealand. Well, New Zealand at sixty degrees latitude with a very cute lilting language. Sweden seems more, well, developed. Stockholm (pictured below) is a real city, the kind that roars a bit; the mountains are all up north; and people are nationalistic without a sense of irony. (There are 30 or so specified days a year when traditionally you raise the Swedish flag on the, ahem, flagpole in your garden)
Image: Windowlicker (CreativeCommons-Attribution-Sharealike Licence)Nature is still incredibly close to hand. Just like Oslo, the forest starts before the city ends. Beautiful mixed forest of birch, pine and fir, smelling amazing, with a carpet of wild blueberries. Sprinkle liberally with small lakes and you have yourself a nice wee hinterland. I´m having a good time.
(Image: public domain)
3 comments:
It looks like the photo of Stockholm is of the very centre because the very centre is a confluence of rivers. Is that right? And did you like the centre of the city? Why aren't you going to Finland?
That´s right, it´s the centre. Confluence of rivers, making a bunch of islands all over the show. The water is brackish.
The triangle shaped island to the right is Gamla Stan, the old town, and the round green little island is Skeppsholmen where they used to build ships. There´s now an amazing sculpture park on it featuring colourful amorphous blobs and running rusty machinery. The bit at the top is also an island, Södermalm.
I´m not going to Finland because... um.... I´m not. :) It would take me an even longer time to get to Greece if I visited all the Baltic states. Thanks for your comments Julie.
Probably a more accurate way to describe the centre of Stockholm is not at a confluence of rivers, but centred on a tiny island in the channel that runs between a large lake dotted with islands (Malaren) and a part of the Baltic Sea with many peninsulas and islands. Very distinctive. Lots of places to swim :)
Post a Comment