Part Two: Stockholm

Hej! Welcome to Part Two of my Sweden blog. This is a collection of thoughts and comments from my visit to Stockholm in June 2009.

The Vasamuseet

Our first day in Stockholm began with a visit to the Vasamuseet, which is a museum containing the salvaged wreckage of a 17th century warship called Vasa.

When she was built, Vasa was meant to be the best and most powerful warship ever. This fearsome vessel set sail from Stockholm harbour in 1628 but sank after 5 minutes. The ship sank partly because it had too many cannons, which made it top-heavy, and also because the captain set sail with the lower gun ports open. A bit of a schoolboy error there.

Disco Beats and Narrow Streets

We had left the museum and were walking across town when something very surreal happened. We started to hear dance music, distant at first, but steadily getting louder and louder. Moments later we were astonished to see several trucks appear filled with drunk, screaming young Swedes going absolutely crazy.

It turned out that these were high school graduation celebrations. Alcohol is heavily taxed in Sweden and Swedes are generally very modest drinkers - except when they graduate!

We spent the afternoon wandering through the beautiful narrow streets of the Old Town, which is called Gamla Stan. As you can see, we had to go out armed with umbrellas as the weather was a bit drizzly.

We found the narrowest street in Stockholm, Mårten Trotzigs Gränd, which is only 90 cm across at its narrowest point.

We then staged a reconstruction of the cover picture on the Lonely Planet guide to Stockholm. We were quite pleased with it!


Marching Tunes and Fancy Rooms

The next day we visited the Royal Palace. Before we went in we noticed a large crowd outside, and went over to see what was going on. It turned out to be some sort of show by the Royal Guards, involving a lot of shouting, marching, drum-banging and stick-twirling.

This guy was our favourite. He was playing the flute in the back row of the marching band, and we think that it was his first show. He was so nervous his feather plume was really shaking and you could see his shoulders slowing rising up and down as he tried to take deep calming breaths. But he did really well and made it to the end of the show without making a mistake. Phew!

Once the traditional ceremony was over the marching band suddenly broke into 'Dancing Queen' by Abba, which went down a storm with the crowd!

We then took a tour of the Royal Apartments. These were very ornate and spacious, but I couldn't live there - they were too formal for me, and I would always be worried about spilling something on the carpet.


Island Hopping

Stockholm is built on fourteen separate islands. In the afternoon we crossed to Södermalm island for a walk along its northern shoreline. From here there were good views of the Old Town from across the water.



A Fond Farewell

That is pretty much it for Part Two of my Sweden blog.

So what did I think of Sweden? Well, Sweden is nice, clean, tidy, friendly, dependable, safe. It is not stunningly beautiful or overwhelmingly exciting but consistantly pleasant. I think my impression of Stockholm was tainted somewhat by the fact that it was overcast and rainy while I was there - I expect it would look much better in the sunshine. Sweden is also very expensive and this limits what you can do on a student budget.

Overall I really enjoyed the trip. I think this was mainly due to the people I was with, so I would like to thank Scott, KJ, Giorgos and Gaurav for making the trip so fun.

Thank you for reading my Sweden blog and I hope you have enjoyed it. This is the first blog I have ever written, so any comments or feedback you have would be very welcome. Tack!

Part One: Örnsköldsvik

The following is an account of my trip to Sweden in June 2009. I went to Sweden with four other Masters students from Imperial College - Scott, KJ, Giorgos and Gaurav. The reason we went there was to attend a two-day bioenergy study tour funded by the EUREC Agency. The study tour was based in Örnsköldsvik (pronounced 'urn-shools-veek'), a small town 400 miles north of Stockholm. After the study tour ended Scott and I then spent two more days in Stockholm.

Part One of this blog covers the two days we spent on the bioenergy study tour. The time Scott and I spent in Stockholm is covered in Part Two.

Swedish Techno and the Journey North

We flew to Stockholm Skavsta from London Stansted. On the plane I happened to sit next to a 19-year-old DJ named Stana, who it turns out is a big name on the Swedish techno music scene. Stana was on his way back from a gig in Norwich. I didn't know Swedish techno was big in Norwich, but there you go. He had his laptop with him and very kindly gave me (and everyone else in the cabin) a sneak preview of his latest track. You can check out Stana's banging tunes at his myspace page.

When we arrived in Stockholm we rented a car to drive to Örnsköldsvik. The distance is roughly equivalent to driving from London to Glasgow and the journey took us 11 hours in total. We passed the time by playing the brilliant car-journey game Contact and singing along to Shanty Town by Mr Scruff ("Whale fish, whale fish, whale fish, and the whale was in full view..."). The map below shows our journey north along Sweden's eastern coastline from Stockholm to Örnsköldsvik.


Moose-less

Despite a large number of these bright yellow warning signs on the motorway, we discovered that it is unlikely you will encounter a moose on the road in Sweden. We did a lot of driving and didn't spot a single moose.

KJ did, however, see a small bear sitting on a log by the side of the road (although this claim remains unconfirmed).

The Youth Hostel and Bright Nights

We stayed in a youth hostel in Örnsköldsvik. The youth hostel was huge. Us boys had the entire basement floor to ourselves, which was an underground labyrinth of small rooms, dark corridors and mysterious noises. Meanwhile KJ slept upstairs in a luxury suite, complete with a jacuzzi!

Örnsköldsvik is located 3° South of the Arctic Circle. The sun does go down at night but it remains light enough outside to read a book. The time on Scott's watch in the photo above is 11:45 pm.

The Wood Pulp Factory of Death

The first day of the study tour began well with a tour of the SEKAB bioethanol production plant, which makes bioethanol (an alternative to petrol) from wood chippings. The car on the right was in the car park and presumably belongs to the boss.

However, things rapidly took a turn for the worst when this was followed by a tour of the neighbouring Domsjo sulfite fibre mill. This wood pulp factory was a terrible place - room after room of hot, deafening machinery with dirty puddles of chemicals trickling across the floor. Worst of all, the air was thick with sulfur dioxide fumes and the smell was unbearable (the SO2 was also not good news for me as I am a part-time asthmatic). We were glad to leave.

Electricity, Steam and Eating Ice Cream

In the afternoon we visited a brand new Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant built by Övik Energi. As well as generating electricity this power station provides hot steam for district heating and local industrial processes. Below is a photo of KJ, Scott, Gaurav and myself modelling Övik Energi's latest health and safety gear on the roof of the CHP plant.

It was a lovely sunny afternoon so after the tour ended we went down to Örnsköldsvik harbour for an ice cream and a sleep on the pier.

Fun in the Forest

The second day of the study tour began with a visit to a forest management centre at Gideå, about 30 minutes drive from Örnsköldsvik. We got a bit lost on the way and turned up late, but luckily we were still in time for some cake! It was delicious.

We were shown around the refrigerated seed vaults and huge greenhouses where millions of baby trees are grown each year to replenish the forest.

In the afternoon we went for a walk in the woods. After several months spent cooped up in the City it felt good to have some earth under our feet and proper fresh air in our lungs again.

At one point we were slowly wondering through the trees when suddenly Scott excitedly pointed out a clearing ahead and began running downhill towards it as fast as he could. KJ and I tentatively followed. Unfortunately he ran straight into a deep bog, and it still makes me laugh to think of Scott urgently shouting "Abort! Abort!" as he plunged into the bog at full speed!


The Cave

As we were leaving the forest in the car I spotted a cave through the trees, so we stopped to take a look. From the outside it really reminded me of a cheesy horror movie I saw once called My Bloody Valentine. We decided to venture inside. Here we discovered a collection of stalagmites made of ice, some of which were taller than us. Fortunately we didn't encounter a psychopathic murderer with a pickaxe like in the film.


From the End, A New Beginning

The final visit of our study tour was to a place called GreenZone, where we were shown around a car showroom that contained glass cases filled with plants to clean up the air. And then, just as we were beginning to get used to bright nights, early starts, site visits and naps on piers, the study tour was over. The next morning we clambered back into the car and drove back down the coast to Stockholm. When we reached the airport it was time to say goodbye to KJ, Giorgos, Gaurav and the hire car, which was emotional as I had got to know them all very well.


So began the second half of the Sweden trip. Scott and I filled up our water bottles, tightened our rucksack straps and set off in the direction of Stockholm City Centre. To read about what happened next, please continue to Part Two of my Sweden blog.

To view more of my photos from Sweden click here.