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August 5, 2000
Since I last wrote I've been staying at my friend Peter's apartment, even though he left
a week and a half ago to enjoy the southern coast at his summerhouse. The first 15 days here I mainly focused on
resting my knee, which you may recall was diagnosed in France as having tendonitis. During that time I've learned
how to pop wheelies in a wheel chair to cross door steps, and to go up and down stairways on crutches, but now
I'm walking, strengthening the muscles that atrophied during that time of rest, looking for improvement. The jury's
still out, though I'm getting around better than I did before.
Stockholm's a very beautiful city! It's comprised of seven islands at the junction of Lake Mälaren and the
Baltic Sea. Water is everywhere and when you drive or walk, it provides a wonderful setting throughout the city.
From where I'm staying on the island of Södermalm, I regularly walk a very short distance to where I can
stroll pathways, or relax on a bench and watch a steady stream of boats go by: tour boats, sail boats, speed boats,
kayaks, all kinds. There're paths and parks along the lake all over and people are walking, jogging, roller-blading,
sun bathing (yeh!). Lots of kids and dogs too. And by the way, the Swedes, as do the Irish, like big dogs...real
dogs, not those little yippy things that the people in France and Florida are so fond of.
It's easy to take in Stockholm as it is not terribly large, only 1.2 million inhabitants, and as in most larger
European cities public transportation is excellent. The subway (tunnelbana) not only has many shops within it
(imagine buying freshly baked pastries or cut flowers in the subway), but 80 of the 100 stations have sculptures,
mosaics, paintings, inscriptions and reliefs from 145 artists.
A great way to tour Stockholm is to rent bicycles and cruise around, though the cobblestone streets in many areas
might leave some of our male friends at the end of the day looking for a bag of ice to sit on. The city is remarkably
clean and there's a merging of elegant, older architecture with contemporary, brightly painted buildings. Ancient
castles and an impressive total of 97 museums effectively blend in with chic, trendy restaurants and modern stores.
It's a progressive feeling and pleasant city to walk in...a joy to explore.
But I should point out, if you have not already heard, it's VERY expensive here, and in fact apparently trails
only Japan and Norway in that distinction. I thought that London was expensive! Six bucks for a glass of beer!
Suffice to say, if you intend to spend a lot of time kicking it in Stockholm, you had better bring along some
serious jack!
The waterways and countryside around Stockholm are magnificent. A boat tour for $20 is a wise investment as it
provides a wonderfully relaxing view of the archipelago, which has 24,000 islands! Within the city is the famous
Vasa Museet where you find the world's oldest identified and completed ship currently intact. In 1628 the Vasa,
the finest warship built up to that time, took a Titanic plunge to the bottom of Stockholm harbor on its maiden
voyage. When it was salvaged in 1961, the ship was found to be in almost perfect condition. Nearly all of the
700 wooden sculptures survived, though it took over 30 years of painstaking preservation to put the Vasa back together.
(Who else just thought of Humpty Dumpty?) Today, the Vasa sits majestically in a state-of-the-art museum built
solely to exhibit this remarkable ship. I also enjoyed the Royal Armory, filled with 500 years of history.
One must see area is Gamla Stan, or Old Town. Located in the center of Stockholm, its medieval style winding, catacomb
streets are narrow and filled with pubs, shops and tourists. But don't let that stop you as it is well worth visiting.
I enjoyed sitting in the little squares people watching, especially one particular square with a huge fountain
where many years ago one of the kings beheaded a lot of people who pissed him off. Beware male bicyclists though...lots
of cobblestones in Gamla Stan (ouch, ouch!).
But the best way to see Stockholm is from the air... from a hot air balloon, which is just what I did, and it was
amazing. When my friend Stacy was in town (more on that later), she arranged for me to make my maiden voyage in
a balloon. It's something I've forever yearned to do. Along with the others who joined our adventure, she and
I helped get the balloons ready for flight, which is a bit of a project, even with everyone pitching in. Then we
had the orientation, which basically was, "Don't fall out!"
After that we were off, soaring between 1200 to 2000 feet high across the city, looking down on the buildings,
parks, lakes and nearly 100 sailing vessels that were here for the Tall Ships Race that weekend. Magnificent boats
up to 200 feet long filled the harbor, with their sails flickering in the wind and glistening in the sun. We caught
a break in the weather that evening and we floated effortlessly with light winds gently guiding us along under
bright skies... it was something special and unforgettable.
As we reached the outskirts, the pilot, who had 15 years experience, took us down into a wooded area where our
basket brushed the trees (on purpose!) and we were able to grab leaves off the branches. Then he steered us down
barely over a lake where we almost kissed the reflection of our balloon. And then up again, and while the sun
was setting, we later touched down ever so gently in a field outside the city where we all shared a bottle of champagne,
savoring the afterglow.
I mentioned that my friend Stacy arranged for our balloon ride. She works for Crystal Cruise Lines, the Rolls
Royce of cruise companies, and last week her ship came into Stockholm with a three day layover before its next
voyage. She teaches in the computer lab and her boss generously provided us the opportunity to sail in the balloon!
While she was here, I was invited on the boat as a guest, which meant, among other things, that I had several
meals there. And for a guy used to "self catering" in hostels (way too much pasta!), and grabbing bread,
cheese and fruit for lunch a lot, this was dining in dreamland. If you've ever been on a cruise you know that
it's like eating in a five star restaurant, and this was absolutely top of the line. We're talking big money here
friends. I saw Marion Ross (Mrs. C in Happy Days) and Garrison Keillor of Prairie Home Companion fame hanging out.
It was nice living the "good life" for a while; though Stacy had to borrow a polo shirt for me to wear...
t-shirts just don't cut it on this ship.
I did, however, have a somewhat stressful incident occur while on the boat: I lost my daypack, with all of its
belongings! As I walked on the boat the second day (Friday), I placed my pack on the belt to be scanned by x-ray,
and when I strolled to the other end it was gone... vanished! As best as we could reconstruct what happened, an
over zealous staff member quickly grabbed it in order to take it to a stateroom. You see, arriving on my heels
were nearly 1000 new cruisers, and the task of getting their luggage on board and stowed away in their rooms is
immense. The fact that my pack had no stateroom number on it did not daunt this employee: it was going to a room.
And in a hurry. No slackers working on this ship… no sir!
So I sat and waited for it to show up, for surely someone would soon discover this alien piece of luggage and return
it, right? "George... where did you get this hippie bag?" Eight hours later I left the ship at 11 pm,
without the pack. And the next day at 4:30 pm the ship left port with me standing on the dock... without my pack!
So I walked home, mentally reviewing its contents and emotionally releasing each item, one at a time. The toughest
one to let go of was my journal... containing as it did six months sharing of extraordinary experiences, with my
deepest thoughts and feelings about them.
Before I disembarked, the security chief and concierge assured me that it would eventually show up and they would
immediately ship it to me, but I knew I had to let go of it, or it would keep eating at me. It was hard enough
to sit there patiently listening to their apologies and promises, though I knew it was just one of those things
that just happens and they certainly were trying their very best to resolve it. Once the screw up happened the
staff handled it professionally, as well as anyone could ask.
In retrospect, I think I handled it fairly well too. I know a few years ago I would've launched into a search
and destroy mission... go find the guy that did it and build him a new butt hole! I did feel my anger, judgment
and impatience come up, but I fortunately let it pass and mostly just fidgeted and waited while contemplating the
lofty goal of patience and nonattachment. What else was there to do?
The next evening (Sunday), I found a message waiting on the phone for me at home. They'd found it and would overnight
it as soon as they arrived in Helsinki in three days. As of today (Saturday) though, I am still waiting. Oh well!
The weather here this summer so far has been less than wonderful. In my first three weeks here you could count
the number of sunny days on one hand and have enough fingers left over to make a peace sign. For the Swedes this
is infuriating. They feel that after the long, dark winters they endure, they deserve a summer with that "sun
that never sets". It's the pearl in their climatic oyster and more than one of them has confided to me that
so far this summer they are flirting with depression! But from what I've read and been told, depression is almost
a birthright in Sweden. I'm told there's a lot of cynicism and negativity buried within the Swedish psyche. The
dark films of Ingmar Bergman certainly reflect that and suggest that they'd be fond of Murphy's Law, except they
would, of course, have to rename it Johansson's law. I'm surprised I don't see more Woody Allen films in the video
stores.
The Swedes as a whole are attractive, healthy looking, reserved, and quite homogeneous. They're also very private.
Whereas I was accustomed elsewhere to being asked questions about where I am from, etc., I have never been asked
that here. (Or maybe they just don't care?) Their socialist based culture has an underlying attitude of cooperation
and moderation, and their personality has been described as sober, unemotional and boring - kind of like a Volvo.
My friend Peter, a native Swede, tells me that if he wants to grab some TV comedy for a few laughs, he selects
an American channel. "The Swedish are just not funny!" he laments.
The dress style here is often quite plain, a lot of gray, white and black. Coming from France was quite a contrast
for there is very little, if any, of the flair and sexiness, the joie de vivre, the romantic attitude I enjoyed
there. The French savor life… the Swedes seem to grin and bear it. But guys, if you like lots and lots of tall,
buxom, blue-eyed, strikingly beautiful blonds that look like they could strap on a pair of skis and go leap off
a mountain...
The culture here is very heavily American influenced, supposedly more so than any other European country. Fast
food is popular. The music on the radio is mostly pop and techno, and the "hits" they play are what
I was hearing a year ago in the states. It's scary to think that Sweden's claim to fame musically is Abba! Sweden
is also a very non-spiritual country. Apparently it's heavily Lutheran, but I've seen very few churches and no
mosques, temples or synagogues. The only sport anyone seems passionate about is hockey, but they're very proud
to be among the world's best at it, which they have every right to be considering their total population is only
8.9 million.
Starting at age ten, all Swedes start learning English in school, so it's wide spread and well spoken. It's very
easy to get around Sweden only speaking English. The language has a melodious flow to it, not as smooth and poetic
as French, but less guttural than German. It definitely has a unique sound to it. There're three extra letters
not found in the English alphabet: Å, Ä and Ö, all of which create sounds my American mouth is
unaccustomed to forming. So when I try to reproduce certain Swedish words, my lips and tongue go through rare
and difficult contortions, and sometimes the Swedes sound to me like they are talking with their mouth full! Anyone
remember the Swedish chef on the Muppets?
Historically, Sweden has run the gamut from centuries of Viking conquest and plunder (at one time they controlled
a large part of Europe) to a recent history of egalitarianism and peacekeeping. Sweden has produced Alfred Nobel
and his Peace Prize, Raoul Wallenberg (who saved thousands of Jews from Nazi extermination), former U.N. general
Secretary Dag Hammarskjöld (who perished on a humanitarian mission in Africa), and former Prime Minister Olof
Palme who marched against the Vietnam War and sheltered draft resistors. He was later assassinated. But on the
other hand, they infuriated neighboring Norway in WW2 when under the banner of impartiality they allowed German
trains to transport troops across Sweden to attack Norwegian forces. There's still some resentment towards the
Swedes for that... two generations later!
There's much more to Sweden, of course, than Stockholm... much that I have not experienced this visit. There're
white sandy beaches; spectacular fjords (I just love to pronounce that word "fjords"); the mountainous
arctic areas of Lapland with the reindeer herding Sami ("Lapps" is derogatory); impeccably preserved
national parks; 96,000 lakes; lush flat farmland; idyllic little coastal resort towns; and more.
In the next On the Road I'll share my future plans (yes I actually have some). I've selected a different city
to spend some extended time in, and I'll tell you where it is and why I've decided to go there. Here are some clues:
- GMT+1
- The Association of European Cities of Culture 2000 nominated it as one of the nine European Cities of Culture.
It has over 12,000 buildings considered historic monuments.
- At the outbreak of WW2 there were 70,000 Jews living there. The current Jewish population is estimated to
be under 150... less than the number of Catholic churches!
- Both Lenin and Copernicus once lived there... not at the same time, though.
- It has a total population of about 750,000, 70,000 of which are students.
Anyone care to take a guess?
I leave you with a quote from the composer Hector Berlioz, "Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it
kills all its pupils!"
Some Websites with relevant information:
http://www.stockholmtown.com/pages/271/index.asp
--The official Stockholm visitor's guide
http://www.eurail.com/ --The official site for traveling by train in Europe
http://www.sverigeturism.se/smorgasbord/ --The Web's largest
site for info about Sweden
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Peace
and love
