Green Girl Abroad: Stalking Stockholm

During our week off from school Valerie and I went to Stockholm, Sweden for a few days. We booked an overnight ferry there and back with two nights in the city in between. We took a Viking Line ship out of Helsinki on Sunday night staying in a 3 passenger berth without a third roommate. Somehow our ‘cozy’ boat cabins to and from Sweden cost only 82 euros total for the both of us. It’s amazing what a simple phone call asking about student discounts can do! We said goodbye to Helsinki as we sailed away and toasted with hard cocoa upper deck.

In the morning we got off the boat in Stockholm and immediately were taken aback by the beautiful change of scenery the city brought us. We had a very silly time navigating public transportation towards our hostel but arrived eventually. We grabbed some groceries for the week and settled in a little before heading out for a concert recommended to us. We got on the right bus but in the wrong direction (just when we think we’re getting used to the bus system) and decided to go to the photography museum instead. There were three levels featuring a few very different exhibits. This was one of my favorite stops of the whole trip. The originality and technique of each artist reflected how photographs show more than just images but a whole new thought-provoking perspective on life.

The next day we set out with maps, transportation schedules and a sightseeing plan. We went to the Vasa museum; a recovered war ship from 1628 that never made it past it’s maiden voyage due to rushed planning and insufficient ballast stones. It was an incredible ship of ornately decorated Japanese oak but personally, I thought the museum was kind of overkill for such a poorly engineered sinker. Next we walked over to the Spirit Museum. This is not a museum about nationalism but Absolut Vodka! Exhibit areas showcased artistic label designs, advertisements, spirit ingredients, corners of drinking culture and just plain silliness. It was a very interesting display, but probably intended to be best enjoyed after a few drinks. We moved on to an Aquarium in the same park as our previous stops. We enjoyed colorful creatures from the rainforest, freshwater habitats, tropical oceans and the Baltic Sea. It was great to break up our trips to museums with some wildlife.

We took the bus over to Gamla Stan, the old town and went to the Medieval Museum and the Nobel Museum. We got a little lost on foot but had a nice time walking through the town and saw some beautiful old churches. The Medieval Museum was an educational exhibit tucked under a bridge. A very impressive building held The Nobel Museum and it contained a lot of information about the prize and its winners. We returned to the hostel to rest after our long day of touring and to plan the next one.

We started out our last day by going to the Modern Art museum. We saw a Picasso/Duchamp and a Wolfgang Tillmans exhibit. Seeing Picasso’s work was very cool, especially a collection altogether. Being able to recognize recurring motifs throughout his abstract work helps highlight some of the ideas he presents. Wolfgang Tillmans’s exhibit was a striking assembly of photographs that came together as a very telling exposition on the world we live in, generational characteristics (especially the dynamic young generation in the 1990s), sexuality, materialism, and companionship. Modern art can be very difficult to grasp but this exhibit created many different impressions and feelings in the arrangement of the distinctive photos. Valerie and I felt a little mentally exhausted after leaving but we agreed this was one of our favorite things in Stockholm.

We next went to the National Museum which held more fine art than you could shake a stick at. We started on the ‘Slow Art’ floor, which contained various furniture, tapestries, garments, jewelry, and tableware that takes a lot of time and repetition to create, but the final product is stunning. Moving upstairs we saw an incredible array of paintings organized under a few categories. Pride and Prejudice explored the work of female artists in France and Sweden from 1750-1860 as well as their struggle for professional recognition in a man’s world. Light and Darkness presented Nordic work that uses color tones to create ambiance and contrast aspects of the painting. Modern Life featured 19^th century French work that was also very beautiful and unique. One thing I learned to value about my art encounters on this trip is that art speaks every language and it certainly has a lot to say. I love it!

We finished our Stockholm tour with the Royal Palace. This was our second string option since the boat tour we wanted to take was not operating through the port listed on our map but we were very glad to have visited the royal apartments. The painted ceilings, furniture, chandeliers, sculptures, hallways, everything was royally lavish. We don’t get this level of grandeur in America. Thanks, Sweden.

We had a little time before our ferry and we decided to get haircuts. Valerie and I had talked about wanting them for some time and we thought, how nice would it be to get haircuts in Stockholm? Probably not the best idea we ever had. There was a salon next to our hostel and we had left a note on the door in the morning asking for appointments. We arrived in the afternoon and looked through the window to see two people in the salon; one older man styling another. We stood speculating whether to ditch our appointments but the owner came running out very excited to have us as clients (he even cancelled another appointment), boasted about an award he had won and other things so we agreed to come back at 4:45.

We had pictures of the haircuts what we wanted but we might as well not have brought them. Our eccentric Tunisian hairdresser insisted he had such a way with hair, talked our ears off about all kinds of things, and was very friendly… but obviously nuts. We ended up paying a little more than we expected for cuts a little different than we requested but we probably should have thought of that before getting haircuts from a total stranger in a salon we knew nothing about. On that note, we said goodbye to Stockholm and boarded our boat to Finland.

Upon arriving at 8am we realized the train station we thought was in Turku was a one-rail train without a ticket desk that we could find. We asked a bus driver the best way to Ilmajoki and he told us to come with him to the bus station. We got a free bus ride and considered it a victory before realizing he probably just felt bad for us because getting home would take another 3 busses and about 11 hours to travel 300km.

We wallowed in self pity for probably 30 minutes before realizing being stuck in Turku for a few hours with a lot of luggage, weird haircuts and a 24 pack of beer each was actually a pretty hilarious ordeal. By the way, we got the beer tax-free on the boat. Alcohol is quite expensive in Finland! Things could definitely have been worse. We had some leftover food from the trip and we had some crackers with tuna, a bell pepper, apples, some peanuts and cookies to get us home. When we finally arrived we were very tired but happy. It had been a great trip!