Stockholm, Day 4
Gamla Stan.
Today’s main expedition was the Historiska Museet, which is probably my favorite of the museums I’ve visited so far. They’ve got an excellent collection of medieval (circa 15th century) carved altarpieces, if you’re into that sort of thing — which I happen to be — and a pretty fair collection of reliquaries, baptismal fonts, heavily decorated church doors, and devotional sculpture, as well.
Their Viking exhibit is also pretty extensive, though I found a little of the English text in the early Christian era to be a bit simplistic (early Christianity incorporated other faiths and symbols as it moved into a region — is this really news to anyone?).* There was also an exhibit on Swedish prehistory, but that was the last one I saw and, by that time, my back was hurting way too much (stupid messenger bag that lets me carry too much stuff around) to stand around trying to parse the untranslated descriptions into something I could understand. It was also a little too much in the “you are here!” school of museum design for my taste: films of campfires and waterfalls were projected on the floor and walls, and there was a soundtrack that apparently was meant to suggest the sounds of a prehistoric campsite. Perhaps I am stodgy, but I prefer my museum exhibits to be more old-school.
I spent most of the day at the Historiska Museet, and didn’t get out until a little after 3:30. My guidebook was wrong about the number of daylight hours Stockholm gets in November: it said less than 2 hours per day, but it’s always been at least light-ish by the time I’ve gotten up (say, 8:00 or 8:30), and it was only getting on toward dusk when I left the museum today. It’s also been quite warm, comparatively — I haven’t needed my hat or scarf at all, though there have been times I’ve wished I’d brought my gloves. (Apparently it is unseasonably warm this year, though: Folke mentioned yesterday that they haven’t had much of a winter yet.) I have no idea what the actual temperature has been, but I’d guess the highs have been around 38 to 40ºF (maybe 4 to 5ºC)? Brisk, but quite comfortable if you’re wearing layers. I do wish I’d thought to bring an umbrella, though. . . .
At any rate, I should be able to brave the bus system again tomorrow, and trek out to see the Vasa. If all else fails, I noticed that the #44 bus (one of the two lines suggested to get to the Vasamuseet) stops just outside the Karlaplan T-bana station; even if it isn’t the most direct route, it would probably be easier and more efficient to just go straight to Karlaplan and catch the bus there, rather than stalking randomly through the streets for a couple of hours trying to look as if I know where I’m going. It’s exploring, really — I’m not getting lost, as such. In fact, I’m starting to recognize places through which I’ve previously wandered, and figuring out how they all fit together. Of course, I’m only here for two more days, so by the time I’ve figured it out it’ll be time to go home.
Maybe I should just come back this summer, and stay for two weeks. Perhaps if the trip to Jena with my mom doesn’t work out, I’ll look into that. I’m slowly getting the hang of Stockholm, or at least a tenuous grip on it with the very edge of my fingertips. It’s a lovely city, with good working transit and a gazillion bicyclists all over the place — and bike lanes everywhere. Today I actually managed to place two complete orders entirely in Swedish — one for coffee (expensive, and had been left on the burner too long; yesterday’s soja latte was so much better) and one for a mushroom pizza “inte ost.” Heavens know how many grammatical and pronunciation errors I made, but I was at least vaguely understood in context, and got what I’d requested. (Until now, I’ve usually been asked, “English?” as soon as I open my mouth, which relieves one’s performance anxiety but also kind of makes it difficult to improve one’s speaking ability.)
Don’t particularly want to go home, actually. My lovely employer will just have to open up a European branch headquartered in Stockholm, and let me do my editing from here. My parents can ship Nigel over — he’d love this place; dogs can go almost everywhere. Sell the car, sell the flat, sell the furniture, put my books in storage until I can arrange to have them shipped.
Yeah, that would work. :)
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*It’s possible, though, that the original Swedish was more intellectual, but I just couldn’t read more than every fifth word or so. I’ve noticed on quite a few occasions that, when bilingual museum cards are provided, the Swedish side may have five or six paragraphs detailing various aspects of the artifact, giving provenance and likely use; the English side often, though not always, is much shorter and along the lines of, “This is a belt buckle from the 8th century. Its detail is very intricate and probably symbolic.” (Exaggeration, but not by much.) Still, being functionally illiterate in Swedish, I’m grateful for any translation at all: I can scan the untranslated paragraphs looking for dates and words I recognize, and generally fill in the gaps, but even the scantiest of proper translations is still appreciated.
