Stockholm trip report
Monday, October 23rd, 2006 02:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lethargic_manI've just come back from a five-day trip to Stockholm, to visit ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
livredor and ploni_bat_ploni—the first time I've been abroad specifically to visit friends.
Stockholm seems an interesting city. I didn't get all the sightseeing done I wanted—and also many things are shut out of season—butploni_bat_ploni is staying for a year, livredor for at least two, so maybe I'll return again another time.
Of the things I did see, the highlight was the Vasa Museum. Vasa was a warship, the pride of the Swedish navy when it launched in 1620—only it was badly designed and sank twenty minutes later! The wreck was discovered again in 1956, and raised and conserved. It's the only seventeenth century ship remaining in the world, and (unlike, say, Henry VIII's flagship the Mary Rose—the raising of which in 1982-ish was something my headmaster thought important enough to make the whole school watch live on TV) the Vasa is almost in completely pristine condition. It's really impressive.
I also went to Skansen, an outdoor museum featuring lots of old buildings from all over Sweden, along with typical Swedish flora and fauna, the latter including bears, bison, lynxes, reindeer and elk.
The City Museum of Stockholm gives the city's history. Go to any such museum in the UK or even the near Continent—as I have been doing a lot in the last few years—and it'll be stuffed full of Roman ruins; we* don't think of the Romans as being very relevant to the UK today, but scratch beneath the surface and you'll find the Romans omnipresent. I wasn't expecting to find Roman artefacts this far out of the Roman Empire, but in actuality the Swedes traded so much with the Roman Empire—or with other people that did—that even here there's lots of Roman artefacts.
But the strangest thing to find displayed, in the Viking Age section, was a sixth century figurine of the Buddha, from India!
* Well, apart from people likepapersky, for whom anything more recent than the fifth century counts as current events, not history...
Apart from the sightseeing, I had a lovely time withlivredor and ploni_bat_ploni. ploni_bat_ploni talked me into attending shul on Thursday morning—as a result of which, I ended up not only leyning the last portion in the Torah on Simchas Torah, but also being called up for the first a few days later. This was in the Great Synagogue, a "cathedral shul" which reminded me of some of the other big shuls I've seen on the Continent in the last year and a half.
livredor and ploni_bat_ploni had been take me there for the Shabbos service, telling me I'd hate it, but it had to be experienced; but as it turned out, we ended up spending Shabbos at livredor's place in Älvsjö—a name which, much to my amusement, livredor still can't pronounce, or so she says. (Lots of opportunities for linguistics geeking in Sweden!) The name means Elf-lake, and indeed, with the trees surrounding it all beautiful autumn colours, and reflected in the lake, and the day fading, and the lights just coming on, there did seem to be something magical in the air. ploni_bat_ploni got a bit carried away with this, and started making Tolkien references, which led to me saying, when we'd been wandering along the lakeshore singing Seudah Shlishis zemiros, "The two hobbits hidden in the bushes looked at each other. 'Elves!' said one, to which the other replied, 'If those were elves, that was the strangest hymn to Elbereth I've ever heard.'"
(Other quotable remark:livredor: "Mornings! Who invented mornings?" yhn: "Give you a clue; look in this week's sedrah.")
Finally, a little thing about London I noticed on the way back, on my 'plane's final descent: it was really noticeable, once I thought to look for it, how much the area of London I was passing over was illuminated by reflected streetlight off the streets and buildings, rather than the bright pinpoints of uncapped streetlights spreading light pollution up into the heavens. Looks like the Campaign for Dark Skies is finally bearing fruit, much though the effect is not yet really noticeable from the ground. (Not all of this last part of London I passed over had capped streetlights, though.)
Ho hum, I'm out of lunchbreak. Looks like I'd better stop and post this now. :o)
livredor and ploni_bat_ploni—the first time I've been abroad specifically to visit friends.Stockholm seems an interesting city. I didn't get all the sightseeing done I wanted—and also many things are shut out of season—but
ploni_bat_ploni is staying for a year, livredor for at least two, so maybe I'll return again another time.Of the things I did see, the highlight was the Vasa Museum. Vasa was a warship, the pride of the Swedish navy when it launched in 1620—only it was badly designed and sank twenty minutes later! The wreck was discovered again in 1956, and raised and conserved. It's the only seventeenth century ship remaining in the world, and (unlike, say, Henry VIII's flagship the Mary Rose—the raising of which in 1982-ish was something my headmaster thought important enough to make the whole school watch live on TV) the Vasa is almost in completely pristine condition. It's really impressive.
I also went to Skansen, an outdoor museum featuring lots of old buildings from all over Sweden, along with typical Swedish flora and fauna, the latter including bears, bison, lynxes, reindeer and elk.
The City Museum of Stockholm gives the city's history. Go to any such museum in the UK or even the near Continent—as I have been doing a lot in the last few years—and it'll be stuffed full of Roman ruins; we* don't think of the Romans as being very relevant to the UK today, but scratch beneath the surface and you'll find the Romans omnipresent. I wasn't expecting to find Roman artefacts this far out of the Roman Empire, but in actuality the Swedes traded so much with the Roman Empire—or with other people that did—that even here there's lots of Roman artefacts.
But the strangest thing to find displayed, in the Viking Age section, was a sixth century figurine of the Buddha, from India!
* Well, apart from people like
papersky, for whom anything more recent than the fifth century counts as current events, not history...Apart from the sightseeing, I had a lovely time with
livredor and ploni_bat_ploni. ploni_bat_ploni talked me into attending shul on Thursday morning—as a result of which, I ended up not only leyning the last portion in the Torah on Simchas Torah, but also being called up for the first a few days later. This was in the Great Synagogue, a "cathedral shul" which reminded me of some of the other big shuls I've seen on the Continent in the last year and a half.livredor and ploni_bat_ploni had been take me there for the Shabbos service, telling me I'd hate it, but it had to be experienced; but as it turned out, we ended up spending Shabbos at livredor's place in Älvsjö—a name which, much to my amusement, livredor still can't pronounce, or so she says. (Lots of opportunities for linguistics geeking in Sweden!) The name means Elf-lake, and indeed, with the trees surrounding it all beautiful autumn colours, and reflected in the lake, and the day fading, and the lights just coming on, there did seem to be something magical in the air. ploni_bat_ploni got a bit carried away with this, and started making Tolkien references, which led to me saying, when we'd been wandering along the lakeshore singing Seudah Shlishis zemiros, "The two hobbits hidden in the bushes looked at each other. 'Elves!' said one, to which the other replied, 'If those were elves, that was the strangest hymn to Elbereth I've ever heard.'"(Other quotable remark:
livredor: "Mornings! Who invented mornings?" yhn: "Give you a clue; look in this week's sedrah.")Finally, a little thing about London I noticed on the way back, on my 'plane's final descent: it was really noticeable, once I thought to look for it, how much the area of London I was passing over was illuminated by reflected streetlight off the streets and buildings, rather than the bright pinpoints of uncapped streetlights spreading light pollution up into the heavens. Looks like the Campaign for Dark Skies is finally bearing fruit, much though the effect is not yet really noticeable from the ground. (Not all of this last part of London I passed over had capped streetlights, though.)
Ho hum, I'm out of lunchbreak. Looks like I'd better stop and post this now. :o)
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-23 01:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-23 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-23 02:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-23 02:58 pm (UTC)Egh. Atleast it is a healthy sign -- that I have other hobbies save from Judaism.
A Swede today taught me the correct pronunciation of Alvsjo and yay, I can say it correctly now!
I would just like to say Thank you for putting up with me, even though your prime mover for making this trip was Livredor. I had a lovely time, and we managed to put up memorable davening just the three of us. It was like a mini-Assif!
Thanks again, take care, come back soon!
no subject
Date: 2006-10-23 03:09 pm (UTC)Would you please remove the reference to my home country, for anonymity's sake? I appreciate it.
Thanks!
no subject
Date: 2006-10-23 03:16 pm (UTC)I would just like to say Thank you for putting up with me, even though your prime mover for making this trip was Livredor.
Have you forgotten I was planning to visit you in your Northern European Country™ beforehand? If I hadn't had the draw of two friends to visit in Stockholm, I might not have got around to visiting for a while yet!
no subject
Date: 2006-10-23 04:54 pm (UTC)