The Wayfaring Path

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We are big fans of Sweden! The bits we’ve seen so far are beautiful, well-organised, and safe. We’ve been able to find our way around with no trouble, everyone is happy to speak English with us, and the weather has been brilliant. It’s fairly expensive, but we were (mostly) prepared for that, and the longer we are here the better we get at knowing where to shop.

We arrived on a sunny Friday afternoon and navigated our way to our accommodation with minimal fuss. We are here for a month so we’d pre-purchased an 30 day SL pass which gives us a huge area to travel, on busses, trains, trams and even ferries! It was all on an app and worked perfectly. And for about the same as we’d pay for a monthly train-only pass between Kāpiti and Wellington! The signage is in English as well as Swedish (Svenska) and we’ve been able to figure it out no worries. Everything is clean, in good condition, and runs to time – it’s amazing what you can do when you care about the people using public transport and fund it properly!

Our Airbnb is nice – a little basic, but clean and quiet and in a good area. Just 3 mins to walk to the station and a cute little shopping centre with a supermarket 5 mins walk away. We both have a work area, and there are trees and chickens outside! We are about a 15 minute train ride from the centre of Stockholm, so it’s fast and easy to get pretty much anywhere we want. The day after we arrived was stormy and I was feeling a bit pooped so we had a quiet day on the Saturday and got to know our new digs.

On the Sunday we went into town for a super quick look around the (huge and impressive) central station, and were then picked up by my step-sister (“bonus sister”!) Henri and taken out to their amazing house right next to a beautiful forest. There had been a lot of rain on Saturday so it was great mushroom-picking conditions, so they showed us the mushrooms we should look for. What a brilliant activity! I didn’t think I’d be very good at it but I got super involved in looking for exactly the right shade of yellow and brown. We found a massive one and so many kantarelles and took them home and learned how to prepare and cook them. They were absolutely delicious – I’ve honestly never had mushrooms so good.

On the way home Henri and Ulf took us to an overwhelmingly huge supermarket, it even has its own massive greenhouse at the back where they grow cucumbers and the like! Absolutely anything you could ever need was sold there, and it was fantastic to get the local intel, plus a crash-course in Swedish food. I’ve found I can read a bit of Swedish (I’ve been learning on Duo Lingo for ages) but I’m completely hopeless at conversation – I can’t understand anything that is said and I get all deer-in-the-headlights panicky and my mind goes completely blank. I can’t remember English words, let alone Swedish ones! It’s a bit depressing and very frustrating after spending so long learning, but Duo Lingo is not real conversation, and I’m hoping I get a bit more confident and less paralysed soon.

After work on Monday I took the bus to an area with lots of big shops, as I was in the market for a yoga mat and a phone charger, and had been told Rusta was the shop for that. But it turns out that the Rusta I was visiting was next to the largest IKEA store, so of course I had to check it out. It was HUGE and so amazing to see all the little rooms set up with the furniture. I’ll take Regan there next week, so we can have meatballs and start daydreaming about renovating our kitchen!

On Tuesday I had a dentist appointment and it all went ok. I made my way over on the bus, found the mall, filled in the paperwork. Everyone speaks perfect English but I still feel so stupid having to say I don’t speak Swedish. But a woman came up to me, speaking Swedish, asking me for directions – so I guess I must look Swedish at least! It’s fairly unusual for people to speak to strangers here in Stockholm, something which the Lonely Planet guide, plus Henri and Ulf had prepared us for. I absolutely terrified a poor man out walking his dog by making eye contact and saying “hello!” without thinking. Apparently it is disturbing to their peaceful contemplation of life, and while I found it pretty rude at first, within a few days I was gleefully ignoring everyone around me and I found it really quite relaxing. (Trudi you’d hate it – no random chats with strangers!).

The dental appointment was fine, but I was very surprised when she asked me if I wanted anesthesia for a cleaning. I assumed she meant injections so I was like “heck no!” but on reflection maybe she meant a numbing cream. But I’ve never been offered that in NZ, and I was worried it would double the price, so I just raw-dogged it, which they all found really surprising. I said kiwis generally just tough it out, and when the nurse left the room the dentist leaned in and quietly said “Swedes are very sensitive!”. I don’t think she’s Swedish by birth and I got the feeling she enjoyed this very subtle mocking of them! She was a lot rougher then I’m used to, maybe because all her Swedish patients are numb when she’s working on them?

Wednesday was my first proper looking-around day in Stockholm. Regan works fewer hours than me (and hadn’t booked any dentist appointments!) so had already been exploring, so he was pretty excited to show me the Gamla Stan (old town). Stockholm has loads of islands, and Gamla Stan is it’s own island, and has beautiful old buildings plus a huge palace and lots of fun wee alleyways to explore. I wasn’t super blown away by it at first, but as we spent longer there I became more and more enchanted. We had fika (coffee and cake) at a cute but very pricey cafe, and wandered around, getting a feel for the place. It’s pretty touristy but didn’t feel overwhelmingly so, and there were loads of proper craft shops in amongst the tourist stuff. Most notably a wood carver who is maybe the best I’ve ever seen, turning wood into fables, faces, spoons, delicate animals – so much skill and imagination!

On Thursday I took myself off to the Historiska Museet, which Regan had raved about and I was super excited about visiting. I was NOT disappointed! I think the best museum I’ve ever visited, it had wonderful artefacts and everything was displayed in engaging and interesting ways. An absolute masterclass, and if I even get around to doing a masters in Museum Studies I’d love to use this museum as an example. I made an extra-long video for it, as there was too much to squeeze into a 1 minute Short. My highlights were the larger than life plaster models of artifacts with braille so you could get hands-on and really investigate objects via touch; a boat recreated through the nails suspended in air; and a massive double movie screen showing scenes from the truly exceptional History of Sweden documentary series. Immersive. Magical. I could have spent all day there.

On Friday Ulf picked us up after work and we went to stay with him and Henri for the weekend. It’s been SUCH a joy to have this family connection, and it’s unlocked parts of Swedish culture that would have totally passed us by without them. Their three sons came over for dinner and it was a rambunctious and hilarious evening – we felt honoured to be included, and I’ve not laughed so hard in ages. “Trumpet Charades” is a ridiculous and brilliant game, and the evening was a real stand-out memory of the trip as a whole. Bloody awesome!

On Saturday morning Regan and I went for a walk around the local streets – it’s a gorgeous area with so many trees in their beautiful autumn colours – we’ve timed this trip really well for the autumn colour plus the weather has been pretty perfect – lots of lovely blue skies! Henri took us to a charity shop to check out the winter clothing for our trip to Kiruna in Lappland in a couple of weeks. Heaps of great quality things for really good prices – I’d love to bring home all the amazing winter coats but I definitely don’t have room in Bertha!

Then the four of us went out to Häringe Slott (castle) which was sadly closed for visitors to the interior due to filming, but we were able to walk around the grounds – really beautiful and peaceful, with DUCKS and weird sculptures. One of them had their left boob removed (like me lol!) which was kind of lovely in an odd way. We picked apples from the orchard, sat by the water, and just generally enjoyed being out in the autumn sunshine.

Then on to Nynäshamn, the port town where you can take ferries to fun places like Gdansk. We had an excellent meal at a waterside restaurant and then drove out along the coast line in the perfect evening light. The sky was pink and there wasn’t a breath of wind. We walked up to the big kyrka (church) which was just glowing in the evening light, but sadly it was locked so we had to make do with just walking round the outside. A really special day, I felt happy and relaxed all day. We are so lucky to have Henri and Ulf showing us around.

Sunday was another trip to a local slott, with more lovely trees and water, and some fika too! I really like how the Swedes prioritise sitting with coffee and cake and talking together, not looking at your phone or working, but having a proper chat. I think you could probably do something different in Stockholm every weekend for a year and not get tired of it. It’s so easy to find nature and beauty and history, and you can tell the locals really value it. I guess as we are heading into the darker months we all want to make the most of the light.

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