Driving hint for Sweden: If you do happen to make a mistake on the roads here we found the best thing to do is to squint cross eyed, look mildly confused and frustrated. Everyone just assumes you're another *&#%+ German tourist, rolls their eyes and lets you away with it...
Our first stop was Gävle, Marcus's birthplace. It was the last night of the city festival and the party was in full swing when we rocked up that evening... [insert a very good night of partying and drinking about here]. The next day the city looked like a bomb had hit it, rubbish was everywhere, I spose that's evidence that we werent the only ones having a good time!
What do you have to do to get arrested around here?!
The following day we tripped out to Sandviken (another town on the Marcus Tillson-childhood-timeline) where the alternator belt in the van decided it was time to snap. Fortunately we managed to get hold of a new one and repair it (OK, so it was mostly Marcus, I tightened one bolt - apparently poorly, was banned from the engine bay so played some encouragement guitar and made lunch instead). We had planned to be in Stockholm that day, yet the mechanical misfortunes meant it was rather late so we went to see our friend Karin in the nearby bustling metropolis of Tierp (population of 32 give or take...) for the night.
Finally we made it to Stockholm, we had heard about some cheap boat rides across the Baltic so went to check them out...
Latvia? Where the hell is that?
So it turned out that for very little money (about $35NZ) you can get a 2 night return cruise from Stockholm to Riga (the capital of Latvia). I cant say Latvia was one of the countries we planned on going to, in fact we new nothing about it and spent half the trip over trying to figure out if Riga was actually in Latvia or Lithuania! The trip across the Baltic leaves Stockholm at 5pm and gets to Riga at 10am the next day. You then spend a few hours in Riga and get back on the boat at 4pm the same day for another over-nighter back to Stockholm. It was a real ''I came, I saw, I brought a T-shirt'' style trip a la Mike Saunders and Graeme Wills.
The trip is so cheap because they expect you to spend a lot of money on the boat, in the bars and in the duty free shop. In fact you could tell when the duty free shop opened, there was a sucking noise as air rushed in to fill the vacuum left by all the people that piled in to buy alcohol at a third of the price that you can get in for in Sweden (oh, but there is a limit of just 10 litres of spirits, 200 litres of wine... ah the EU!).
Riga itself was a very nice place. We sorta expected lots of dark buildings and angry looking communists in trench coats with moustaches. In actual fact the city was full of gorgeous women, luxury cars and some very cool medieval architecture. Latvia is one of those countries that have really got a bad dose of oppression and general nastiness from Russia over the years, not achieving full independence until 1991. The two red stripes on the flag represent the blood spilt over the years, and the willingness to spill some more! O..K... Yet from what we saw it looks like they've got over the hard times and are pretty quickly catching up with the rest of Europe in regards to standard of living and all that. It was a stunning day in Riga so we spent most of our 6 hour excursion just wandering the old city looking at all the buildings and um... other sights, I really wish we could have stayed a few days there, but Stockholm was a calling...
Answering the Call of Stockholm
What is it about these Scandinavian capitals that keeps calling our names? It could be the beautiful old towns with their cobbled streets and interesting architecture. Perhaps it's the friendliness of the locals or the cool, relaxed atmosphere. It might be the warm, sunny weather we've had and the nice parks to relax in. Or maybe it's just... oops, sorry, lost track there for a second... another one just walked by...
Yes, Stockholm is yet another Scandinavian capital that has it all. Just like Oslo and, even more so, Copenhagen, we found we could walk round for hours on end without getting bored. Gamla Stan is the Old Town and is an especially nice part to wander round in. It's home to the Royal Palace (which also happens to be the largest palace in the world with 608 rooms), masses of amazing buildings and winding, cobbled streets to explore it all by.
There are plenty of other sights to see varying from the old and majestic, to the funky and new. Stockholm also has an amazing array of toys around the place! Huge luxury yachts loaded up with jet skis, boats and widescreen tvs surround the harbour. There are even more nice cars here than in London; Lambos, Ferraris, Astons, Bentleys... are everywhere. Other things to keep the tourist busy include a multitude of museums, boat trips through the archipelago and several markets. One of the markets, Östermalms Saluhall, was awesome. It was crammed full of local and imported meats, cheeses, seafood and more. I couldn't resist a few local treats, including a few different types of salmon (smoked, marinated and in a roll with caviar, dill and cream cheese) and some smoked eel. A few fantastic morsels in yet another fantastic city...
Got the Van Back... and in One Piece
After the excitement of the road trip, it was time to return the VW back to it's home in Trollhättan. To Christer's delight, we even managed to return it all in one piece. However, the excitement was not yet over, as there was a booze up organised for that night! Not ones to turn a big night down, we headed out for a great one in Trollhättan.
The Fors' have made sure we've had plenty of other trips to keep us entertained as well. One night we went to a weekly car show down at the locks near where they live. We were there at the right time too, as we got to see a boat, that only just managed to squeeze into the lock, get lowered down to the water level of the river below. And we also saw plenty of cool, old cars and bikes.
On another day we drove out to a coastal town called Smögen. It's renowned for it's interesting, rocky coastline and fishing heritage. The thing to do there is grab some fresh shrimps, a crunchy baguette and some wine and then head down to the rocks for a pleasant afternoon in the sunshine. Afterwards we enjoyed an ice cream while walking around the picturesque (and stereotypically Swedish) fishing village. It's a tough life.
While on the topic of food and all things Swedish, I will endeavour to describe a local delicacy, Surströmming, to you. I'm not sure if it was the cold, a diet of magic mushrooms or perhaps the lack of sunshine hours in the winter, but for some reason, some crazy Swede came up with the idea of putting herring in a can with some other ingredients in order to get it to ferment. And then eating it. You can tell it's fermented for several different reasons. The first being that when you have it, those who have had it before will give you the "honour" of opening it. Secondly, you have to open the can slowly and carefully, to allow the putrid gases to escape without causing a small geyser. And thirdly, as soon as you allow the first molecule of gas to escape from the near-exploding can you can smell nothing but the overwhelming stench of the rotting fish inside. Mmmmmmmm, no wonder they only ever eat it outside. However, after the smell subsides and you prepare it properly (take out the fillets, put it on a special bread, with potato, red onion, tomato and sour cream), it actually tastes pretty good (to some people anyway). You'd never want to eat it on it's own but once it's mixed with everything it's a different story, a bit like anchovies but with a tad more flavour.
Well, that about sums up the Scandinavian leg of our journey. Something tells me it certainly won't be the last time we visit this part of the world though....
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