Blog Loglaw: Ain't it Swede!: Stockholm Part 1: Old Ships and Young Physicists

A full weekend in Stockholm, the self-proclaimed 'capital of Scandinavia,' for me was three things: exhausting, expensive, and totally worth it.

I arrived late Thursday night, coming off several days in which my body attempted to adjust to frigid temperatures 6 weeks earlier than it was used to. Stockholm, a multitude of islands spattered across vast lakes, inlets, and Baltic bays, stays tepid much longer than its northern neighbors. But all I saw when I arrived was dark and empty streets; I navigated my way to the apartment of my second-ever couchsurfing (CS) host, Frida.

Except for breakfast at a nearby cafe on Saturday morning, Frida and I didn't get to chat a lot, but she seemed really personable and interesting. She's a trained engineering physicist who works for the Swedish government doing risk assessments on nuclear power plants. This topic obviously has garnered much more interest in the last few years following Fukushima, and to me it's totally fascinating. So at breakfast it was just two wild and crazy physicists talking radiation levels and statistical theory. She also is very into rock climbing (often taking long weekends to go for climbs in Turkey and Mallorca, among other places), travelling (is driving from the western to eastern end of Australia with a few friends over Christmas), painting some pretty incredible paintings (see below), and the Swedish version of American Idol (uh, yeah). Despite being completely different from my Copenhagen CS experience, it was still pleasant, a good way to meet a local, and financially efficient.

Living room: sunset painting and 'starburst' paintings on the wall are Frida originals.

But she was busy all day Friday, so I did a pretty extensive walking tour of Stockholm on my own. Friday began with a dense marine-layer type fog hanging low in the city, clearing up by mid-morning to reveal Stockholm and all its archipelagian majesty.

Well away from the city on the island of Djugårten.

Some fancy building across the water. Note: 'Murica represented far left.

All my Swedish coworkers, and my boss back in Madison, insisted if I were to go to one museum it had to be the Vasa Museum. In the early 17th century, Sweden was at war with Poland. The Swedish king wanted a flagship to take into battle, and commissioned the building of the Vasa. He was unhappy with the master shipbuilder's plans, wanting it bigger. Unfortunately the ship's hull was already completed, so the only additions could be made upward. You may be able to guess what happened next: on the maiden voyage, only a kilometer from shore, the Vasa was hit with a slight gale, listed heavily to one side (filling the cannon ports with brackish Baltic water), and sank. Oi! After 3.5 centuries it was successfully raised and restored to remarkable condition.