First the good news – Finnair found my bag and delivered it to my hotel overnight so it was waiting for me when I awoke. The bad news – I lost my wallet containing 500 SEK and both my keycard and credit card… so in essence all my access to money. Travel lesson no. 36 – keep your cards separate and don’t be fooled into the idea that a small light wallet and separate coin purse is a good idea. It isn’t. If it’s small and light it won’t sink to the bottom of your bag and you won’t notice so easily if it falls out. But more on that later.
Anyway, as noted my bags were waiting for me when I went down for breakfast. As I’d already washed my undergarments and had a shower, I decided to do what a real backpacker would and just wear the same clothes a couple of days in a row. Breakfast in Sweden is more like lunch – no breakfast fry-up here. There’s a selection of breads (including rye and fresh warm sourdough), cold meats, Swiss and cottage cheeses, tomato, pickles (of course) and this salmon paste that comes in a tube. It’s not like the salmon paste you get in Australia, more like salmon dip in a tube, although it tastes much better. It’s my favourite Nordic food so far. A supermarket visit later showed that it is one of a range of things that come in tubes, along with cream cheese and chives and cream cheese.
The breakfast menu also includes make your own muesli (oats and fruits provided and regular toast and cornflakes for the culturally inept.
After breakfast I had a look around the very touristy Gamla Stan (old city) where I found shops seling gothic boots and punk t-shirts interspersed with Swedish handcrafts, jewellers, Swedish high fashion and souvenir shops – the reindeer is quite a favourite here as well – I found many of the same souvenirs with a Swedish flag rather than a Finnish one. The old city is beautiful though – cobbled streets and alleys and those four story skinny buildings tightly packed next to each other. There were a lot of people walking around. It was Saturday and Valentine’s Day and clearly a lot of people had used that as an excuse for mini-break to Stockholm. To add to the romanticism it was snowing lightly. While I get the impression that this was just annoying to the Swedes, for me it was a completely romantic scene. [‘Penguins and P]lar Bears’ – Millencolin – a Swedish punk band playing live in Brisbane on my MP3 player in Sweden.]
From Gamla Stan, I headed south to Södermalm, which is the place to shop – kind of like Paddington or Chapel Street. There are also quite a lot of design shops. I have always like the quirkiness of Swedish design and found that in spades at Designtroget, a shop sort of like Sweden’s version of R.G.Madden. I don’t know if anyone remembers R.G Madden – it used to be next to the Merry-Go-Round in Civic, after it was Woolies – it was my favourite store, full of cool European designed items. Sadly, and perhaps in a true statement about our increasingly homogenised culture, it was a Starbucks for a while I think. At Designtroget I saw loads of things I could buy (if I had a shipping container at my disposal). There was a really cool doorstop shaped as a person lying on the ground that was a bit heavy but I settled on a cool lemon juicing stick. Up the road a bit further, I found 10 Swedish designers, a textile design shop and bought a piece of fabric to make a cushion for me new couch (which may take a bit longer to save for when I get home). I also visited an awesome sneaker store called Sneakersnstuff but decided until I do some posting home, there really wasn’t room for a sneaker purchase. And I learnt some Swedish – at least the word for sale – it’s rea. It seems more appropriate as a word somehow – like an exciting announcement rea!
A note here on the Swedish – the people here are warm, welcoming and engaging. They’re not at all pretentious and, if the t-shirts on sale are anything to go by, have a wicked, quirky sense of humour. The risqué (coasters with pictures of boobs) sits alongside functional design objects without question or reaction. The Swedish are relaxed and there is more diversity here than I saw in Finland. And more of an artistic sensibility. The people I have spoken to have variously pointed to the extreme seasons and the high rate of unemployment in Sweden as factors in the character of the pace. Sadly it seems that whenever there are periods of poverty and unemployment in relatively prosperous societies that is when artistic endeavour flourishes. Whatever it is that drives the Swedish, I love both their character and their design (a point that I think, once again, proves my thesis that design outcomes are driven by inherent cultural characteristics). [Ballad of Hollis Brown’ – Entombed. Yes it’s a metal cover of a Bob Dylan track by my other fave Swedish band. Metal fans will know what I mean when I describe it as funky. To everyone else it will just be death metal.]
Anyway back to wandering the streets of Stockholm – From Södermalm I headed to Östermamlm (the Swedes love a good umlaut) via the hotel in Gamla Stan to drop off my treasure. I made a flying visit to the National Museum to see the 19002000 design exhibit, which was well worth the effort and then took a wander through the main city Norrmalm. I noticed an Ugg Australia car – Ugg boots aren’t bogan wear in Scandinavia – pretty young things wander about in them as we would a pair of stylish boots. And they’re not afraid to get them covered in snow. I’m afraid to wear mine outside if it has been raining.
I grabbed a coffee from Barista (fair trade coffee house) and set about wandering – I found an awesome lighting design shop www.spotlight.se – check it out. I think the inspiration for somebody’s Christmas gift may have come from some Stockholm lighting designers. I also decided to stop into a supermarket and check things out – similar to a Finnish store but with a few less brands – the supermarkets are called co-ops – a hallmark of a socialist democracy I guess. There are a couple of things that Australian supermarkets could adopt here – 1) the baskets have wheels and a long handle so you can actually wheel them around the shop and 2) there is a coin dispenser which shoots out your change – let’s face it the less hands money passes through the better.
I then wandered back to wards the hotel, with the intention of finding a band to see that evening. After all Sweden is a hot bed for music (and I’m not talking Abba or Peter, Bjorn and John… think Millencolin or Entombed for me). On my way I was seduced by a souvenir shop where I found a G-string with I love Stockholm on the front. Never one to miss this sort of tacky souvenir opportunity (and I did actually love Stockholm), I grabbed it and a couple of postcards and headed to the counter. Alas, no wallet, no money, no Cirrus access and no visa card… and god dammit my new driver’s licence (with an at least halfway decent photo). It was then that panic set in – I had no money. That meant no band, no dinner. At least my travel and hotels until Germany on Monday were paid for.
I retraced my steps back to the supermarket. I had paid there with coins but it struck me that I probably took my wallet out in case I didn’t have enough coins. The guy at the supermarket hadn’t seen it but was very helpful and took my name and number… and then chatted to me about how he wanted to go to Australia – you seem to get that a lot in Sweden. It was pointless retracing any further. The last place I had used money was the coffee but I had taken the map out a few times when I was a bit lost and could have easily dropped it then. Anyway it was back to the hotel to do all the things you need to. Now because problems never come singularly for me, of course the global roaming on my phone wasn’t working – apparently I was only allowed emergency calls. While I would rate this as an emergency, I’m not sure the Swedish Police would agree. Thankfully, the guy at the hotel desk was happy to help, including dialing the numbers and getting the automated services in English. First call was to the Australian embassy in Sweden. Don’t be fooled – you don’t get Swedish-based Australian diplomat when you call the embassy after hours in distress. The call goes to the DFAT call centre in Australia. Since I still had my passport, there wasn’t much the DFAT guy could do except connect me to the Commonwealth Bank enquiries line. He was surprised to hear from someone in Sweden. Apparently his nights are filled with calls from Australians who have had their passports stolen in Spain or who have got arrested in Bangkok.
Anyway after canceling my cards, I had a long and protracted conversation with an American woman from visa who was trying to organize some emergency cash and a replacement card for me. We are hoping the cash will meet me in Copenhagen and the card in Berlin. Fingers crossed. During this lengthy process, the guy at the desk and I discussed the focus on Valentine’s Day in Sweden – he reckoned it was because it was cold, dark and miserable so people needed something happy to focus on.
I uploaded photos to my blog and lo and behold, I had a new friend request on facebook – a Swedish girl who actually found my wallet. Unfortunately I can’t uncancel the cards and there wasn’t going to be time for me to organize to meet her. However, next time I have access I will ask her if she can mail my wallet, including my licence, home. See Stockholm really is a safe and friendly place and I have a new facebook friend. And 😛 to the facebook neysayers. [‘Temple of Love’ – The Sisters of Mercy – a winter song if ever I heard one]
This morning I packed up and waved goodbye to Stockholm, ending with a really interesting conversation with a Swedish guy who was born in Finland and works in Copenhagen – I got a short history and winter culture lesson about Scandinavia in about 10 minutes – it was fast but very interesting. And, like all Swedes, he has a friend in Australia who he wants to visit.
So herein lays the moral of the G-string – perhaps it was some divine god of taste preventing me from making such a tacky purchase. Perhaps not but at any rate I left Stockholm, a place I did indeed love, without the G-string to prove it.