Summer Home in Sweden

The summer house is part of the Swedish psyche.  Sometime between June and August, Swedes en masse abandon the city to spend time at their summer homes.  We were able, for example, to acquire our first apartment because our landlords departed on a seven-week vacation that included a stay at their summer home.   So what does a Swedish summer home look like?

We were thrilled when an opportunity arose for us to visit a summer home.  Actually, the offer was to live in the summer home! Wow!  We had a few days of imagination-filled daydreaming, but after a studied review of the situation, we decided to stay with our more practical, intown lifestyle.  We were able, however, the visit a summer home.

The summer home belongs to our landlords to be (Oct 2011 – Oct 2012).  We are aligned in age and life temperament with Per and Monica and seem to have formed a trusted bond at our first meeting. We like to think this bonding differentiated us from the other couples that were also being interviewed as potential tenants.  The relationship is partially based on a confluence of mutual support.

Per and Monica are renting their apartment because they are setting out on their own adventure to sail in the Caribbean for a year.  Finding trusted tenants was an essential element of their planning.  We needed a place to live. Helen most likely sealed our compact when in response to Monica’s concern about finding a home for their cat Millie she chimed in, “I would love to have a cat back in my life!”

When Per and Monica realized that we needed “bridge housing” from the middle of August until mid-October, they offered their summer home as a potential option.  A few days later, Per drove us to their summer home in Värmdö, a 45 minute drive east of Stockholm.

The home is situated in a heavily wooded area with an awn-covered patio overlooking an inground swimming pool. The inside of the home reflects the simple elegance of Swedish design with light colored hardwood ceilings and floors, light-filling windows, a sauna and an inviting ambience throughout.  It would be wonderful to have lived there, but Jay’s work requires his presence in town and a car, which we don’t have, would be needed to complete simple tasks such as food shopping and errand running.

Our visit to Värmdö included a walk to Nordic Yachts, the largest marina in Northern Europe.  The masts of hundreds, if not a thousand, sailboats filled the bay.

Over a wonderful meal of grilled chicken, corn, roasted potatoes served with wine and beer and topped off with strawberries and cream we discussed our concerns about the summer home and thanked Per and Monica for their gracious offer. 

After dinner, Monica drove us to bus stop where we caught public transportation back to a Stockholm. We were tired from activities of the day, but thankful for the wonderful opportunities and adventures that seem to be part of our new lives in Sweden. 

Ahoy, Matey!

This weekend we had the opportunity to visit the renowned tourist attraction, the Vasa Museum, and at the same time, develop our friendship with our new acquaintances, Patrik and Maria. We met Patrik and Maria at the July 4^th picnic sponsored by the American Club of Sweden (ACS). The ACS had extended their invitation to other area clubs including the English Speaking Community Club (ESCC), of which Patrik and Maria are members.  Patrik is a born and bred Swede.  Maria is an 18 year Brazilian transplant. We had a marvelous time with them exploring both Swedish history and getting a better on-the-ground sense of what it is like to be Swedish.

But first ... "the renowned tourist attraction." The museum houses the nearly perfectly restored royal Swedish warship called the Vasa. The Vasa’s fame was sealed on its maiden voyage on 10 August 1628 when, after about one nautical mile of sailing, it sank. Yes, a tragedy of Titanic portions, but a tragedy that now provides a unique opportunity today to see this huge war ship very much the way it appeared to the craftsmen who hewed her planks more than three centuries ago.

After the sinking, inquiries were conducted that concluded that the Vasa was top heavy, lacked sufficient ballast and that sailing with the lower row of gun port doors open was not terribly clever. Small design changes to the Vasa’s sister ship, the Äpplet, allowed her to continue in service from 1629-1659. The Vasa, however, remained at the bottom of Stockholm harbor for 333 years.

A combination of factors from the salinity of the brackish Baltic Sea waters suppressing the population of the shipworm, Teredo Navalis, to the absence of strong currents, stable water temperatures and the unintended consequence of raw sewage released into Stockholm Harbor preserved Vasa’s wooden structure. (Note: Today, the harbor waters are clean, providing recreational opportunities for fishing, boating and swimming.)

The Vasa was raised from the harbor in 1961. Years of painstaking preservation followed.  Today, King Gustavus Adolphus, who ordered the Vasa to be built to bolster his hold on the Baltic Sea, and her Dutch ship builder, Henrik Hybertsson, would clearly recognize her.  Missing, however, are the bright colors of her beautifully carved artwork and trim.  Aging on a seafloor and a zillion gallons of polyethylene glycol preservative do take their toll.  Computer animation at the museum, however, filled the void to provide a sense of how magnificently painted this lady was when she went to the bottom, sails and flags still a-flying.

Following our museum wandering, guided English language tour and a viewing of a short film on the history, raising and preservation of the Vasa, we had a leisurely lunch with Patrik and Maria on the open air museum porch.  Once the meal was completed and some time had passed, we engaged in a Swedish custom called fica. We drove to a small café abutting the square that houses the Nobel Museum and enjoyed coffee and cakes, a typical Swedish afternoon activity.

Here our conservation with Maria and Patrik revealed the deep satisfaction and love we have read that Swedes have for their social compact. “Yes, we pay high taxes, but we have access to healthcare that otherwise would condemn us to lives of fret and reduced health.”  “It is a just society; a society built for people…ordinary people...” Our American inner voice of individualism is tempered here by a quieter voice of communal connectedness. We all rise and fall on the tide…so to speak. No judgment reached, no judgment sought.  We are different in all our glories and imperfections.

First Trip to Copenhagen

Our three day visit to Copenhagen could be considered more of a “dash” than a trip. The experience was also another round of adventures focused on figuring out transportation from downtown Stockholm to the airport and then navigating public transportation in Copenhagen.

We took the subway to the central train station early Sunday and caught the nonstop 20 min. train from Stockholm to Arlanda airport. By 1pm we were at our hotel in Copenhagen.

Copenhagen is a wonderful city, but has a more utilitarian feel than Stockholm. There were also many sidewalk detours where the street was torn up or the sidewalk was under construction.

We hopped on a sightseeing bus that offered a narrated city tour and opportunities to hop on and off at selected sights. The bus was overcrowded and because the standing people didn't have headsets they talked to each other and it got so loud we couldn't hear the recording. We did get a chance to see more of the city and Copenhagen’s famous Little Mermaid that’s been sitting in the harbor since 1913.

The statue is based on a fairy tale by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince. It’s one of the biggest tourist attractions in Denmark.

On Monday and Tuesday, Jay was off to his business meetings and I continued touring. My first stop was the Royal Palace (I missed seeing the changing of the guards) then off to a tour of the beautiful grounds of the nearby Rosenborg Castle. Thanks to the advice of Lynn, new American Women’s Club friend, I found Strøget Street, the main walking boulevard that runs east and west.

Walking from one end to the other of this commercial district, there are large intersections with beautiful fountains in the middle. At the east end is kongens nytorv, King’s New Square, a beautiful little park with lots of trees, benches, and a view of the canal where you can get on a boat and take harbor tours. All along the canal are trendy new cafés in an area called nyhavn, New Port.

Tuesday was spent at the well-maintained Botanical Gardens. What an impressive place! The east side functions as a public park with a small lake, but the majority of the grounds has marked specimens and about a dozen greenhouses. One was a tropical rain forest visitors could walk through. There were spiral staircases to climb to the top of the canopy. I was surprised at how hot and humid it became with each step up. By the time I got to the top my glasses were fogged up and I could hardly breathe it was so humid and hot. I had no idea! By the time I took the last step off the ladder and put my feet on the ground, it actually felt cool. I never would have believed it if I hadn't experienced it myself!

By 2:30 Jay’s meetings were finished and it was time to take the train to the airport and head back to Stockholm.

Slide Show of our Trip to Copenhagen

Uncertainty Principle

At the end of our third week in Stockholm, we feel the need to publish an update to Werner Heisenberg’s 1927 Uncertainty Principle. That is, one cannot simultaneously record the location and momentum of an object because mere observation impacts an object’s location and speed . . .or something like that.  Our uncertainty is a bit more street-level and prosaic.  We are becoming more familiar and comfortable with our new home everyday.  However, even the most common of chores, buying milk, comes with its uncertainty.

To start, Stockholm is a first class city with goods and services available in volume and quality to rival any city on the planet.  Our initial arrival behaviors had been focused on basics such as setting up a bank account, acquiring new mobile phones, installing our Vonage VoIP phone and finding food.  We have experienced some challenges in all categories, but basically smooth sailing on all endeavors.  So Jay was feeling a sense of confidence when sent to buy a liter of low fat (lite) milk.   Here is where uncertainty remains our partner.

All signage and labeling is in Swedish (go figure), but we have made pretty good progress in memorizing words and stringing together elementary phrases.  Jay’s purchase of a liter of Arla brand lattfil appeared to be a straightforward transaction.  There was even a picture of a cow on the container.  At breakfast, we discovered, however, he had purchased “skimmed sour” (buttermilk). 

Much of what we are doing now, from apartment hunting, travel arrangements, seeking specific goods (five plugged extension cord), etc. includes a combination what we have learned about Swedish customs and the continuous discovery that we have not gotten all the details worked out yet.  As a result, there is still a sense of uncertainty that accompanies each of our endeavors.  Then again, it wouldn’t be called an adventure if everything were familiar and well worn.

This weekend we are flying to Copenhagen. Jay will be participating in a sales workshop with a potential customer and Helen will be expanding our Nordic geographic knowledge footprint.  Stateside, a one-hour flight would get us no further from our home in Atlanta than to the very familiar Charlotte, NC.  Now an hour flight includes another currency, another language... and another adventure. 

We are sure uncertainty will pass over time to become the familiar and common.  For now, however, we are keeping true to living everyday with a sense of discovery, and Jay is spending much more time on the dairy section of our Swedish – English dictionary.

A Grand Tour

We became tourists today.  Helen purchased a 3-hour combination bus/boat ride around Stockholm called the Grand Tour from a local tour operator. We have enjoyed exploring our new Swedish homeland with evening and weekend “walk abouts,” but this tour was a convenient way to quickly expand our knowledge of Stockholm history and widen the range of city streets that we have explored.

Saturday’s weather was absolutely perfect. We ambled from our apartment to the tour’s starting point at Gustav Adolfs Torg (plaza) just north of the old city (Gamla Stan).  We arrived with plenty of time to spare, so we walked around the “tourist” heart of Gamla Stan.

We mixed with other tourists peering into shop windows and absorbing the charm of buildings constructed in the 1700 to 1800’s.  Narrow streets gave way to open squares.  Everywhere open air cafés competed for walking space.  European charm does not get any better.

It was then onto our bus, which  was equipped with headsets and options to select from up to eight languages to hear the recorded tour messages.  

We motored first to Södermalm, an old working class district that is now a hip and happening address.  It was then over to Kungsholmen, where in the 15^th century the church owned all the land, but is now a comfortable residential location.  We continued to Östermalm, home to the truly upscale and location of Stockholm’s cultural treasure, the Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern (Royal Dramatic Theater).  It was in this theater that Ingmar Bergman made his debut and Greta “I want to be alone” Garbo got her start.  The tour wound its way to Djurgården, the old royal hunting grounds, now a lush green parkland, before dropping us off to catch the boat.

Offered by the same tour company, we found the same headset and language selections on the boat.  We also discovered that the recorded tour message repeated some of the historic lore heard on the bus.  The boat pushed back into the waters of the Baltic Sea, but soon we passed through the lock system to Lake Mälaren where we motored about several of the 14 islands that make up Stockholm. 

Viewing Stockholm from the water gave us a new perspective. Seeing the stately and elegant homes along Strandvägen (Beach Road) in Östermalm from the water provided a more appreciative view of the grace of European architecture than seen from street level.  We also caught an image of “elderly Europe meets modern day Miami Vice” when  a brightly colored cigarette boat sped by. 

As we motored along shorelines, we saw Swedes enjoying kayaking, swimming, sunbathing and leisurely meals at water edge cafés. 
A wonderful day being in Stockholm.

By the Numbers

We have completed our second week in Stockholm by the numbers. No, really. We took numbers to complete our business. It isn't that everything was as organized and predictable as a “paint-by-numbers” masterpiece; quite the contrary. But we have learned the custom of taking a queue  number when entering an establishment. We were aware of this “wait your turn to be served” custom as we walked down Kungsbron to the Handelsbanken to open our account.  

This trip was our second attempt to open an account. On our first try the previous day, we engaged a very pleasant teller, Karin, who in a most polite and professional manner explained that our personnummer, passports, residential visa stamps and offer of employment letter from Jay’s company was insufficient documentation to open an account. This time we carried Jay’s deputation letter, as his Indian-centric company calls his employment contract.  That document sealed the deal.

Despite the need for a second trip, we were pleased with the ease of opening a bank account in Sweden.  Our Indian experience in 2005 was quite different.  India, ranked 134 of 183 countries by the World Bank on the ease of doing business, required us to have infinite patience, join a crowd waving bank slips in teller faces to gain recognition and phone calls to the branch manager.  Sweden is ranked 18^th, the US 5^th with Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the United Kingdom leading the scoring.  With the bank account opened, Jay’s check can be directly deposited and we now have local Visa cards.  When in Rome . . . 

The next stop was at a Skatteverket in Sodermalm to apply for our National ID cards.  The card was not a necessity, but they did give us a common way to identify ourselves.  The card was also needed to access online banking at Handelsbanken.

Two tries were again needed.  We arrived with a completed short application form, but were advised that we needed to have obtained a receipt (400 SEK/~$64 per card) to start the process. We followed directions to a Western Union Exchange shop, paid our fee via our US Visa card, paid the 35 SEK charge per transaction and headed back to the Skatterverket.

We took numbers, waited, handed in our receipts and were given another set of numbers to await the attention of another agent. 

Once in the small office of a youthful and pleasant agent, we slid our payment receipts, passports with residential visa stamps across his desk.  He started  processing Jay’s application first, but something was not computing.  In Jay’s computer record, Helen's photo appeared. Not to worry.  Helen’s application was processed without mishap. In two weeks she will receive notification in the mail to retrieve her ID card. Jay was instructed to come in tow . . . Helen would then be Jay’s validator and his card issued.

Everything done by the numbers . . . piece o’ cake.

Independence Day Picnic

This July 4, 235 years after our founding fathers assembled in Philadelphia to hold truths to be self-evident, we assembled under the sponsorship of the American Club of Sweden with fellow Americans and a wide-ranging group of American-philes at Fågelöudde Beach to celebrate that momentous event.

The mission of the American Club of Sweden, founded in 1905, is to strengthen bonds between the United States and Sweden.  The current club is the result of mergers over more than a century of several similarly focused organizations.  In its modern incarnation, it is a vehicle for networking through social programs and events.  At the start of our second week in Sweden, we were keen to meet people, network and chat with other expats.  Club Mission…our need…all perfectly aligned.

Our initial challenge to attend the picnic was finding Fågelöudde Beach.  The American Club website posted general public transportation direction; Stockholm subway red line to Ropsten, 204 bus to Elfvik, 233 bus to the beach.  The picnic required that we leave the familiarity of our relatively small Stockholm-centric travel circle so we did some Google map searching to align our understanding of the Swedish geography to the recommended subway and bus routes. 

We packed sandwiches, homemade potato salad, cherries from the farmer’s market and some chilled wine.  Our subway and first bus rides went as planned.  We were now in the countryside of hay fields and about to exit the bus to catch our second bus ride.  Due to the remoteness of the area, we checked with the bus driver to validate that the 233 bus actually stopped at Fågelöuddevagen.  “Oh no.  You needed to get off the bus at the last stop.  It is too late now.”  Gasp!  But he continued, “If you want to go to the beach, it is just a short 700 meter walk up this road.”  Ahhhh.

After the pleasant, woodland walk we were among the assembled crowd.

The Swedish July weather was blustery and a bit chilly, but the warmth of the crowd of 60+ people was very warm.  We introduced ourselves.  “We’re Jay and Helen and we've been in Sweden eight days.”  Gasp!  A new record for first time attendees.  The club’s current and former officers were quickly summoned and introduced.  “You need to meet so and so…”, “I sent out a Tweet to help you find permanent housing...”, “I was born in Atlanta…”  People were wonderfully inviting and welcoming.  Ahhhhhhhh….

We chatted, laughed and greatly enjoyed our stay.  At day’s end, we waked back to the bus stop near the hayfields.  As we sat waiting for the bus, Lillian and her son Ben, who had attended the picnic, stopped and asked if we needed a lift.  Lillian had lived in the US for 25 years.  Ben was born there.  Now living in Sweden, they continued the inviting and welcoming ambiance of the picnic and dropped us off right in front of our apartment. It was the perfect ending for a perfectly lovely day.

Jay made a short Youtube video of the picnic and submitted it to the club to post on their website.  Another wonder day in our adventure here in Sweden.

That Was The Week That Was

Much like the fast-paced, no punches pulled weekly wrap-up from the early 1960’s TV show That Was The Week That Was (TW3), our first week in Stockholm has been a non stop consumption of Swedish lifestyles and customs.  The majority of our time has been spent learning the mundane day-to-day ropes of Stockholm living…how to ride public transportation, where to shop for food, how to get mobile phone services, do laundry and a whole host of daily chores we once did on automatic pilot.

Within two days of arriving, we moved into a seven-week “vacation” rental Helen had secured prior to our departure using a fee-based web site called Bostad Direkt that provides access to the rapidly moving apartment market.  Finding Stockholm housing is tricky. We are grateful that we have a starting reference point to help us evaluate longer-term housing.

We encountered our first snag at the Skatteverket when we applied for our personnummer.   The personnummer is the Swedish national identity number that is required for everything.  Acquiring this number was on our immediate “to do” list so we could register for health coverage and open a bank account.  Once the bank account is opened, Jay’s paycheck can then be processed.  

Upon arrival at the Skatterverket, a woman who was most helpful greeted us.  We were handed a form, told to take number and wait our turn.  We had done our homework and were prepared with our passports, resident/work permits stamps in our passport and a copy of our marriage license.  Details…details …not a “copy” but the original marriage license, we were told, was required.  The paperwork was accepted and we were instructed to return within two weeks with the original.  Arrangements were made to have our original marriage license FedEx’d.  Yet in a nod to “we really don’t understand how things work yet,” the very day we waited for the FedEx delivery, the mail arrived with letters from the Skatterverket with our personnummers.

Laundry proved to be a more difficult challenge.  We arranged our “laundry time” as per the custom on a board with key-locked tags that claim a laundry time.  With some experimentation and Google translation searches to understand the wash/drier instructions we completed yet another rite of passage to normal living.

Food shopping has its challenges as we learn what is available and compare prices to our US baseline.  Food, like everything else in Stockholm, is very expensive; twice as expensive would not be a bad linear calculation. 

Our initial acquisition of  the Swedish language is being driven by the desire to understand food labels and signage.  Jay takes pictures of street signs and then later translates them.  We feel a sense of “illiteracy” that we are determined to overcome.  The good news is that most Swedes speak English quite well. 

All these challenges, we are sure, will seen trite in a few weeks.  For now, we are claiming small daily victories as we acclimate to our new home.