It was our first trip to Sweden. As we soared in over Norway, gazing out the window of our Scandinavian Airways carrier we marvelled at the sheer preponderance of fjords and rivers that crisscrossed the terrain. Bleak and desolate it nevertheless beckoned with its offer of unremitting solitude.
From the air Stockholm looked massive, almost like flying into London I remarked to my wife. But the difference in population is immense, London having about four or five times the populace of the Swedish capital.
Like New York, Stockholm is built on a series of islands or archipelagos as the Swedes prefer to call them. 12 in all I think, linked by interconnecting bridges. In prison I frequently received postcards or photos of the country’s beautiful lakes but had little idea just how central water is to the topography. For a short time during the blanket protest, before a vindictive screw stole it, a postcard from Sweden was the one dash of colour in our cell. So it was with some reflection that I found myself sending postcards to people held in Maghaberry and Portlaoise from a city where so many were mailed to me.
We had been forewarned in advance that Stockholm was an expensive city and it turned out to be just that. A pitcher of Margaritas to go along with our evening meal cost about €50. Everywhere, prices made rip off Ireland look cheap and value for money by comparison. A cold city, it had no Iceland mentality; nothing there to equal buy one get one free.
Stockholm is a very clean and tidy city and seemingly well organised. Trams, taxis, planes and buses all seem to be on time. Restaurants are invariably packed. Capital of what is said to be the most secular country in Europe, there were few churches that I saw. A religious bookshop beckoned but I didn’t enter. I already had my fiction for the journey, the third of the Stieg Larsson trilogy.
We called it our honeymoon, the first time we had actually got away together without kids tagging along and fighting every step of the way. Our last trip together sans what our friend Angela calls ‘the midgets’ was to Madrid. Even then one managed to stowaway in her mother’s womb. As much as we love them, we found that a touch of absence makes the heart grow fonder!
We spent a lot of time walking including a two hour Stieg Larsson tour. On foot is the best way to acquaint with a city. The late David Ervine preferred to holiday in cities rather than resorts. He wanted to see how people lived rather than how they holidayed. There is much to be said for that. The ersatz composition of resorts limits knowledge of a country visited. Once in from the cold streets of Stockholm, we would collapse in the warmth of a spacious and well maintained hotel room, grateful for the small mercy of not having to separate the fighting midgets.
We were hardly in the city 24 hours before we ran into a scam merchant. He was a taxi driver and seemed not to have been Swedish. Most Swedes we spoke to had reasonable English but this chancer hadn’t a word of it and relied on excitable gesticulations to make his point which was basically that I had broken something disembarking from his taxi. He most likely kept the broken piece in the cab and cellotaped it back on to catch the next tourist he thought was gullible enough to fall for his ruse. My wife sought to calm him with a larger than normal tip whereas I felt a hefty tip on the end of his nose more in order.
Con men like this weasel are regulars in many foreign cities. I experienced it in Amsterdam one evening when a taxi driver who claimed to hail from Morocco took myself and a former republican prison on an elongated route to our flat. When he asked for his ridiculously inflated fare my friend tossed the standard 15 guilders in his direction, telling him in no uncertain terms that we were onto his scam. He threatened us with the cops to which we invited him to take us to the station. A new departure in our lives but the cops were Dutch, not British. That ended the exchange.
Obviously I do not know the cultural or ethnic backgrounds of the people who traversed Stockholm’s streets but it seemed very much a white European city. It was certainly not Malmo to the South of the country where there is much social tension between many Swedes and the immigrant population and where more than a dozen foreign nationals have been shot there this year alone. Few people of different skin colour were on view in Stockholm, unlike Dublin, London or Amsterdam. The only two beggars I came across were not white and it struck me that immigrants, if that is what they were, might experience a difficult time in the country. If the food and drink prices were an index to go by, then it would take a considerable amount of hours on the streets, cup in hand, to make enough for a bed for the night. Ending up on the street is not a safe option. The Swedish climate is not one that would guarantee a response to a wake up call after a night spent roughing it.
Back home, and the kids are fighting.
Postcards from Stockholm
It was our first trip to Sweden. As we soared in over Norway, gazing out the window of our Scandinavian Airways carrier we marvelled at the sheer preponderance of fjords and rivers that crisscrossed the terrain. Bleak and desolate it nevertheless beckoned with its offer of unremitting solitude.
From the air Stockholm looked massive, almost like flying into London I remarked to my wife. But the difference in population is immense, London having about four or five times the populace of the Swedish capital.
Like New York, Stockholm is built on a series of islands or archipelagos as the Swedes prefer to call them. 12 in all I think, linked by interconnecting bridges. In prison I frequently received postcards or photos of the country’s beautiful lakes but had little idea just how central water is to the topography. For a short time during the blanket protest, before a vindictive screw stole it, a postcard from Sweden was the one dash of colour in our cell. So it was with some reflection that I found myself sending postcards to people held in Maghaberry and Portlaoise from a city where so many were mailed to me.
We had been forewarned in advance that Stockholm was an expensive city and it turned out to be just that. A pitcher of Margaritas to go along with our evening meal cost about €50. Everywhere, prices made rip off Ireland look cheap and value for money by comparison. A cold city, it had no Iceland mentality; nothing there to equal buy one get one free.
Stockholm is a very clean and tidy city and seemingly well organised. Trams, taxis, planes and buses all seem to be on time. Restaurants are invariably packed. Capital of what is said to be the most secular country in Europe, there were few churches that I saw. A religious bookshop beckoned but I didn’t enter. I already had my fiction for the journey, the third of the Stieg Larsson trilogy.
We called it our honeymoon, the first time we had actually got away together without kids tagging along and fighting every step of the way. Our last trip together sans what our friend Angela calls ‘the midgets’ was to Madrid. Even then one managed to stowaway in her mother’s womb. As much as we love them, we found that a touch of absence makes the heart grow fonder!
We spent a lot of time walking including a two hour Stieg Larsson tour. On foot is the best way to acquaint with a city. The late David Ervine preferred to holiday in cities rather than resorts. He wanted to see how people lived rather than how they holidayed. There is much to be said for that. The ersatz composition of resorts limits knowledge of a country visited. Once in from the cold streets of Stockholm, we would collapse in the warmth of a spacious and well maintained hotel room, grateful for the small mercy of not having to separate the fighting midgets.
We were hardly in the city 24 hours before we ran into a scam merchant. He was a taxi driver and seemed not to have been Swedish. Most Swedes we spoke to had reasonable English but this chancer hadn’t a word of it and relied on excitable gesticulations to make his point which was basically that I had broken something disembarking from his taxi. He most likely kept the broken piece in the cab and cellotaped it back on to catch the next tourist he thought was gullible enough to fall for his ruse. My wife sought to calm him with a larger than normal tip whereas I felt a hefty tip on the end of his nose more in order.
Con men like this weasel are regulars in many foreign cities. I experienced it in Amsterdam one evening when a taxi driver who claimed to hail from Morocco took myself and a former republican prison on an elongated route to our flat. When he asked for his ridiculously inflated fare my friend tossed the standard 15 guilders in his direction, telling him in no uncertain terms that we were onto his scam. He threatened us with the cops to which we invited him to take us to the station. A new departure in our lives but the cops were Dutch, not British. That ended the exchange.
Obviously I do not know the cultural or ethnic backgrounds of the people who traversed Stockholm’s streets but it seemed very much a white European city. It was certainly not Malmo to the South of the country where there is much social tension between many Swedes and the immigrant population and where more than a dozen foreign nationals have been shot there this year alone. Few people of different skin colour were on view in Stockholm, unlike Dublin, London or Amsterdam. The only two beggars I came across were not white and it struck me that immigrants, if that is what they were, might experience a difficult time in the country. If the food and drink prices were an index to go by, then it would take a considerable amount of hours on the streets, cup in hand, to make enough for a bed for the night. Ending up on the street is not a safe option. The Swedish climate is not one that would guarantee a response to a wake up call after a night spent roughing it.
Back home, and the kids are fighting.
jasus mackers i opened that up there again and thought ye were on webcam..near had a hernia lol
ReplyDeleteGreat story + nice pics, good to see you looking so well.
Our politicians want 40,000 people to leave here. Maybe we could send them and their families there with a cup?
Mackers,
ReplyDeleteIt looks an absolutely beautiful city.
I had friends who lived there for years and yes they found it very expensive but they had to stay through work.
Always sad to see people begging on the streets. Last year my son was in town doing last minute xmas shopping when he over heard some man ranting and raving at a fellah begging on the street.
My son asked the one doing the mouthing, 'what his problem was?' and he cracked shouting about beggars and dirt clogging up the street.
Kevin suggested that if he was so 'sensitive maybe it would be better if he just walked on the other side of the street.'
'Fcuk you too' the guy squealed before strutting off.
The guy begging then got up and asked could he shake my son's hand.
Could it have been Larry doing the shouting by any chance?
Certainly not me. I am confused how my attacking people with multiple houses and corruption puts me in the demagogue mode..? interesting, some people are turning everything on its head methinks. my concience is clear. hows urs Fionnuala.
ReplyDeleteNot many paper cup guys defending the morgage brokers and dolites getting dodgy multiple loans.
Anyhow, we all have our perception of 'values'.
Nice post Antony,
ReplyDeleteI've never visited Scandanavia but would like to. Funny about the con man. Rome, especially in the vacinity of the Vatican is absolutely crawling with them.
I thought I was pretty streetwise but a Roman scammer selling fake designer cloths caught me for €40 a few years back. I felt like I'd been hypnotized as he zoomed off in his little car. Still, it was a lesson learned.
Rory
Anthony,
ReplyDelete"Back home, and the kids are fighting."
Remember the blocks Anthony, puts kids squabbling into a different perspective! Never been to Scandinavia - maybe someaday.
you must all be snowed in,, given the volume of comments coming through! I just woke up and Carrie said the comments haven't stopped!
ReplyDeleteRory,
ReplyDeleteRome is the absolute worst in terns of con men. I'll never go back, just crawling with vermin looking for easy tourist prey.
That said I still haven't forgotten a taxi driver who tried to charge me 20 pounds to take me from the Falls to Queens University a few years back. Thought I was just another dumb American tourist. So there's bad apples in every city unfortunately.
His name was Marty he told me, hopefully not our Marty!!
Thick snow in Wexford Antony and very, very cold, otherwise I'd be out looking at the stars.
ReplyDeleteRory
Garycrow,
ReplyDeleteVery true about Rome, tea leaves everywhere and thats not counting the ones in The Vatican!
Anthony
ReplyDeleteMy apology to Carrie lucky my computer went on the blink I think the internet gods were telling me to hush unless I actually had something to say.
Will indeed have a few more comments tomorrow as the craic was good today that is unless you decide to accept only one post per person per week or in my case per month.
Yeah Anthony really enjoyed that post. We have been to Prauge and Amsterdam together and Florida, Marie is much more travelled than I am, but the little I have done I must say I have enjoyed it, we made friends in Amsterdam with the waitress in our hotel.we had visited the Reichstagg museum earlier in the day and the hotel had prints of Rembrants works all over the walls,I said to the girl that we had been looking at the originals earlier and was tempted to borrow on or two, she laughed and told me to leave them alone her brother was head of security,next thing she was leaving shots of someting called Dark stuff on the table on the house really nice girl, when we were leaving she gave me a bottle of the stuff,truth be told it is minging tastes of syrup of figs.We liked Amsterdam a dangerous place,but Dublin can be just as bad,In Prauge our original hotel was about 20 kms outsidethe city we got the train in the first day but when the gaurd was issuing the ticket and we told him we were going to Prauge nearly had a fit we were going in the opposite direction,anyway when in Wencelas square we nipped into an Irish bar that is situated just of the square, while chatting to the manager an Irish lad and we told him how far out of town we were he said that he would see if he could get us something closer to the town,and in an hour he had got us an apartment just of the square realy lovely and more than reasonable,we then had time to walk the city really interesting.I,m not a great one for travelling I am more at home in the hills with the sheep or on the lakes,but it sure is an education to see other peoples land. Mickeyboy should buy a tcket for some far flung place,preferably a one way!
ReplyDeleteLarry, you did not only condemn the people with the big houses you made arrogant and flippant comments about people collecting the dole.
ReplyDeleteI am very aware there are people who milk the system, I pass some of their fine homes on my way to and back from work.
However, that does not allow for generalisations, a lot of people are in dire straits and you said 'fcuk them'
Dublin taxi drivers over charge at the airport. The driver my son and i got into town hit the 'extra's' button about 3 times more than he should. I told him i was a taxi driver myself and that my boss was the chairman of sligo taxi federation and looked at the meter. At end of journey he sheepishly asked if i needed a reciept, i let it go..it was only a few euro. But it still sickens you.
ReplyDeleteWee bit like mcguinness and adams.
Tain Bo,
ReplyDeleteall posts are welcome. Thought Michael Henry would have been in there. He is usually about when there is devilment to be enjoyed.
Fionnuala,
ReplyDeletei'm specifically criticising speculators and get rich quick merchants. I have no sympathy for fast buck shysters and will not be changing my mind about the plight they now find themselves in.
I'm loving it.
There was enough winding up and ribbing yesterday, lets leave it at that.
Hope you didn't take it toopersonal, it WAS generalised banter.
Tain Bo in my case then it would be more like get thee behind me Satan!its snowing like Siberia here kinda concerned Nuala wont get out to her annunal weemens kneesup,after that verbal bust up with Larry the lass needs some serious r&r,Larry had a lucky escape if you ask me ,its well known Nuala like Marie does,nt polish their teeth,they sharpen them ....
ReplyDeletemarty after readin that when i meet u for the tour of the crum' im askin them to keep me in lol
ReplyDeleteneed a wee cuppo tae, long may the snow continue, this great craic!!
Larry, you say some very cavalier and contradictory stuff.
ReplyDeleteLast evening you were saying any economy that had British input in actually florished!
No bigger get rich merchants than them, yet you admire them and slag off your own government for doing the same thing.
Still waiting on the comprehensive outline on a country that the actually made a positive contribution to.
Marty, no need to be concerned the knees up is practically on my door step.
ReplyDeleteGreat sitting here at the computer though basking in heat. It was even better earlier looking out the window at Albert and Kevin, having to shovel the snow off the car to get to work.
Nuala at least it was only snow they were shoveling ..just think of Mickeyboys poor wife and what she has to shovel and the amount of it as well gawd be good to her!
ReplyDeleteFionnuala,
ReplyDeletei would rather the entire island of ireland had remained in the commonwealth and turned out like canada or australia than be where we are in the free state today. Add to that mistake adams and mcguinness and 30yrs of shite for 2 jobs in stormont and the depression only deepens.
Before ye give me a fenian ourselves alone tirade, reflect on the 90 yrs the FREE state just enjoyed...
Question;
if them big bad horrible brits [and they are] had closed their door to all the irish turning up over the decades many with no shoes [in the 1940's] where would you have put them?
course its different now isn't it? Is that why FF who just sunk the island say they need 40,000 to fuck off so they can fix things?
who needs shot fionnuala???? The uk or the oirish government just now?
by the way fionnuala marty + co. do ya see that m1 roundabout, ye can leave it now, the Free State troops aint comin after all!!!!
ReplyDeleteLarry, don't understand your comment about the 40s? If you mean Irish people turning up in England desperate for work, then why would they turn them away, the bled their country for centuries, cheap labour is hardly cashing in on the British economy.
ReplyDeleteIn another post you mentioned childrens minds being 'poisoned' at school.
I remember my English teacher telling us, that she had recently returned from a visit to England.
When she arrived she decided to get a bite to eat in a cafe, the declaration on the door read, 'No Dogs, No Blacks, No Irish.'
Says more about them and their mentality than I ever could.
AM-
ReplyDeletethe snow and ice has kept us without transport, had to walk a few country roads to get to the shop for the papers [ fell on my arse a few times ]
apart from the cost of peoples needs you paint a nice picture of
stockholm, that photo shows you siting out-side a IRISH bar
[ tobins is wrote above your head ]
i turned a corner one day in brussels and their was the IRISH
national flag flying- i went in for 1 pint but came out that evening blocked
when Ryan mentioned the vatican i
thought it would have kicked of
another debate from the usual suspects- but its all quiet on
the pensive Quill front- for once.
fionnuala
ReplyDeleteonce more you justify your life in a wee historical bubble with a dig at the brits.
Time to change the national record...we have DVD's now.
the future is what we should aspire to be proud of. History should be a reference book, not a road map for our future. Other wise this oul gunk is with us forever. Like the FF scoundrels we'd be condeming the next lot before they arrive. Maybe some people just have no inclination to move on?
Larry, you are getting me into trouble in the house, Albert caught me putting an out of date sponge cake in the bird box.
ReplyDelete'Waste not want not' his motto.
He also said I was very rude and should 'apologise' but I already have!
Larry, I did not choose to be anti-English I had no control over how they conducted themselves during their Empire building days.
My DA used to say, they emerged from hell and there are times in my life I have had cause to believe that, just as he had.
With regards to beggars I do not believe anyone chooses life on the streets, I think life has in someway dictated that path for people.
I think if people were paid a proper wage they certainly would not choose life on the dole either.
Maybe we should do what Billy Connolly suggest, 'eat all the unemployed, the prisoners and the people on the streets.' Or get the Brits to do it for us.
Anthony,
ReplyDeleteSweden is a place I have had the pleasure of visiting on a number of occasions.
I have always had a deep respect for the Swedish people because of the immense support that they they gave to the ANC. The support given was not just fine words but concrete practical support. It has been said that this support was what led to the assasination of Olaf Palme in 1986, the main suspects being South Africa's Bureau Of State Security.
I do worry though about the direction rightwards that Sweden (and other European countries) seems to be taking. During hard times it seems that many people look to the lowest common denominator, ignoring the lessons from history.
All said though a beautiful country and well worth a visit.
fionnuala
ReplyDeletedont be a silly billy now ...apologies my irish ass, wer all wired up here.
Speak for yourself Larry I,m a helicopter!
ReplyDeleteA wee tip for all my mates esp if your flying.always sit at the back of the plane!...well when did you ever hear of a plane reversing into a mountain!!!if nothing sticks to teflon how the f##k did they get it to stick to the pan?!!!!My mate just adopted a wee black child and christened him Google...I asked why, he said "may as well as he,s gonna spend most of his life getting searched"!! Dashing through the snow....on a v8 wonder sled...crashing into trees...cos I,m off my f##king head....been smokin santas pipe..a dozen beers or more..I,m heading to the red light zone...to get myself a whore....oh..jingle bells,jingle bells santas smokin weed...mrs claus is on the floor she,s overdosed on speed...Blitzens f##ked,the elves are to....they,re tripping off their heads..if Rudolf snorts another line the f##ker will end up dead!!! thats an old Poleglass christmas carol.
ReplyDeleteLarry has said he thinks he,s been blocked from posting Anthony,I told him I reckon its just the server !
ReplyDeleteMarty, panic over, another one has just got through.
ReplyDeleteForgot to add, ha, ha,ha!
ReplyDeletefionnuala
ReplyDeleteyou're a naughty girl
AM-
ReplyDeleteI notice a new film out about 1 of
Stieg Larsson books
most films do not meet the standard
of the book, don't know why this is
money or the fact that a book is hard to explain on the big screen
what about that new fangled way to read a book- the Ipod
not my cup of tea.
Michaelhenry,
ReplyDeleteThe books are brilliant. Saw the first film and enjoyed that. But you are right in general, few books are matched by the film when it comes out. Not sure about the I book or Sony Reader. see a few people with them but there is still something about the real thing.
Anyhony yeah like licking yer finger to turn a page!
ReplyDeleteI just can't understand this Stieg Larsson hysteria thats swept the globe. AM I'm usually right with you on your book interests whether it be the North or the Eastern Front of WW2, but this trilogy bores me to tears. It's worse than reading Before the dawn by the great leader. And I hate to agree with Danny Morrison. Sorry for the rant.
ReplyDeleteAnthony sorry for the mispelling was that a Freudian slip
ReplyDeletegettin worried bout you marty
ReplyDeletewe'll keep things alcahol free in belshaft and me a roman ca-aholic.
mackers u dont do that for me in them pics...sorry bout that.
and u talking bout ladyboys yday marty tut tut.
Marty,
ReplyDeletenot a chance of Larry being barred. He raises issues and prejudices which the PC type must not be allowed to hush up. I think we are all the better for the fact that he has raised the issues and been taken to task for them by Tain Bo, Martydownunder and Nuala. It allows us to ponder the sentiment out there rather than pretend it does not exist. And it allows us to see strategies of responding to it. We will all know when somebody oversteps the mark. Robert and Michaelhenry have taken quite a bit of stick on this board and you did for a while too in your rows with Robert where you both gave it and took it but none of you asked for a bar. Everybody stuck with it and people like Michaelhenry and Robert regardless of how their views clash with our own are as much a part of the furniture on the blog as the rest of us. The place would be much duller without them. What I like about the blog is the refusal to be deferential on the part of those who post. There are no authority figures here. If the point is to be won it has to be fought for.
Rory,
ReplyDeleteThanks for this.
I always thought the Vatican was crawling with con men even thought I never got to Rome. I am with Martydownunder on this one. Hope to make it some day. Would like to try Paris and Prague amongst many others. With the recession I think we will do alright to stay in our house never mind making it anywhere soon!
Ryan,
heard about Rome before from a former republican prisoner who got mugged there by what he claimed were two Romanian hookers. But as you and Larry say it happens everywhere. Our own taxi drivers can leave a lot to be desired.
Marty,
Loved Amsterdam. Have been there so many times. Apart from London it is probably the city I have visited most outside Ireland. Never found Amsterdam dangerous. Although it was dangerous if you were a secularist and advocate of free speech who upset the theocratic fascists. Then they would saw your head off in the street as happened to Theo Van Gogh.
I love to get away and see somewhere different. Love other cities. Spanish resorts are ok for relaxation with family but I love cities.
The Skin
ReplyDeleteSweden has, as you say, swung to the right. Immigration and welfare are the issues the Right are trying to forge ahead on it seems. I remember being shocked at the Palme killing. It seemed so out of place in Sweden. Then a government minister was stabbed to death while shopping although I don’t think there was apolitical overtone to that if I can remember.
Michael Henry
‘that photo shows you sitting out-side a IRISH bar [ tobins is wrote above your head ]’
Actually the sign says TOBAK, not Tobins, and is a newsagent
AM,
ReplyDeleteAs usual, just catching up again on my reading/posts. Happy to hear you and your wife had the opportunity to enjoy a wee bit of a "honeymoon". Always a good thing to do from time to time.
Ryan,
ReplyDeleteWhatever floats your boat. I loved all three. Thought they got better as they went. We went on the tour in Stockholm. Bangers has a take similar to your own. I think he did the 18th century French novel as part of a university course in jail and maybe applied the criteria there to Larsson. I think novels are a matter of taste. You and Bangers have your view which is right for you both. We have a different view which does us. Like cabbage, you either like it or you don’t. What others think of your taste is neither here nor there
Helen,
ReplyDeleteThanks. Yes, it was well worth doing.