Two nights in Stockholm, Sweden.

Entrance to the “Old Town”. Photo credit to a friendly tourist.

February 28, 2012

I’ve been in Stockholm for only 48 hours and it has been a captivating experience. The airport shuttle dropped me off at the city center station, and during the drive there I was exposed to Stockholm’s sprawl of urban and classic architecture. This city has one of the most extensive and interesting histories of any populace in Europe, a history that dates back to 1252. I checked into Interhostel, about 500 meters from the downtown’s centre. The hostel was nice, but there is something about sleeping in a room without windows that is disconcerting. I guess safety codes are a bit different here.

Platform view of “Old Town.”

The narrow streets reminded me of how much our modes of transportation have evolved, even though vehicles still careen through them today.

There was a huge buzz surrounding the Royal family because a new princess was born three days before I arrived. It’s weird to think how much our society has remained the same despite our “advanced civilization”. Keeping in mind the insane ratings that the William and Kate wedding drew, it’s a little devastating to consider how much attention people focus on the lives of others instead of their own! In our society, fame is like a curse. Everyone thinks you have an amazing life, but the person’s privacy is completely sacrificed, and the pressure to maintain an image can be crushing.

Sucks to be the person whose view out their office window is the bottom of a Volkswagen.

This message was reinforced when I watched a documentary on Anton Corbijn at Fotograsfiska (a photo museum). Corbijn is a famous photographer recognized for work with Metallica, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili peppers, Coldplay, as well as several other celebrities. In the film, he said that “celebrity is a curse on the industry.” The work is supposed to be about art and development of thought, but celebrity swoops in like a disease, always driven by money, and the rest is downhill from there.

Inside one of the Churches in Old Town. I still can’t understand how people believe God would ever want violence justified in the Spirits name?

Whenever money becomes the motive for anything, morals are discarded and any atrocity can be seemingly justified. Spirituality is not as prominent of an idea anymore, and a large number of people deny that they have any beliefs. But everyone has to believe something; why else would you get out of bed in the morning? Unfortunately, this belief tends to be the all-mighty dollar. But money is numbers, and numbers never end, so how could something that never ends make you happy? We definitely need to pay the bills and feed ourselves, but aside from covering the basic necessities of life, there is no correlation between money and happiness; in fact, a lot of the time it is quite the opposite. “Mo Money Mo Problems.” –Biggie smalls.

I wasn’t sure what or who this was but after a long time pondering it definitely made me feel a little awkward.

The city of Stockholm is surrounded by water, which makes for amazing views wherever you go. There is such an abundance of museums, enough to fulfill any history lover’s dream. I am usually more into physical activities, but over the past few years I have made a stronger effort to learn from these incredible monuments to our past. Improving my focus has paid off; now I can stay in a museum long enough to read the information boards provided for artifacts I’m looking at, which helps me gain an educated appreciation for them.

Nordic Museum

I also visited the Vasa Museum, which houses the Vasa Warship, constructed in 1628. This is the largest salvaged ship ever, and it offers a great insight into 17th century Sweden. As I looked at it, I saw it as symbolic of the adventures of life; how sailing into the unknown can seem unnecessary and reckless, but so often it’s totally worth it “cause everybody dies but not everybody lives.” –Drake

The most decorated ship in the world when it was built. However due to a fatal design flaw it that made it top heavy it never made it out of the harbour.

On my second day in Sweden, the final stop of my site-seeing was at Skansen, a 75-acre area town preserved in the heart of Stockholm. This town reminded me of an outdoor version of the Western Development Museum. Exploring the different buildings and imagining what it would have been like to survive during this time reminded me to stop and appreciate our current lives.

Some buildings were like chameleons.

Old school security systems.

It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that we are still just trying to survive, like all other animals in the world. But when people’s need for food and shelter is already satisfied, they’re left to create their own problems; these problems are way more complicated than the basic need for survival ever was. More often than not, our problem is in the way we think. If we just put our energy into positive action, our concerns would be far less complicated.