My last two days in Stockholm were marked by weather unbecoming of a vacation destination. First it was rain and wind, and then it was cold as hell, windy, and snowing sporadically. The rain alone wasn't bad, but the wind kept blowing it into my face so I kept retreating into places to sit out the worst of it. The result was sitting in one of the shopping malls people watching and eating lunch at McDonalds (which are all over the place) and then ducking into the Historiska Museet, the Swedish History Museum when the hold on my coat decided to stop being a hood. My destination had been the Vasamuseet , but free admission and being there when I needed a place to dry off solidified the detour.I didn't go through the whole museum because I still had aspirations of reaching my initial destination, but I did find the history musuem quite interesting. Amongst other exhibits chronicaling the history of Sweden is an extensive one on Swedish Vikings. A trove of artifacts and information make it worth a visit on it's own. But once I was dried and warmed up I headed back out, and continued on my way to the Vasa Musuem. A coffee detour later I arrived.
The Vasa was a 64 gun ship intended to be the flagship of Sweden's navy and a show of force in their war with Poland. The ship set sail on its maiden voyage in 1628 and sank a few minutes later in the middle of the harbor after encountering a minor squall. The ship was built to specifications of the king by a private group and as such its hull was too shallow, it's ballast too light, and was known to be unstable yet ordered to set sail by the king regardless. It would sit on the ocean floor sinking into the mud for 333 years before being resurrected largely intact in a complicated salvage and preservation operation that began in the late 50s and is technically still on-going (the ship is actually still drying and requires constant upkeep).
The Vasa Museum is a one trick pony and knows it. But as far as ponies go, it's a pretty badass pony. Where most single-subject museums tease and tempt you deeper into the building before unveiling its prized possession, usually to disappointment, the forgoes the cocktease and shows it all up front. Once you buy your ticket and enter the museum proper you are immediately confronted with the fully resurrected ship in all it's glory. The weathered but reconstructed ship sits front and center, it's bowsprit juts out toward you, its masts towering over you at full height. You can hardly go anywhere in the museum without the imposing ship sitting there in its dark, brooding glory staring you down. The museum it a wide open building with levels up and down from ground level to allow you to view the ship from every angle but on-board. Around the outside edges are exhibits about the ship's history, the recovery efforts, the on-going preservation, and skeletons and accoutrements of several of those who died when it's capsized. It's quite possibly the most impressive museum I've ever been to. It may not be able to compete with the sheer wealth of artifacts and exhibits something like Smithsonian or Louvre does, but it more than makes up for it with presentation. Visiting the Vasa was pretty much the only thing I accomplished that day and I was fine with that.
The next day I woke up to bitter cold, sharp wind, and tiny flakes of snow that whipped at my face and occasionally blinded me. It wasn't anything close to a white out, but it made walking around town very uncomfortable. So much so that I actually left the Burger King, realized I was vastly under-dressed for the day, and had to make another go at it. There was only one thing I planned on doing that day, and it wasn't until later that evening. With no real goal in mind, I wandered a part of the city I hadn't gone to yet and stumbled onto a great view of Stockholm at the city's natural high point known as Skinnarviksberget. If I thought it was cold at sea level, it was fucking cold and the wind was painful at 53 meters above sea level. After about 10 minutes of enjoying the view I was frozen and set out to find a coffee shop and kill a couple hours.
Finally it was time to head to the whole point of the day, a heavy metal concert at a formerly brewery where the bands Mastodon, Red Fang, and Russian Circles were playing. I arrived a little earlier than I intended, for no reason other than I got antsy and left the coffee shop too soon. As a result I ended up standing outside the venue for a little over an hour, accidentally broke in line (I mean, the head of the line...not just stumbled somewhere mid-line), and was shivering and my teeth were chattering by the time we were let in. The guy who was actually first in line was really cool about it and instead of rightfully sending me to the back he just decided to start talking to me about music and Canadian marijuana. The concert was great. I've been a fan of Mastodon and Red Fang for a while but never able to see them, and Russian Circles was new to me but pretty good. It was around midnight when I got out and close to 1am when I made it back to my room. Tomorrow I leave Stockholm to head toward Oslo, Norway.
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