Dreaming of Freedom

The weekend passed under grey skies but no rain. Friday I spent with Jolien, Vassessa and Nicole in the Fort St George. On Saturday I convinced Jolien to come to the FitzWilliam with me and we managed to go on a free tour of the Darwin exhibition. On Sunday my neighbour, Jolien and I all went to Jesus College to look at the sculpture and the church before winding up in the Copper Kettle for a drink. Then it was back to work yesterday with aching fingertips because I decided to take up playing the guitar on Sunday night. Tim’s guitar is left handed so I’m learning it all the wrong way round but I can almost play a couple of notes although moving between the notes quickly and gracefully is really hard. Today the sun is shinning and after work I’m off to the Peace Cafe’s book club to discuss John Berger From A to X and then to the Free Press to meet up with the humanists.

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I was in the Archelology and Anthropology museum the other day and say some fabulous art work tucked away in a corner upstairs. There were some Ceramic Cast Hugs by Bonnie Kemske and a sound and movement device entitled Vox Theremin by Micheal Markert. Worth popping in to have a look at the art and the museum in general. It’s open Tuesday - Saturday 10:30am - 4:30pm and admission is free.

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I went to see the fireworks last night on Parker’s Piece. It wasn’t a massive display but it was nice. Afterwards Andy and I wandered the cute little streets of Cambridge which were surprisingly busy. After a much needed lie in today I went into the center to the Sedgwick Museum to see Pif-Paf perform their short play Under The Floorboards which was all about important 19th century figures in Geology and what they discovered that contributed to our understanding of geology and the formation of the earth. They ended the play by telling us we were entering an era of human made geology which left a million questions buzzing in all our heads.

Andy and I spent the rest of the day buying him a bike on the ‘bike to work scheme’. It sounds like a great idea - people are encouraged to ride bikes to work and the money to buy your bike is taken out of your wages and you benefit by not paying tax or national insurance on it. The downside is that your employer gets to decide where you can get your bike and Halfords isn’t a great choice. Most of the customers in the bike department were clutching their bike to work vouchers with a sort of manic desperation. I was left undecided as to whether they really did need a tax break on their bikes or they just wanted it because it seemed like a really good higher purchase scheme. Perhaps the air of desperation was due to being in Halfords which is possibly the worst place to buy a bike from. I am convinced that the lack of choice of where you buy your bike from is a major drawback of this scheme. Halfords has an expensive and unimpressive range of bikes, it was chronically understaffed and the staff seemed to have a total lack of passion about bikes. Give me a little bike shop any day, where people know what they are talking about and can offer you real and valuable advice.

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There wasn’t much time before we caught the train back to Gothenburg but we did manage to pay a quick visit to the Stadmuseum, which is free and well worth a visit. Like all the museums we saw there is a handy room full of free lockers and coat hooks, as well as the free toilets - which makes them very convenient places for travellers.

To sum up Stockholm in a few words - it’s a compact city, very traveller friendly, it’s a bit touristy and some areas are busy as you would expect in a capital city but there are some really pretty areas. Skeppsholm was my favourite place but wandering along the Strand is also nice, as is walking around Djurgården. I can’t wait to go back and explore the city more.

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K and I hopped on the ferry to get to Djurgården today and walked up past the theme park Gröna Lund Tivoli which was heaving with massive queues outside. We walked up to Rosendals Trädgård and wandered around the gardens, orchard and the ‘castle’. We stopped at the cafe to sample their carrot cake recommended by Karin and it was as delicious as promised.
We walked back along the strand in the drizzling rain and on to Skeppsholm to the Moderna Museet which has a fabulous collection of modern art. It cost a princely 80 sek to get inside but the adjoining Arkitekur Museet is free on Fridays between 16.00 and 18.00 so we got to wander round that for free. The Moderna Museet provided free audio guides in several languages and these are well worth taking advantage of.

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Yesterday we spent the morning walking along the waters edge on Södermalm and through old wooden houses and cute gardens. You can get great views of the Stockholm skyline from there. We found our way down to Tantolunden - a large park on the west of the island - and wandered amid the allotments, frisbee golf course and past the Zinkensdamm youth hostel (which looked very nice). It was then on to Gamla Stan and to Kaffe and Annat on Österlånggatan - which is a tiny little cafe with friendly staff and ancient wooden beams.
We wandered past the National Museum (entrance fee required) to Skeppsholmen where there are three more museums (fees also required) before walking down Strandvägen - a wide street on the waters edge to Djurgården another island complete with theme park, large open air museum and lots of green space.

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It was our last day in Helsinki today and we thought we’d head out to Suomenlinna on the ferry. This group of islands served as a military fortress and prison for the last two hundred years and has been placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as an example of European fortification architecture. There wasn’t much open on the island at this time of the year but the information centre with attached museum was open and provided some tables and chairs for chilled picnickers as well as free washroom facilities. We wandered over the islands and wished it was was summer so we could really appreciate it. We ended up in Cafe Chapman for a cup of coffee before getting the ferry back and dashing to the airport just in time to get our flight back to Gothenburg. I was pleased to discover that Blue 1 offer complimentary coffee on their flights - the coffee was all the better for being free. The sun was shinning when we got back to Gothenburg and it felt like we were coming home.

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I got up this morning to try that most Finish of things - a sauna. The hotel has one for boys and one for girls and it’s not just a sauna - it’s a whole complex complete with room to put your clothes, a relaxation room, shower room and sauna. I had the whole thing to myself and spent a good half hour in there. Another day and another ridiculously huge buffet breakfast. We then borrowed some bikes from the hotel and cycled round the city. We stopped and looked at the Finish Orthodox church - which stands on a hill looking down over the harbour. The air was heavy with incense and the the floor packed with worshipers. I then headed off randomly cycling around the city to get a feeling for the place and ended up at the Botanical Gardens. There was much outside but the glasshouses are beautiful 19th century glass constructions. I even saw some little kids dressed up as witches which is apparently an Easter tradition very similar to ‘trick or treat’ at Halloween.
It’s an easy city to cycle around and I managed to see some of the landmarks including the massive white Lutheran Cathedral.
I ended by back at Kiasma - the Museum of Contemporary Art and spent a very pleasant afternoon inside. The entrance fee was a hefty 7 Euros but you can leave your coat for free as well as take a free audio guide round with you so it seemed reasonable enough. My favourite was Drop by Heikki Ryynänen.
After a cup of tea K and I were ready to find a bar for a drink and a catch up with the author of the Globos project.

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I flew to Helsinki from the Landvetter Airport yesterday after work on one of Blue 1’s uncrowded planes. It was a real pleasure after flying on Ryanair. The staff were really friendly and even gave me a map of the city, as well as directions to my hotel and information on which bus to take into the city. To get into the city centre you take the number 615 from just outside the airport - it takes you to the bus/train station in the centre. We’re staying in a hotel in the Katajanokka area- which is to the west of the city centre. It’s easy to walk to from the station. The weather is somewhat drizzly and the water is frozen with chunks of ice in it. The city has a 1930s feel to it due to the architecture and it really is surprisingly soviet as well. Apparently Finland is often used instead of Russia when filming Russian based films because it looks so similar. Most of the signs here are in Finnish, Swedish and English which makes everything easy. Generally people seem quite comfortable speaking in English too - which makes travelling here nice and easy.

Today after gorging ourselves on a huge buffet breakfast, we wandered up to the Museum of Contemporary Art only to find a demonstration outside protesting the situation in the Congo. Find out a bit more here. They are preparing a petition to give to market giants such as Nokia in a bid to make them more ethically responsible. After this sobering start I spent the day at Pixelache drinking coffee in Cafe Kiasma and checking out what was going on. I went to the Open Forum and got to hear lots of interesting talks about projects past, present and future. Afterwards I went to listen to someone from Art+Com speaking. The stuff they are doing is really inspiring but it clearly takes a lot of money so it’s just not possible without corporate clients to pay for it.

Afterwards we walked up to Töölönlahti which is a large lake behind the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma and then past the Opera House and round the north bit of Helsinki which wasn’t that nice. We then dropped down to the train station and ended up in a little cafe looking out over Kiasma. After a quick wander round the city we headed out of the perpetual drizzle into nice warm hotel.

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Yesterday we walked to the Plaza Mayor and ate lunch sitting on a stone bench in the center, afterwards we wandered to a little shop to buy the rich chocolate you need to make chocolate con churros. We then headed off to the Museo del Prado and after queuing, paying, queuing again, depositing our coats and walking through airport like security we actually got to see some of the amazing art. We headed into the local Faborit for a quick lunch before heading to Chocolatería San Ginés for chocolate con churros. There was only just time after all that to get to the airport on the very convenient metro and head to England.

It was then off to The Maypole in Cambridge for a catch up drink with Andy before heading off to Tim’s for a sandwich a place to kip.

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