Erik and I began my third day in Stockholm with a major tourist attraction that I somehow missed during my first time there: Stadshuset, the city hall and home of the annual Nobel Prize banquet. Actually, “somehow” is a bit euphemistic, since on the day my program toured Stadshuset, I was playing hooky to visit Emmy in Barcelona. So, determined to redeem myself, I made visiting Stadshuset a priority of my return to Stockholm.
Stadshuset sits at the bottom of Kungsholmen, an island just east of Stockholm’s business district. The posh neighborhoods of Kungsholmen are also the home of Mikael Blomkvist, the male protagonist of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy. Thanks to its location, the views from the grounds of Stadshuset are fantastic, and I took in the sights while we waited for our tour to begin.
At right, the omnipresent Citybanan construction as seen across Lake Mälaren.
The tour began in the “blue hall,” so called because it was originally intended to be blue. Today, the room is the home of the annual Nobel Prize banquet, which brings the laureates from all over the world to Sweden. Anyone can enter a lottery to attend the Nobel banquet, and the odds are actually not terrible. But the hall is surprisingly small, so guests, even the famous ones, even the royal ones, have surprisingly little room to sit and eat. Such is the suffering of glamour.
We filed upstairs into the beautiful Stockholm city council chamber, which overlooks Lake Mälaren. Lawmakers somehow squeeze themselves in around Stadshuset’s busy tour schedule to manage the affairs of the city.
Anyone from anywhere in the world is allowed to get married in Stadshuset, if you’re willing to waiting to get on a months-long waiting list, and our tour guide made a point of explaining that this is true for couples of any gender. Unfortunately, when you get into some of the lesser-used rooms, some of the art chosen by the building’s architect doesn’t exactly scream wedding to me.
Our tour guide said that, in fact, there was quite a bit of outcry about some of the art in Stadshuset when people first saw it. But the designer prevailed, I guess.
After leaving Stadshuset, we walked along Norr Mälarstrand, the southern edge of Kungsholmen, past plenty of boats and adorable little cafes. Someday, I kept telling myself, I’ll be one of the beautiful people who hang out at these places.
We turned onto Kungsholmstorg and walked up towards Rådhuset. When we passed a branch of Systembolaget, the state-run liquor store, I couldn’t resist doing a bit of journalism inside. As it turned out, the Absolut vodka, theoretically a domestically produced item, was about twice as expensive in Systembolaget as in the duty-free shops at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport. That’s one way of getting people to drink less.
We took the tunnelbana to Rådmansgatan and walked across to Cafe Saturnus, which is well-known for its enormous kanelbullar, a Swedish cinnamon roll. We stopped for a fika, and though Erik resisted having a kanelbulle and stuck with a sandwich, I had traveled too far for such healthy nonsense.
Leaving Saturnus, we walked through Humlegården, a large urban park, to Kungliga Biblioteket, the royal library, which is akin to our Library of Congress.
We walked down to Stureplan, Stockholm’s fanciest square, where the most attractive and the wealthiest mingle. Being neither, we had to move on. The “mushroom,” visible in the picture below, is a common meeting place.
We walked over to Östermalms saluhall, a food court that is a much fancier version of Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market and bears almost no resemblance to the food courts of Thailand or Singapore. The market is a feast as much for the eyes as for the stomach.
We took the tunnelbana down to Gamla Stan to indulge me in one more tourist sight: the beautiful island of Riddarholmen, which adjoins Gamla Stan and overlooks Norr Mälarstrand and the bluffs of Södermalm. From Riddarholmen, we could see central Stockholm, Stadshuset, Slussen and all the way across to the Västerbron.
We walked back to Gamla Stan and up to Stortorget, the historic center of the city and now a tourist mecca, ringed by cafes.
We took the tunnelbana up to Fridhemsplan, where we stopped at Prisxtra, the grocery story of my youth. My favorite part of the Prisxtra was always the self-service salad greens station, where you can mix and match. And, as further evidence of halloumi’s popularity in Sweden, it was on special.
We retired to Spånga for another night of grilling and relaxation.
Reflections on historical memory: Hanoi
Written by Chaz on 4 July 2011Much more so than Thailand, Vietnam seemed to wear its past on its sleeve. When you think about it, the country has had a series of particularly unfortunate circumstances, between the French and American interventions. It’s pretty easy to see how those historical circumstances could lead to a strong sense of collective nationalism, resulting in the communism that tore the country’s economy apart in the ’70s. Though the government has taken a China-like tact since then, liberalizing the economy while maintaining tight authoritarianism politically, the nation’s socialist identity was evident from the moment we got our visas, which proudly proclaimed that we were welcome to one visit to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. (It’s also worth noting that Vietnam was the only country that required us to get a visa.)
On our first morning in Hanoi, during our first walk through the city, we walked by a statue of Lenin on our way to a museum celebrating the great things Ho Chi Minh did for the nation, leaving there for a museum of party-approved Vietnamese art. Though we didn’t appear to have minders watching us, it was still a pretty surreal feeling. The most interesting part to me about all that is that the value system it reflects: above all else, communism — but above that, communist leaders. Sure, the nation Lenin was running didn’t turn out hugely successful, but at least everyone was equal. Well, except for Lenin, who was even more equal. It’s a different sort of truth. Uncle Ho did do great things for the country, in a certain sense. Vietnam was able to become an independent socialist nation, and if that’s your standard of evaluation, then he did an excellent job.
Similarly, at the Hanoi Hilton, the total denial that the Vietnamese soldiers did anything untoward to their American prisoners isn’t exactly doing the country’s reputation any favors. We haven’t forgotten that terrible atrocities were committed in that prison, even if the prisoners did leave alive, and lying about it is repugnant as well. I’m not exactly sure what they should say in their little museum, but perhaps that’s why you shouldn’t torture people. Much of the prison has been demolished to make way for a high-rise; maybe they should have demolished the whole thing.
Unfortunately, the country, which is the world’s 13th most populous at 90 million, appears to have remained totally underdeveloped. As soon as we drove away from the airport when we arrived, we were surrounded by rice patties separated by dense jungle reminiscent of any Vietnam War movie. Hanoi sprung up out of nowhere, starting with a few ramshackle buildings and growing into the dense center of the city, which wasn’t all that much more finished.
Interestingly, this apparently proud and defiant national identity didn’t seem to be reflected in the city’s restaurant scene. We found that the best, most authentic Vietnamese food was to be had on the streets, not in the city’s fine restaurants. Perhaps this is just because the nicest restaurants are funded by outside investors with the purpose of attracting outside tourists, but it didn’t suggest a culture of exalted national cuisine. In fact, I get that impression more from Vietnamese restaurants back home, which very much embrace the idea of bringing out the best from Vietnam.
Our time in Vietnam was fascinating in a very different way than any of our previous stops. Hong Kong and Thailand are changing, even dramatically, but neither had quite the sense of truly being at a crossroads that I got in Hanoi. As I read the latest from each of the countries we visited, I’ll have a very different perspective on all of them after having been there, but I’m particularly intrigued about what lies in Vietnam’s future. In the meantime, I’ll have great memories of some delicious food.
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Tags: Buildings, Communism, Cultural commentary, Economy, Food, Historical memory, Politics, Traditions