Hej everyone!
Another huge but amazing day. Every morning I think "I'm pretty tired. I should have an easier day today". But it never happens because there is so much amazing stuff to do here !!!
I packed myself a lunch from my groceries this morning and then walked the half an hour from my hotel to Djurgården. Bit keen to save money!! Djurgården is yet another island in stockholm. It's regarded as the city park island and is also home to various museums and attractions.
My first stop of the day was the Vasa Museum. I was so keen to be on time that I arrived 10 minutes early. I was the only one by myself, there were two tour groups. But I got this amazing 1 minute before they all loudly came rushing into the museum where the sight of the ship actually took my breath away. It's ginormous at 69m long x 48m high and 12m wide. I actually said "wow" out loud. Amazing.
I'll give you a bit of history in case you've no idea what I'm on about. The Vasa Warship began to be built in 1626 by Henrik Hybertsson for king Gustav II Adolf. The king wanted the ship for a few reasons. A recent storm had wiped out much of Sweden's fleet, he wanted to appear fearsome and powerful, and a 30 year war broke out in 1618 so he wanted ships to defend the Baltic Sea from Poland, Denmark and Russia. The ship set out for its maiden voyage on August 10, 1628. After just 25 minutes and 1300m of sailing it sank!! 30 people died and within minutes the entire ship was gone. Apparently this was due to a gust of wind tipping the boat. The gun ports were open making a salute due to the maiden voyage and therefore took in water. The ship maker was blamed even thought he had died after just 1 year of building. Over time the brackish water preserved the shipwreck. In the summer of 1955 Anders Franzen began to search for the ship as he was interested in learning about it. He found it in 1956 and work began on trying to once again bring it to the surface. It took 16 stages to get the boat back out of the sea, but long story short six tunnels were made under the boat. Steel cable was threaded through these and hooked to pontoons. It was then in a sort of 'cradle' position. On 4th May 1961 it was finally brought back out of the water! It was then sprayed for 17 years with a chemical called PEG to get rid of all the water. Apparently 17 years was too long though because if anything the wood dried too much. The ship has been called the world's biggest puzzle. 40000 pieces were found and 14000 reassembled as the ship. The ship on display in the museum is reconstructed as much as possible and is 98% original.
Woah. That was an essay - sorry!! Anyway I loved the museum. I wandered around by myself, watched a 17 minute video with all my friends (jokes, I was the only one in there!) and went on a tour. There was so much on display. I particularly found it interesting reading about the skeletons they found. Some even had their brains preserved. Using osteology they were able to come up with profiles for the 15 skeletons found. They could tell their injuries, diet etc etc.
All together I spent about 2.5 hours here. Even bought myself a little Vasa ship in a bottle (yep - I spent money!).
Next up was Skansen open air museum. If I was to explain what Skansen was, I'd say it's a mixture between a theme park, a zoo and a history museum. It was opened by Artur Hazelius in 1891 and originally consisted of 4 buildings. Now there are over 200 that have been brought in from all over Sweden! I spent 4 hours walking around. There were so many different buildings including farmhouses, windmills, churches, animal enclosures (eg reindeer, elk) and then functioning ones as well like a bake house, tannery, goldsmith etc. Had a really cool moment in one building where a German lady was speaking German to a staff member and I understood everything she said!!! For about 5 minutes. Weird! My favourite area was the Sami camp. The Sami people are the indigenous people so Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia. Sounds like their history has been tough much like the aboriginal people in Australia. I spent 30 minutes sitting in a Sami tent chatting to a staff member and a Danish lady. Ah conversation - thank god! All the staff here dressed traditionally and I got a photo with her. I finished up about 3pm but I had to wait around until 6.15pm anyway. So had an ice cream (it was incredible - pear and nougat) and then watched a folk dance.
The reason I wanted to stay til 6.15pm was because as I mentioned yesterday today was Sweden's National Day. The man who founded Skansen named June 6th this day because on this date in 1523 Gustav Vasa was named king, and in 1809 Sweden's constitution was signed. Ever since then this day has been celebrated at Skansen park. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend the concert for this year!! Seeing as the folk dance ended at 4.30, I took the opposite to go get a seat. I had 2 hours to kill anyway. I got a fantastic seat because I was by myself and there was an odd one left. Sat for 2 hours and waited but it was totally worth it. Got to see lots of Swedish singers perform. I even knew one of them! Loreen who won Eurovision in 2012 performed. I was quite excited to know who someone was!!! Couldn't understand the king's speech or the UN guy's speech but still had fun. Even saw the royals in person, they walked past me about 5m away. Still dont know their names though - oops!!
Walked the 30 minutes back to Gamla Stan. Actually kind of ran because I was cold!!! Bought some more groceries and now am back in the room. So tired and another big day tomorrow! Can't wait to sleep.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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