Norrköping

NOT pronounced Nor-k-uh-ping. Actual pronounciation: [nawr-chœ-ping] (I think nor-shuh-ping is pretty close).

What? You’ve never heard of Norrköping? Well, I don’t blame you. The only reason I’ve heard of it is that my mom’s grandmother and great-grandmother emigrated from there.

My sister visited Sweden a few years ago (her husband served an LDS mission in Sweden) and they went to Norrköping and had a great experience (family-history wise), so I decided I should go, too. However, it wasn’t until the night I arrived in Stockholm that I thought of looking for the location where my great-great-grandfather was buried. Poor planning on my part (or lack of planning) but seriously, how hard could it be to find it? I knew what parish he belonged to (East Eneby, Hedvigs Parish) – surely they had a cemetery where parish members were buried, right? Sadly, no.

Norrköping is about a 90-minute train ride out of Stockholm. Just a few blocks from the train station I found Hedvigs Kyrka (which was pretty good since I had no idea where I was going), but as I said, there was no nearby cemetery. That’s OK, I would just ask where they would have buried people in 1862. I arrived at the door just as they were closing for the day. I stated my case and everyone at the church was extremely nice and tried to help me. They gave me a map of the city, and pointed out a cemetery that would have graves from the 1800’s. So, I set out on my quest. Since it was Sunday, no one was working at the cemetery for me to ask whether or not I was in the right place. Again, I figured it would be OK, I would just walk around and see what I could find – shouldn’t take long. I started with a lot of energy, but after a couple of hours (and a lot of snow), I decided that I was out of luck. That said, I did have a nice time and was able to take some great pictures.

Hedwig's Kyrka

St. Matthew's

river in Norrköping

ABBA, lingonberries, and me

What do these three things have in common? Yup, all Swedish things.

Since I was all the way over in Finland for work anyway, I decided to stay the weekend and visit Sweden (great-grandparents on both sides of my family came from Sweden). Although, truth be told, my first idea was to fly to St. Petersburg for the weekend – it has been my dream since I was a teenager to visit Russia. However, since that would have cost me around $300 just for a tourist visa (for 2 days?) I decided Sweden would be just as awesome. And it was.

I flew from Helsinki to Stockholm on Friday night. My flight was scheduled for 7:45, so I arrived at the airport the suggested 2 hours in advance – and it was a good thing, too. As soon as I got to the airport, I looked at the Departure screen and saw that my 7:45 flight had been canceled. Oh, crap. The kind lady at the check-in desk, who spoke excellent English, told me that since I was early enough, they could re-book me on an earlier flight. EXCELLENT.

I spent most of the day Saturday walking around Stockholm. Beautiful buildings and churches and people speaking Swedish everywhere (pictures below, but not of people speaking Swedish). People always spoke to me in Swedish, so I guess I don’t wear a big “I’m an American” sign around my neck. There were some cases where I was able to have an entire conversation without asking the person if they spoke English – like making a purchase at a store:
“Hej”
“Hej”
"lots of words I don’t understand"
I look at the cash register to see the price
"more words I don’t understand" I take to mean ‘will there be anything else?’
"Nej"
"Tack"
"Tack"

Other times, I’d have to ask people if they spoke English, which, most of the time they did. Then, if I paid with a credit card (or had to show my passport, like at the airport), they would repeat my last name and then start speaking Swedish again. Nope, still don’t speak Swedish. Yes, with a name like Blomquist, I probably should speak Swedish, but alas, I don’t.

Side note, someone told me that I looked Finnish – because I am blond. Um, aren’t Swedish people blond?

Stockholm Cathedral

Stockholm Cathedral

Riddarholm Church

Riddarholm Church

Royal Palace

Katarina Kyrka - my dad used to call my Katarina when I was younger. That's the whole reason I went to this church

Gamla Stan - The Old Town

Gamla Stan - The Old Town

Helsinki in March

I’m posting this as I’m sitting in the Stockholm airport waiting for my flight to Atlanta. I really can’t believe how quickly these last few days went – and how much I enjoyed them. OK, I arrived Helsinki a day early (late afternoon on Saturday the 14th instead of late afternoon on Sunday the 15th) in order to have some extra time to adjust to the time change prior to being required to actually think clearly and work. I usually adjust quickly to the time change when I travel – London in December was a fluke, I think. Anyway, on Sunday I walked around the city for several hours. It was cold, but I had come prepared (well, mostly). I brought a coat, my pink hat I bought in London (where I wasn’t prepared), and gloves. As you’ll see, my footwear wasn’t actually snow-ready. Anywho, I saw a couple of beautiful churches: Uspenski Cathedral and the Helsinki Cathedral (in Senate Squre).

Statue of Alexander II

Uspenski Cathedral

Helsinki Cathedral

Kim suggested I visit Suomenlinna fortress (an inhabited sea fortress built on six islands just off of Helsinki). It’s a short 15-20 minute ferry ride from Helsinki’s Market Square. Since it was also highly recommended on several travel websites I checked, I made it part of my day. It was amazing to see. Unfortunately, as there was still quite a bit of snow and ice on the ground, my poorly chosen footwear (see below) was soon completely soaked (as were my pants about 6-8 inches from the bottom). Since I had a week of work ahead of me as well as a weekend in Sweden, I really didn’t want to get sick (Kim’s poor family did that enough for all of us), and since I had been out and about for several hours already (something like 7 or 8), after arriving back at Market Square, I called it a day and walked back to the hotel.

Picture of the water from the ferry - yes, that's ice

King's Gate

Picture of Helsinki from Suomenlinna

Can you see the water line on my pants?

I was able to see some other sights during the week, which was nice: the Parliament building and the Rock Church (finally, on Friday). Also on Friday, before my flight to Stockholm, I decided to find the LDS temple – so I hopped a bus (after asking directions from the hotel staff, of course) and found it, after only getting a little lost.

Just some random street - I thought it looked cool

The Parliament building

This is a park I walked past every day on my way to work

Statue of Mannerheim (president of Finland after WWII)

Temppeliaukio Kirkko (Rock Church)

There was some orchestra rehearsing while I was at the Rock Church. The acoustics were amazing.

Helsinki LDS temple

I really did have a great time. The guys I worked with were total smart alecs (how do you spell that?), so we got along fine. I thoroughly enjoyed Helsinki and would like to go back any time.

My Helsinki Culinary Adventure

On Thursday night I had a traditional Lapland dinner with Jari (a salesman for the company I work for), Anders and Thomas (two gentlemen I worked with while in Helsinki) at a place called Saaga. I’ll admit it, I was a little hesitant at first, but it was really, really good. Jari ordered appetizers: “A selection of nine Lappish delicacies” which included cold smoked salmon, halibut prepared in a traditional manner (read: I don’t know how it was prepared), reindeer sausage, potatoes, and a mushroom salad thingy (kind of like a potato salad) that was really yummy!

For my main course, I had “sautéed reindeer served with mashed potatoes, lingonberries and pickled cucumber.” Although I never really wanted to eat reindeer, I figured “what the heck, when in Rome” (or Helsinki as the case may be). I actually liked it.

At the beginning of the meal, the gents each had a “traditional Lappish liqueur.” When I asked what it was, they were describing the type of berry that the drink was made from. They kept saying “cloudberry” but since I wasn’t familiar with the word, they weren’t sure if they were translating it correctly. We consulted the English menu – sure enough, cloudberry. Am I the only one who has never heard of it? Please tell me it’s not just me. Props to Jari, Anders and Thomas, though, because it’s difficult enough to explain something in your native language to a person who literally doesn’t know what you’re talking about, let alone in foreign language. I felt like Veruca Salt in the Gene Wilder Willy Wonka movie: Cloudberries? Who’s ever heard of a cloudberry? (Of course, I wasn’t snotty about it) Anywho, when we looked at desserts and I saw “Lappish cheese on a cast iron pan served in cinnamon cream with cloudberry jam,” I knew there was no other option (unless, of course, there had been something chocolate).

found a picture of a cloudberry online - I LOVE the internet

Jari was really cute during dinner – even if I had wanted to order an alcoholic drink (which, of course, I didn’t), there’s no way I could have. Jari, who knows I’m a Mormon, made sure the wait staff knew that I needed non-alcoholic drinks. It was very nice that he was taking care of me.

It was a great evening – the company and the conversation was as good as the food – even better, actually. The service was a little slow so we ended up being at the restaurant for 3 ½ hours, but it worked out.

Just a side note in reference to “Do you speak English?” I ordered a water. The waiter – whose native language is NOT English – asked if I wanted it fizzy or still. Hmmm…