I just came back from Sweden. I went up there for two days to help a friend, who's moving there with his family, transport all their stuff to their new home. This brief visit offered me my first impressions of this Nordic country, where I had never been to before. Sure, it is November, which means it is not only cold and wet, but also dark, especially the further north you go. Though it may not be the perfect season for experiencing the beauties of the place, it sure was fun to drive across the country, and get a glimpse of where my friend is moving to.
Ready to Leave Berlin
Incidentally, it was the same friend who let me house-sit his place for the first weeks after I arrived in Berlin, while his family was on vacation. Now, just before I am leaving Germany, I got to help him with his longtime dream of leaving Berlin for a much better place: Scandinavia! They had been traveling there regularly, and now the decision is final: His company switched him to their Stockholm branch, he found a house in a nearby town, and now they are finally relocating.
So on Wednesday morning we picked up a rental van, and spent all day filling it with the boxes they had packed their belongings into. In the evening we left Berlin and drove it to the port of Rostock, from where we took a ferry to Trelleborg, arriving in the early morning. What followed was a 700 km drive to the town of Åkersberga, about 30 km northeast from Stockholm, on the coast.
Crossing the Baltic Sea and Southern Sweden
The ferry was a monstrosity of a ship, swallowing trucks, vans, and passenger cars at great numbers, storing them on multiple levels. The crossing took six hours, giving us some time to catch some sleep in a cabin my friend had rented us. But first, we got to sample the amenities, most importantly the sauna on board, and the duty free beer. This, and of course a day of carrying boxes, was the perfect combination for a short but deep sleep, until we were woken up by the announcement that we'd be arriving soon.
On the other side we were greeted by gloomy and rainy weather that would accompany us for the entire trip. As pretty as the fall colors were around us, the dark and wet ambient made us feel glad to be inside the van, dry and warm. The scenery was nice, with rolling hills and patches of forests, and the highway was fairly empty, with the exception of the capital, where we ran into to some rush hour traffic. Of course, seeing Stockholm was not on our agenda, and besides, it was already dark by 4 p.m. when we got there. Even on the way back, I merely got a few glimpses of the city out of the car. In fact, the picture in the ferry cabin was probably the best image I caught of it.
Åkersberga, Where the World is Still Okay
We arrived at my friend's house in the early evening, but it took us until midnight till we got everything unloaded. After a dinner break we assembled the few furniture items we brought, and celebrated our accomplishment with a beer. Then we turned in for another well deserved night of sleep.
Before heading back home the next day, we took a few hours in the morning to take a look at Åkersberga, a small town of about 30,000 souls. It was so neat and pretty, that it reminded me a lot of Whakatane, New Zealand, where my parents live. It seems to have everything a town needs, such as schools, a downtown shopping center, a train and bus station, but most importantly lots and lots of nature. The Baltic coast is only ten minutes from his house, where you can easily reach the Skerry islands... provided you have a boat, something my friend is very keen on. There is even a canal starting in a bay in the town center, which leads up all the way to the city of Upsala.
Note: Just like all other pics in this posts, this one was also taken by me. Since then it has been minted into a NFT, which was bought by @city-of-berlin as described in this post.
A Town Built for Children
What impressed me most in Åkersberga was a playground located right next to the train station. While the station was very modest in size, quite appropriate for the town, the playground had the fanciest and most elaborate play-buildings I have ever seen. It was almost a town in its own right, featuring a store, a café, a station, and various crazy vehicles, including a submarine. Though there were no kids there at the time (not surprising for a rainy weekday morning), I could literally see how much fun they would have, playing shopkeeper or submarine captain, prompted by the installations.
Unique Impressions of Sweden
On our drive back, I tried to document the various weird and unusual things I kept seeing, which I'm sure are the norm for Swedes, but struck me as interesting as an outsider. One such thing were the immense headlights floodlights people deck their cars out with. I'm sure, if you have to drive through the afternoon darkness through snow storms, they would come in quite handy. Another such thing were the benign but pretty fences I kept seeing everywhere. Even the language, which was comfortably similar to German, made even easier by English, offered some occasions for smiles. For example, the word for coffee is fika, which speakers of German (as well as Hungarian) will get a kick out of.
In the end we made it back to Berlin safely, and returned the empty van at the rental place. A couple of days later my friend is going to pack up his family with the rest of their belongings, and drive back to Åkersberga in their car, completing the move. I'm super happy I got to be part of it, and I can't wait to visit them in their Scandinavian home of choice.