A Journey Through Sweden: Fika, Culture, and History

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I begin to write this in the middle of a small town three hours north of Stockholm called Hudiksvall. Hudiksvall is a charming town that sits on the bay, with history dating back to 1583 when King John III of Sweden founded the town. As I sit here enjoying some solo fika time, I can see people running, riding bikes, and families with their strollers enjoying the sunny day with the water off in the distance.

Okay, so what is Fika? Fika by definition is a Swedish custom ?that’s a break from activity during which people drink coffee, eat cakes, or other light snacks, and relax with others.” I think we essentially have this in America, but I think fika sounds much more sophisticated than a ?coffee date.” There are many, many cultural differences in Sweden compared to the U.S., but I will only scrape the surface in some examples throughout the story I’m about to share!

The beginning.

From Denver to Frankfurt on a redeye, my partner, Justin, and I crammed in our seats with melatonin and sleeping masks to attempt a night’s rest before our 11 day adventure together. We had paid for extra legroom seats, but long story short Lufthansa accidentally gave up those seats and put us in the way way back. A story for another day!

10 hours later, we arrived in Frankfurt airport, got Justin’s passport stamped for the first time ever, and waited for our second flight to Stockholm. Familiarity began to fade already, as we see signs in other languages, hear other languages, and jet lag is settling in. Loaded up on caffeine, we land in Stockholm a few hours later, retrieve our bags, and head to the city center. 

Our hotel was just the lively place we needed. Two restaurants located on the ground floor, we walk into jazz vibes with live piano music. It felt like we were in the middle of a 1920s film, and it was the jolt of life we needed. We ditched the bags, changed out of our airport clothes, and headed to Gamala Stan, or what we’d say in English, ?old town.”

Old town dates back to the 13th century and is one of the best preserved medieval city centers in Europe. FIlled with cobblestoned streets, medieval alleys, and old architecture, this is the birthplace of Stockholm and can make you feel like you stepped back in time. It’s easy to get lost in the streets, and we spent a lot of our time in Stockholm just wandering and taking it all in.

After grabbing a bite to eat, we headed back to the hotel for a night cap and to listen to the music. The piano player couldn’t be older than 19, but played like he had 30+ years of experience. We slept early this night, so we could catch a train to Denmark, but we’d return to Stockholm two days later. (You can read about Denver when I release that story next week!)

Back to Stockholm

After an adventurous time in Copenhagen, we returned to Stockholm for the day before training north in Sweden. We started the day early by traveling the city on foot from the city center to the Royal Djurgarden to visit the Vasa Museum. The Vasa Museum is one of many museums to visit in Stockholm. There’s the National Museum, Spirit Museum, ABBA museum, Swedish History Museum, and many more to choose from.

We decided on the Vasa Museum, as it’s the most visited non-art museum in Scandinavia, and with Stockholm being an archipelago, it would be interesting to learn a little about their ship history.

The Vasa Museum is named after the Vasa warship that the museum holds. There’s so much to say about this museum, but I’ll include some facts that are stated in their website: The Vasa ship sank on its maiden voyage in 1628, and was rediscovered in the harbor over 300 years later. Luckily, the technology that was available at the time allowed for the Vasa ship to be retrieved and preserved to what is seen in the museum today. If you’re interested in more, you can read more on their website.

After the museum, we strolled through the city over bridges to revisit Old Town. Within Old Town, there’s the oldest square in Stockholm called Stortorget. Strortorget has beared witness to a lot of Swedish history, both light and dark, like the Stockholm bloodbath, despite the colorful buildings that make the square charming. With history as far back as 1420, this square is visited by thousands of tourists annually and in today’s tradition, hosts a Christmas market each year as well.

I really appreciate Stockholm, with its different decades of architecture woven in together to create the city we see today. I think I could’ve spent months or even years in this city and not see all it has to offer. But for now, we said ?hey dog” (goodbye) and trained North to a town called Hudiksvall, to visit family and see Sweden off the beaten path.

Traveling here once before, I think my favorite thing about this town is how friendly everyone is. I know about five words in Swedish on a good day, and the locals are friendly and patient as I try to order my cappuccino (and kindly switch to English during the interaction.) I think it’s important to note how I am fortunate enough to have made friends that I call family here to visit and show me the other side of Sweden. The side that isn’t a large city, but more personable and real.

Hudiksvall

This is the part of our travels where there’s less on our sight seeing list, and more time is spent connecting and learning about the culture. We started the day with a typical Swedish breakfast: bread, meat, cheeses, hard-boiled eggs, and escargot to put on the eggs. Some other breakfast options we’ve had throughout the week are cottage cheese, orange juice, yogurt, and granola. I think the biggest cultural difference was the escargot. 

After breakfast, we explored the little town and walked past many different shopping stores. H&M Home exists in Sweden, which fortunate for my bank account is not yet in the U.S. There are subtleties as we walk that serve reminders that we are very far from home. Street signs, advertisements, clothing styles and brands, are all small visual differences, but seeing those differences make our brain work in overdrive without even realizing.

Our brains are automatically looking to make connections to some sort of familiarity. When this happens, our brain is actually sending out ?messages as it works to understand our surroundings. These messages create new neural pathways, which connect different parts of the brain.” (thanks Google) Picture this: you have unwoven yarn in your brain all scattered and floating around, and when you travel, your brain is slowly making patterns and weaving the yarn together as you take in your new surroundings. 

If you ever feel yourself feeling exhausted at the end of your travels, it goes beyond just walking all day. Your brain is working overtime and you actually are expanding your mind during this time. 

Now it was time for mine and Justin’s first official fika. We walked into a coffee shop and got coffee and treats and sat with some of my family to talk and catch up. The recharge that fika brings is a mood changer for me. I think it’s one of my favorite moments while traveling, as it allows a moment of stillness to soak up the fact that we are very far from home, and very fortunate for these moments we’re creating. It gives me a similar feeling to the danish hygge, which I touch on in my time in Copenhagen.

Over the next few days, we spent time with family and even took a trip to the Jarvzoo, which is more of an outdoor animal park than zoo. It’s a place where they rescue and rehab animals before releasing those that are able back to the wild. We also got the whole family together to head out to dinner, which was actually a Texas-inspired restaurant, in the middle of small town Sweden. Picture guns on the wall, wood carvings of Native Americans, and the feeling inside of a wild west saloon. It was something I never thought I’d see where we were, which made it all the more exciting. 

Speaking of food, we were unbelievably blessed with the home cooked meals. Swedish meatballs, taco pie, homemade pasta sauce, soup, a birthday cake to celebrate my birthday, I mean everything was so satisfying, with it’s own Swedish twist with still a hint of home. We’ve taken many recipes to attempt to replicate whenever we’re missing our Swedish family!

The last thing I’d like to share about our time in Hudiksvall is my favorite outdoor game called ?Kubb.” Kubb is played with wooden pieces, and the goal is to knock over the wooden pieces standing by throwing the wooden piece that’s like a baton of sorts. To win the game, you have to then throw the wooden baton to knock down the wooden king piece that’s in the center. However, you have to throw the baton standing backwards and through your legs. It’s one of those games that produces laughs each time you play, and we enjoyed the familiarity of being at an American cookout. Before we said our goodbyes, we took one last group photo. Instead of saying ?cheese”, we said ?omelet.” These will be little moments I hope to hold onto until my next visit to Sweden. 

One final goodbye in Stockholm

With Justin heading back to the States, we went to Stockholm early in the morning for him to be COVID tested. Once we received his results and they were negative, we had several hours to explore before flying to Germany. We of course gravitate back to Old Town (it’s too charming to resist) and I am so thankful we did!

As we just spent more time wandering, we came across this storefront that had artwork displayed around the entrance. I couldn’t help but stare as the colors of this artist’s work perfectly depicted the life that’s in Old Town. We spent what felt like an hour just admiring his work, before agreeing on which painting we just had to bring back home with us. If you’re interested in art or curious about this artist,his name is Gabil Nassirov and his instagram is @gabils_art. A kind man with a talent he’s so gracious enough to share with the world

And there you have it. Sweden is a place that’s often overlooked or maybe not on the top your list when it comes to Europe, but that’s simply a mistake. With rich history, culture, and charm, you won’t be disappointed. We already want to plan a trip back to see more of the cities on western side, and even take the ferry into Finland! For those interested in how to plan a trip here…

WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE YOU GO:

Transportation: If you plan on flying, download the Hopper app! With this app, it tracks the flights you want and knows when it will be the cheapest to purchase.

Hotel: If you’re traveling solo or even with others, the location can make a difference. I recommend booking a place near Gamal Stan (Old Town) as it’s pretty easy to get around the city from that area.

Public transit: I am a huge advocate for public transportation – but we never had to use it here! We just got so lucky with the weather that we wanted to walk everywhere. They do have a great public system if you’re keen on getting places quicker. 

Pack: Depending on the time of year, the weather will be different. Overall, pack with layers just in case it’s warmer or colder than predicted. In April I still needed my winter coat, but when I went in May in 2016 I only needed a light jacket. 

The Stockholm pass: There appears to be an option for a city pass through Go City, which would be a way of seeing several museums or other attractions at a better rate. Take a look here for more details.

Cash/Card: Before Covid, most cities in Europe preferred cash. That’s really not the case anymore, as I never took out cash on this trip. Before you go, check with your bank and see if there’s a higher fee associated with using the ATM or using your card in general so you can plan accordingly.

Misc: I recommend carrying around a refillable water bottle. The worst thing you can do on day one is to let yourself become dehydrated and then be tired and sore the rest of your trip. I also would like to say even though we didn’t end up getting to everything on our list, the few things that we didn’t get to that I would still feel comfortable recommending are: taking a boat tour, renting bikes, and the ABBA museum!