Postcard from Stockholm

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – April in the Nordic territory is filled with premonition of warmer memories. Frost-laden breaths are associated with longitudinal regions above 17°. While wolves are a memory in these regions, Swedish heritage is still strongly displayed on these cobbled streets. In the morning, when the streets are still quiet, daffodil stands are placed on the corner market, an oxymoron if there ever was one. These flowers seem to shout pleasantly to the blistering cold: Go, leave us be.

Evening in Stockholm starkly contrasts daylight hours. The chill seeps into mittened hands. Even so, university students laugh familiarly in their pre-dawn rituals. They be flying past conventional store-front hours, into the last call of bars. The neoned lights almost bedazzle New Yorkers, but the streets are too quiet. They elude the plaintive with their coldness. Movement is essential in these nights, made harsher by any stillness.

Feet find their way to the river, dark and roiling, where guards stand over the Royal Palace. The modern and old clash briefly, WWII-era rifles drawn. From another century, the city hall steeple clangs the hour.

Flaky, flimsy croissant pieces float to the ground, covering where snow used to sit. The tombs of Kings rankle in the basement of the Cathedral. Sea-winds whip against its salmon colored foundation. When it will yield to these forces we know naught.

Like the Vastra which sank on the Swedish shores, preserved for how many days in a park. Nearby, a carnival sits quietly in the daytime hours. Across the street, on a hilltop that overlooks most of the Capitol, a man’s vision for preservation of their farmland culture exists in a childlike purgatory. Yaks of European ilk neighbor Wolves, whose patterned grey fur do not quite mask the strength of their muscular hind legs.

Swedish meatballs beyond the Ikea variety are shared in a ferry room. Somehow, light has seeped through the clouds diffracted by the surrounding glass of the noisy restaurant by this point in the day. Sitting on the picnic benches, I am already far from here, reflecting on the mob of rooster and hens in the past tense making their way along the flat dirt path, continuing their ditty, long after I’ve departed these cold grounds.

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Stockholm Book Recommendations:

Spring, by Karl Ove Knausgård, 2016

This novel describes a family’s growth from the father’s point of view. This book captures the tonal quality of the Swedes, as well as the universality of life. The author’s introspection provides readers a window into their Swedish family traditions.

Unquiet, by Linn Ullmann, 2018

This novel describes the dynamic between daughter and famous father with a backdrop of the Nordic landscape. There are glimpses into their relationship amidst the unique life style of the rural regions of Sweden.