Sverige

Utö, by Ove Nilsson

2008-09-01T19:41:12Z

I just wanted to be sure that everyone can see the wonderful photos of Utö taken by Ove Nilsson and published on the Näsudden website at: http://www.nasudden.se/uto_stuga_galleri.htm

Stora Landsvägen, Utö (the main road)

2008-08-31T18:58:12Z

Running along the Northwestern coastline of the island of Utö is the main road.

This road takes you from the very southern tip of Utö (even over the bridge to Ålö) to the northernmost tip of Uö, passing by Sprängabrygga, Mariehäll, and Gruvbryggan.

The entire route is effortlessly made by bicycle, and can be made in an afternoon. For example, from Mariehäll to Gruvbryggan it is only a 7-minute bike ride, and from Mariehäll to the island of Ålö it only takes about 30 minutes, and this at a leisurely pace, while taking photographs for your blog...

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Here is the southernmost tip of Utö. I took this photo on the island of Ålö, which is linked to Utö by a small bridge. Apparently, this is a favorite fishing spot, as there were many people there fishing ( I managed to not get them in the photos):

And here is a view to the right:

Then, back over to Utö, and riding up towards the Northeast you then come across a series of fields and firing ranges:

There was a barn under construction which caught my attention:

Right nearby to this is an old drinking well for horses:

...which, logically, is next to the riding club of Utö:

A bit farther along, you have the Utö Krukmakeri:

And then, the island's pizza joint: Utö Pizzastugan:

For info, here is their flyer:

You will come across some traditional fences too:

Around the curve, we then pass by Utö's school (more):

And then, just a couple of meters further up, we pass by Spränga Brygga:

Right behind the kiosk at Spränga Brygga and further up the road, you can see the ferry to the left:

Now, this is how you get from Spränga Brygga to Mariehäll.
First, you will get off the ferry at Spränga Brygga (in my case I took the Silverpilen), and then turn left on to this road. If, after walking 2 minutes you see the school, then you know you are going the wrong direction!

Going from Spränga Brygga to Mariehäll along the main road you will first see the ferry to your left, and looking up the road you will see this:

Continue along a bit, and you will see some mailboxes to your left, and a gravel road going off to your right, up a hill:

If you take the road to the right, it will lead you right to Mariehäll!

I will post more about Mariehäll in a bit. But let us continue our way along the main road.

The road winds a bit off to the right, up a slight (and somewhat annoying) hill, but nothing to really discourage one from taking the bike to get groceries.

Then, a bit farther up, you will see yet another one of those beautiful Utö views:

And off to your right (I should back up a bit) is a path leading to the archaeological site:

As we approach Gruvbryggan, you will see a tent camping site off to your left:

Which brings us to Gruvbryggan! I have dedicated a previous post to that area, and so you can just skip to that for more on Gruvbryggan!

Kvarnen, Utö (the windmill)

2008-08-31T15:36:17Z

At the top of the island is the famous windmill on Utö that can be seen from all around, and as you approach the island by boat.

If anything, I strongly recommend going up to the windmill to see the wonderful view of the northern coast and the outlying islands of Utö. I have included some breathtaking photos of the view of the island from the windmill in this entry.

Once again, I neglected to take notes on the windmill (contributions anyone?), however I do remember that it is of Dutch design, in that it can be turned so that it always points into the wind.

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Note: you can see a very high-resolution version here, but here is a thumbnail:

Also, I took this one for you:

Coming from the road, you will pass by an interesting wall of rocks, which I suppose are from the old mines:

Then comes an old stuga, which (correct me if I am mistaken), must be an old miner's house:

Then, you come across the roadsign, pointing up to the windmill (kvarn = windmill in Swedish):

And there you are! Up on the top of the little gravel road you will see the windmill:

From another angle:

You can go inside the windmill, where you come across the gears:

Then, you can walk upstairs, where you can see historical photos of the island and its inhabitants, as well as a view outside (the ones I posted up at the top of this page). Looking up, you can see the front of the windmill up close:

You see those little windows? Well here is a photo looking out from within:

But finally, there is one incredible view, that I managed to get a picture of (you can download the full-resolution version here if you want it for a desktop wallpaper):

Gruvbryggan, Utö

2008-08-31T07:28:35Z

The main harbour at Utö, and the place where you will find most of what you need for your stay on the island is Gruvbryggan.

There you will find a clothing store, a bakery, several restaurants, the tourist office, a bicycle rental shop, a children's playground, a grocery store and other shops as well.

I have taken some photos of the area, which will give you a good idea of what it is like, and what you can expect to see if you visit Utö, to help you plan for your trip...

]]> Here is a panoramic view of Gruvbruggan (click here to see a high-resolution version of 10,000 pixels wide):

To the left, you have all the stores where you can buy essentials such as food and clothing. There is, for example several small shops, including the tourism office:

And seen from another angle:
Just in front of these shops, you have the bike rental shop, Cykleboden:

Next to Cykleboden (the bike rental place), you have a high-quality clothing store, Hamnmagasinet, which sells nice clothes.

Just beside the store, you can look up and see the windmill:

A bit farther down the road you have the Utö Livs store, where you can go your grocery shopping. Right behind the store is a place where you can park you bike:

Across the street from Uto Livs is a nice restaurant:

Next door is the bakery, Utö Bageri, which has excellent kanelbullar!

Here is a board (click here for a high-resolution version that you can actually read) that shows things that are happening on Utö right now:

And some typical roadsigns:

A bit up the road (Prästbacken) to the left of this sign, you can see the hostel:

And the Stadshus:

If you go behind there (by where the flag in the photo is abuve) you have a nice view of Gruvbryggan:

On the lower-left-hand corner of the picture, you can see the playground, where kids can play. Here is a closer view of this area:

So here is a photo from the same location though looking the other direction, out over Tallholmssun:

From here you can also see the main ferry landing point. Here is a photo I took of them taking the garbage trucks to the mainland. I though it interesting to see how the trash was disposed of on the island of Utö:

In the background (the trees) you can see the small island of St. Persholmen, that you can get to by the small bridge behind the clothing store and bycle rental place (see the photo above). There are some sailboats docked there as well, which are fun to see:

And on the water (if you are on a boat), it looks like this:

An absolutely wonderful view of the harbor can be seen from the windmill:

Bodsundet, Utö

2008-08-30T20:05:43Z

Guests staying at Mariehäll in Utö may (at the time of this writing) rent a small motorboat, with which the northern coast of Utö can be seen from the water.

I have taken some photos of the stretch of water from Gruvbryggan to Näsudden, which I will share with you here.

If you are interested in touring the island by small open motorboat, you should know that the waves are very large on the eastern coast, so you cannot go there, and you will not want to venture past Näsudden towards the West.

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Standing on the island of St. Persholmen, you can have an unobstructed view southwest down Bodsundet all the way to the church at Kyrkviken:
An amusing story, and some useful advice if you rent the blue boat (the photo below is the smaller, red boat) while staying at Mariehäll:

I was getting ready to take the boat out one morning, and when I tried pulling on the starter cord, it would not move! In the past, I have had this happen when the cord got wrapped incorrectly around the winding coil when it came back after a pull.

So, I opened up the top casing of the engine with the aim of untangling the cord. Surprise! Not only was the engine meticulously maintained and in perfect condition, but the cord was wrapped back on its coil normally.

So, seeing that nothing was out of the order, I left well enough alone (my rule is always: don't touch anything unless you know what you are doing) and closed the case, trying to thing of what might be causing the starter cord to block.

Well! At that very instant, who did I see, but none other than Göran walking down the dock towards his boat! I could only imagine what must have been running through his mind at that moment, as he saw someone he hardly knew open up his motorboat engine!

I explained the problem of the blocked cord, and he immediately told me that this motor has a security feature whereas it will not allow you to pull the cord if the throttle is too high. So, he pulled back the throttle, and...well, it worked.

Feeling like an idiot, I was glad to finally be able to cast off and go for a little tour and thankful that he was not too upset about witnessing his motor being opened up like that...

Here is a panoramic view (click here for a bigger version) of Bodsundet taken from the path leading from the road benieth Mariehäll to their docks (aptly named "Torhamn", which I assume is a reference to the bay of the same name in Karlskrona - one of my favorite places in Sweden - but I'll have to ask next time...):

The docks themselves (Torhamn) look like this (you can see the red boat to the right, and the blue boat to the left:
Once on the water, you can see Mariehäll, up on the hill (it is to the left of the larger red house). If you can see the flag pole, looking just behind it you can see the kitchen windows:
And (well, this is ryan-anderson.com after all :) ) here is myself, having fun on the blue boat. Technically, it is a 4.27m Monark boat. This boat is rated to be able to hold up to 6 adults, just for information:
I was trying to find the best way of presenting the strait here, and I thing I will just start from Näsuddensbrygga and work my way up to Gruvbryggan.

Here is a photo of Näsuddensbrygga:

Just a bit further into the straits, looking to the left you have Edudden:

Which is right behind the little rocky island in Kyrkviken, caled Bredkobben:

The most obvious landmark in Kyrkviken is, of course, the church:

And just next to the church is Sprängabrygga:

Passing by Torhamn, farther up Bodsundet, you can see some horses, on the island of Angsholmarna:

On the other side of Bodsundet, directly opposed to Länsman, by these horses is the hillsite of the Northwestern coast of Utö called Skaftängsbergen:

Farther up Bodsundet is a narowing of the strait, between the island of St. Persholmen and Utö:

A closer view of the bridge:

Once on the other side, you have a nice view of many beautiful yachts:

You are now in the heart of Gästhamn! I will reserve space for an entry on this later, so we will continue the journey up to the gas station:

You can just dock alongside the pumps and a nice man will come out and help you fill up. the little shop sells some things as well, such as navigational charts of the islands.

Utö 1900...

2008-08-30T07:42:17Z

Visitors to Utö's famous windmill who venture inside and walk up to the second floor will see some photographs taken of people and places around the island around the turn of the 20th century.

I could not help but be struck by the contrast of then and now, as I am sure you will too, upon seeing these photographs. I took a pictures of some of them in order to share them with you, though I apologize for not taking note of the particular details of each photo (on the lower-right hand corner of the photos is a description of them). For that I can only recommend that you visit the windmill :)

I therefore will present you my reproductions of these photos, without comments. If you visit Utö and go up to the windmill, I would be happy if you could note the descriptions of the photos and share them with everyone here...
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I took a photo of Spränga Brygga from the same angle 100 years later:

Here is Gruvbryggan at the same time:

Here is another dock, though I do not recognize it:

This is clearly a photo taken of the main street, probably where the Utö Livs food store is now :
Photo of the Larssons, and a cat, who was a good mouser :

At work:

Here is a house:

Here is the Stadshus:

Here is the same building in 2008:

Mariehäll Stuga, version 0.9

2008-07-06T19:37:50Z

So the stuga that I have chosen this year is called "Mariehäll". Initially, as I briefly mentioned in the first stuga hunting article, was set on a bed and breakfast near Näsudden, but being taken for that week, this would not be possible. However, two alternate possibilities were provided to me, one of which led to this cottage, the other was a really nice loft run by the Lien family.

This particular cottage is very well referenced on the internet, and a simple Google search will display quite a number of pages for it, notably http://www.utostuga.se/mariehall (this is the "homepage" of the cottage, with a description, practical information, directions (see mine) and booking information (in Swedish)) and www.sweden-holidays.com, where you can see some more information.

But here are some detailed photos of both the exterior and interior...
]]> It is always nice to have an idea beforehand of where it is that you will be staying! Here are some photos that I hope others will find useful as well.

Exterior
(Photo credits: Ewa-May Wetterskog af Petersens)

Here is a view of Mariehäll from the West, looking upwards from the outhouse:

There is a generous terrace with a grill (not shown in the photo). The building in the background on the left is where the toilets/washing machine are (see the outhouse photos below:

Looking in the other direction, you can see the bay in the background:

Another view of the surroundings:

Interior

The entrance from the terrace, which leads to the dining room:

And looking into the dining room from the same entrance I see the same rug that I have in my living room! Note that the window to the left opens into the bedroom:

If anyone has never seen how those rugs are made it is quite interesting. You take scraps of old fabric (clothes, unused bits from quilts, etc) and you twist them together and fasten them into a mat. A very economical idea.

Here is where you can prepare the food indoors. This little kitchen is in the entrance of the bedroom half of Mariehäll.

And finally, there is the cute bedroom with two single beds:

And an alternate view showing both beds:

And to complete the tour, a view in the opposite direction, showing the entrance of the bedroom and the closet. If you look into the mirror on the wall, you can see the entrance to the kitchen. Use the black towel hangers as a reference point (refer to the photo of the kitchen).

Note: If you look carefully, you can see the "Ghost of Mariehäll" captured in the photograph. A mysterious apparition in bright red that is seen only fleetingly around the cabin. There is no need to worry, however, because the Ghost of Mariehäll is rather shy, and is only fond of playing harmless tricks on Saturday around 10:00. :)

Based on these photos, one is able to easily come up with a floorplan for Mariehäll. Here is one that I made quickly using some software I happen to have on my machine. Note that it is not *quite* to scale, especially with regards to the doors, but it gives an excellent idea of the layout of Mariehäll and is pretty accurate nonetheless:

The outhouse

Here is the view from the outhouse, looking outwards to the North:
And looking into the bathroom from the entryway (you can use the sink as a reference point):

Planning for Utö: clothing

2008-07-03T18:26:08Z

Such a simple question - so many consequences. Before I pack my bags, I first want to be sure that I bring just the right clothing for a week in the middle of July.

Word has it that Utö is famous for its sunshine.

But if there is anything that I have learned from my time in Sweden, or even from my Norwegian heritage, is that Scandinavians are quite fond of adding "the best in all the land" to just about everything! So my initial instinct is to place this claim along with others such as "The biggest festival in all of Sweden"...

So let's see what the weather really looks like - who knows, perhaps it will indeed be "the most sunny island in all of Sweden"! ]]> Sunshine

The first place I checked was the data made available by Falling Rain Genomics, and in particular, here. According to data available at the time of the writing of this entry I was able to obtain the following chart of the cloud cover for last week:

I then compaired this graph to other places in Sweden such as Ronneby in the south, Stockholm, and Djup, and it does appear that over this same period, Utö did indeed have less clouds in the sky than these locations. Of course this is not a scientific study, but at least it lends credence to the idea.

What I noticed the most in the chart is that the cloud cover in Utö over this week period exhibited more variation than the other 3 locations I looked at. In otherwords, the baseline was better towards a clear sky. So this tells me that on the island of Utö, I might expect scattered clouds, rather than a grey sky.

This is significant, as it also means that there is less rainfall.

Temperature

From the same website, I see that last week the temperature was fairly steady, and hovered around 15 degrees Celcius (59 degrees in Fahrenheit). This is, of course, perfect for me, as I have a particular avoidance to hot weather.

To get a general idea of the climate of the region, I therefore had a look at a seasonal graph of the temperatures and rainfall of Stockholm, which is not far away:

This therefore indicates that July is the hottest month on average for Utö, and that I can expect to have daytime temperatures that vary between 12 and 20 degrees Celsius, with an average about 17 (see current temperatures on Utö). Perfect for me, in other words :)

So this tells me that while I could bring shorts and T-shirts, it might be a bit cool if clouds appear overhead.

Conclusion

So after all this I have concluded that long pants or bermuda shorts and long-sleeved shirts are the best bet, though nothing too heavy. If I choose to wear a T-shirt, I should be sure that I also take with me a light jacket or windbreaker, though the best bet would be a nice heavy T-shirt.

As I anticipate little rain, tennis shoes should suffice, and I will not need hiking boots. I should therefore also not need to worry about too much rain gear or waterproof jackets. I will probably not even pack an umbrella - if necessary, I should be able to pick up a small one at the Spränga Kiosk - or elsewhere on the island.

If the nights are anything like in Brittany France, they will be quite chilly. Therefore, I should be sure to pack some nice cotton pajamas for the cabin, as the one I am going to rent this year is not heated.

Spränga Brygga, version 0.9

2008-07-01T20:06:32Z

I have had some relative difficulty finding information on Spränga Brygga from the internet, though in the end, the pieces have started to come together, and I will soon be able to present quite a lot of interesting facts about this harbor!

This entry documents what I anticipate finding once I arrive at Spränga, which will be interesting to compare and augment with what I encounter at location.

One element that I find particularly interesting from the start is how such a small location can handle such a large number of tourists without being completely worn out. This is to the credit not only of the local inhabitants, though also the tourists that arrive.

]]> Location:

Spränga Brygga (which just means Spränga Harbor in English - though the verb "spränga" also means to explode or burst, I wonder if it refers to some mining activity?) is a harbor in the mid-section of the island of Utö, as I have circled in yellow on the satellite image of the island on the left.

Unfortunately I was unable to find any high-resolution aerial image of the harbor, though perhaps I will be able to rent a helicopter on the island once I am there to see it from the air. As there is a military airbase in the southern part of the island of Utö, there is surely the infrastructure necessary to support the presence of aircraft on the island - which in turn leads credence to the hypothesis that there is the possibility of rental. Anyway, I will look out for this as something to do.

Photos:

I was unable to readily find any good high-quality images of the harbor on the internet, other than the one posted earlier. What a wonderful surprise, therefore, to have received the following images, taken by Ewa-May Wetterskog af Petersens on June 28th 2008! I will therefore present these images for you as what one can expect upon arrival in Spränga Brygga in June, and publicly thank her for these.

Below is the landing dock of Waxholmsbolaget ferries from Årsta Brygga. This would be the front end of the Welcome Center that is seen in the last photo on the Going to Utö entry.

Looking Northward from the same location, you can see Näsuddens Brygga just behind and to the left of the small island in the bay. This will surely be the location of another trip...

There is a small little grocery store there, where you can get the sort of things that you get at such a place:

To the west, at the far end of the harbor is the stone church, referred to as Utö kyrka (if you are going to look it up elsewhere). This is not only the largest stone church in the Stockholm archipelago, but it is also reputed to have the oldest church organ in all of Sweden (1745). The church itself was built in 1850.

This church will definitely be on my list of places to visit (see my church). What a pity that I will not be there for Sunday service.

I would like to learn more about the history of the church, so that will be something interesting to see once I am there.

Here is a basic map of the bay:

Note: the other, larger port is Gruvbryggan, which is farther north. That will surely be the subject of a later entry. In the meantime, here is a detailed map I found: view image.

Going from Stockholm to Spränga, Utö

2008-06-22T11:04:56Z

So I have it all planned out - I will be interested in seeing how well my plan will resemble what actually happens once I begin this trip.

So I am presenting this as how one can go from the Stockholm-Arlanda Airport to the island of Utö, though on a theoretical level, based on timetables and facts that are readily available on the internet.

]]> My trip begins with the arrival of my flight (SAS) at the Stockholm-Arlanda Airport at 12:05 in the afternoon.

1. Stockholm-Arlanda Airport to Stockholm Centralstationen

There is a high-speed train called the Arlanda Express (website) that goes directly between the airport and Stockholm's central train station in only 20 minutes.

Trains leave the airport 4 to 6 times per hour, and so it will not be difficult to find one. According to the timetables available on the website, there is a train that leaves the airport on the hour at :05, :20, :35, :50 between 5AM and 10PM during the summer (outside of those times, there are fewer trains. Therefore, I will take the 12:35 train, which will give me 30 minutes to purchase my ticket and get to the train platform.

If possible, however, it would be best to get on the 12:20 train. By doing this, I will be able to have more time to get from the bus at Årsta Brygga to the ferry (one hour as opposed to one minute).

The Arlanda Express platform is beneath the airport, and so you need to take one of the 4 escalators that go down to it. There is one in Terminals 2 and 3, one in Terminal 4, and two in Terminal 5 (see a pdf map of the airport).

Right next to the escalators is a yellow ticket machine where you can purchase the train tickets. An adult ticket is 220 SEK at the time of the writing of this entry. I recommend purchasing an e-ticket beforehand however (see comments below).

2. Going from Stockholm Centralstationen to Västerhaninge centrum

The Arlanda Express will arrive at Stockholm's Central station at 12:55, either platform 1 or 2 (as seen in the photo to the left).

I figure that this will be an ideal time to have a quick lunch. I would like to not hang around too long, so that I can get to Utö as soon as possible, and so it is likely that I will probably just buy a bottle of water and eat a lunch that I made prior to leaving on the trip.

At any rate, it will be necessary for me to go to the pendeltåg (local commuter train, see the image below), which are on platforms 13-16.

The train that I need to get on is one that will take me to Västerhaninge Centrum. This will be the J35 train, which runs North-South from Bålsta to Nynäshamn. According to the time schedule, I will want to get on the 13:37 train.

It appears that I can simply purchase a "1-timmes zonbiljett" (a one-hour travel pass) at any of the Biljettautomater (ticket machines). From what I have read, it appears that for the pendeltåg, you purchase tickets by time periods, rather than on a voyage-by-voyage basis.

UPDATE: once you arrive at the station, you will walk through the glass doors and follow the signs to the Pendeltåg. Then, once inside, you will see to your right the Pendeltåg entrance which shows the arrival and departure times, and the various tracks where your train leaves from. Note that the train to Västerhaninge does indeed leave from track 14:

You will do down some stairs, to a lower level that gives you access to the various pendeltåg tracks. There is a ticket counter there right by the turnstiles that let you onto the pendeltåg tracks, so you can just buy your tickets there.

The trip from Stockholm to Västerhaninge will take only 30 minutes (calculate times). Therefore, I believe that I will arrive at Västerhaninge Centrum at precicely 14:07.

3. Västerhaninge Centrum to Årsta Havsbad

I will now need to find bus number 846, which goes towards Årsta (Karlslundsplan). As you can see, the busses are right next to the train platform:

The first bus that will arrive around the time I show up is at 14:28. According to the bus schedule, the trip will take 16 minutes and I will thus arrive in Årsta brygga at approximately 14:44.

Here is the bus platform on-location:
UPDATE: This part of the trip did not go accoring to plan. Upon looking at the posting for the bus 846 schedule, it posted two different destinations, neither of which said "Årsta Brygga". And the times seemed way off.

This was not an issue, however, because about 10 meters away is a taxi station. I therefore just got on a cab and was there in just a few minutes!

Årsta Brygga is where the ferry departs:

Departure point:

For information, the bus stops right in front of that sign, so if you do take the bus, you will not have any problem finding the ferry!

4. Årsta Havsbad to Spränga, Utö by the Waxholmsbolaget ferry

I will have exactly one minute to get from the bus stop to the ferry!

There are daily departures via the Waxholmsbolaget (website) ferries that go from Årsta Havsbad to the island of Utö.

The ferry that I want to get on is called the "Silverpilen" (silver arrow, in English), and it is number #2109, which departs at 14:45 (note: the photo below is just to show the ferry, not the location, which is on Utö).

I chose this one because it stops at the Spränga harbor in Utö, which is near to where the stuga is that I will be staying at. The trip is scheduled to take 45 minues, which means that I will be arriving at Utö at 15:25 at Spränga.

UPDATE: The ferry trip was very nice, and I took the time to relax and have some coffee. You purchase your tickets for the ferry right there on the boat after it leaves the docks. You can buy snacks on the boat, and even some sandwiches and a map of Utö.

Arrival:

View looking out from shore:

5. Conclusion

In all, the journey from Stockholm's Arlanda airport to Utö should take about 3 hours and cost about 50 euros in total. This is quite reasonable, and I am curious to see how this plays out in reality...

Here is three versions of the same trip (starting from Stockholm Central Station) as defined by the SL trip planner:

Leaving at 12:52:
Ta pendeltåg 35 från Stockholms central mot Västerhaninge.
Det går från Stockholms central 12:52
och kommer till Västerhaninge 13:22.
Vid Västerhaninge station byter du till buss 846 mot Årsta (Karlslundsplan).
Den går från Västerhaninge station 13:28.
Du är framme vid Årsta brygga ca 13:44.

Leaving at 13:22:
Ta pendeltåg 35 från Stockholms central mot Västerhaninge.
Det går från Stockholms central 13:22
och kommer till Västerhaninge 13:52.
Vid Västerhaninge station byter du till buss 846 mot Årsta (Karlslundsplan).
Den går från Västerhaninge station 13:58.
Du är framme vid Årsta brygga ca 14:14.

Leaving at 13:52:
Ta pendeltåg 35 från Stockholms central mot Västerhaninge.
Det går från Stockholms central 13:52
och kommer till Västerhaninge 14:22.
Vid Västerhaninge station byter du till buss 846 mot Årsta (Karlslundsplan).
Den går från Västerhaninge station 14:28.
Du är framme vid Årsta brygga ca 14:44.

UPDATE: All went according to plan (with the exception of taking the taxi instead of the bus), and I arrived right on time.

Stuga hunting on Utö, part 1

2008-06-22T06:44:27Z

For this year's trip, I wanted to do something different, though I know that I wanted to go back to Sweden.

Originally that plan was to spend a week or two in Stockholm. I had spent a week in Stockholm in 1996 after I finished my summer language studies at the Blekinge Läns Folkhögskola in Bräkne-Hoby, but at the time I was a poor student, with only 200 SEK in my pocket and on a shoestring budget. There were so many things that I wanted to do at the time which were simply not possible, because of money issues.

My pastor is from Stockholm, so I asked for his opinion on what fun things there is to do in Stockholm in the summer, and he recommended island hopping, something I had heard of, but which I never really considered.

]]> So after much looking around, I found a nice island called Utö (more on this in a later entry). One of the interesting aspects of this island, is that you can rent little cottages (stuga) for a week, weekend, or per day. You can see a list of these cottages for rent on the Utö tourism website at: http://www.utoturistbyra.se/index_ns.html

Here is a list I made on the first day, with words I found on the form that I did not know, or forgot, but which are useful in looking for a stuga:

Gender	Swedish	English
en	altan	terrace
ett	sovrum	bedrom
ett	våningssäng	bunkbed
	badstrand	bathing beach
ett	lakan	sheets
	medtaga	bring with you
	belägen	located
	ingår	included
	helg	weekend
	vardag	weekday
	dygn	day and night (stayover)
ett	spis	stove
ett	ugn	oven
ett	frysfack	freezer
ett	kyl	refrigerator
ett	säng	bed

In the end, I found a gorgeous stuga at Näsudden, however we are coming in the high season, and it can only be rented by the week during that period. On the website, there is also mention that you can rent a bed and breakfast by the day if you are coming for less than a week. I therefore wrote to the host family if this was a possibility, but unfortunately the room was already taken. So my advise to anyone looking to rent a stuga on Utö for the summer: plan in advance, at least 2 months before the date that you plan on being there.

The host family has been very helpful, however, and rather than simply have the story end there - they were kind enough to send a link to another stuga, and provided me with a name and contact information of another place where I could stay. Ultimately this would prove to be the defining moment in the planning of this vacation, as I was able to secure a week in the Mariehäll-stugan (more on this to come)!

Sverige 1996 - 2008

2008-06-21T09:16:48Z

It has been more than 10 years since I have last been in Sweden - it is time to go back!

The last time I was in Sweden, I was studying music composition at the Juilliard School in New York City under David Diamond, and taking a Swedish extra curricular course at Columbia University with Verne Moberg.

Quite a lot has happened in the twelve years since then, but some things never change.