july 2025

Even though my visit in Sweden’s capital was brief I felt as though I left having gotten a great sampling of Swedish culture. Mostly a great sampling of their food! Sweden’s known for their…meatballs, that’s right! And as someone who ‘mostly doesn’t eat meat’ I did want to try their traditional fare of moose and reindeer meatballs. The combination of the cream sauce, lingonberries, and the meatballs was such a unique flavor profile that I have never had before and I really enjoyed it. I also tried “Sweden’s most popular cake” the green marzipan domed prinsesstårta, and I loved sitting at cafés in the morning with a coffee and a kardemummabulle (cardamom bun).

Overall Stockholm wasn’t quite what I had expected, which I don’t even know what I expected. I think maybe I had only imagined Scandinavia in winter and was surprised at how hot and summery and European it all felt. I look forward to one day visiting in wintertime.

The only museum I toured was the Vasa Museum and I spent four hours in there marveling over, nerding out and reading every single placard about the oldest and largest preserved wooden ship. I could give a 30 minute speech on it but in summary, the ship was built in 1628 and sunk a mere 1000 meters after setting sail. It rested 30m down in the silt for 333 years and was raised in 1961. The wooden ship was preserved under water and once out of the water it was sprayed for 17 years with a preserving agent and then dried for 9 years. When you see the ship in the museum it is in whopping 95% original condition. So not only is the wooden ship and the meticulous carvings impressive but how they raised the ship and preserved it is remarkable because nothing like that had been done before.

Stockholm, Sweden

july 2025