STOCKHOLM

1.      Description

Stockholm is the capital of Sweden, a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe that even if it is the third-largest in the European Union, has a ten-million population that is mostly concentrated in the southern half of the country. Their inhabitants live under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy, with the Monarch as the head of state. They have the Nordic social welfare system, which provides them universal health care and tertiary education.

It is located in the southeast of the country and it hosts different important buildings that are distributed among the fourteen islands that compose the city. Some of them are the Karolinska Institute (the place where it is always celebrated the Nobel Prize ceremony), the Rosenbad building (which is the seat of the Government) and the Sager House (the Prime Minister’s residence). In addition, the city has some important universities, such as the Stockholm University.

2.      Traditions

•   Midsummer (Friday between 19th and 25th June)

-      Purpose of the holiday: It is one of the most important holidays of the year in Sweden, and probably the most uniquely Swedish in the way it is celebrated. The aim of this festivity is to welcome the hot season.

-      Action: Raising and dancing around a maypole covered by greens and flowers is an activity that attracts families and many others.

-      Clothing: People wear traditional folk costumes or crowns made of wild springs and wildflowers on their heads.

-      Food: potatoes, soused herring and pickled herring, chives, sour cream, beer, snaps and strawberries are on the menu.

•   Våffeldagen (25th March)

-      Purpose of the holiday: It is the Annunciation Day, which was called vårfrudagen (Our Lady Day). Vårfrudagen sounds a bit like våffeldagen, so Swedes decided to celebrate it by cooking waffles.

-      Action: People eat waffles, preferably in the countryside.

-      Original Swedish waffles: They were a square, because they were baked between two rectangular plates over an open fire and originally, they were made from soured cream, water, melted butter and eggs.

-      Nowadays Swedish waffles: They are thin, circular and divided into five hearts. The usual toppings are whipped cream, ice cream, jam and fruit, but some people bake them for lunch and eat them with some prawns and cheese.

•   The National Day (6th June)

-      Purpose of the holiday: to celebrate Swedish independence in memory of when the Sweden kingdom was founded.

-      Ways of celebrating this day:

•    Attending to museums, where history about the nation is on display.

•    Attending to the Skansen, where people come together to wave Swedish flags, listen to leaders make speeches and dancing traditional Swedish celebration dances.

•    Attending to the King and Queen procession.

•    Going for picnic.

•    Keeping party at home.

-      Something curious: It is the day when Swedes welcome immigrants to make them feel part of the country.

-      Typical food: strawberries and whipped cream cake.

•   St. Lucia (13th December)

-      Purpose of the holiday: to commemorate Lucia, a young Christian girl who was martyred and killed for her faith, in 304AD and who secretly brought food to the persecuted Christians in Rome, who lived in hiding in the catacombs under the city. She wore candles on her head so she had both her hands free to carry things. It is also to celebrate the Winter Solstice.

-      Clothing: girls usally wear a white drees with a red sash round her waist and a crown of candles on her head. Small children use electric candles, but from about 12 years old, real candles are used.

-      Food: Lussekatts, which are buns flavoured with saffron and dotted with raisins. They are eaten for breakfast.

3.      What should you visit if you travel to Stockholm?

•   Skansen Museum

-      It is the world’s oldest open-air museum and is situated on the limits of Stockholm.

-      There you can observe how the rural life between the sixteenth and the nineteenth century was.

-      Employees are characters dressed with the clothes of that period.

-      Also, you can see wild Nordic animals around as for example seals, bears, wolves, reindeers and linx in their habitat.

•   VASA Museum

 -   The Vasa Museum is a maritime museum in Stockholm. The museum displays a 17th century ship which  is fully intact warship Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628.
-  This ship was very advanced to the period, but the builders didn’t have into account that it was too heavy to use it for sailing.

-           It is the most visited museum in Scandinavia.

•   Gamla Stand

-          It’s the old town of Stockholm. The first buildings were made there.

-          The most important place of it is the Stortorget large square.

• Kungliga Slottet

-  It’s also called Stockholm Palace or Royal Palace.

-  It’s the official residence of the Swedish monarch.

-  It’s located in Gamla Stan.

-  Nowadays is used for representative purposes.

•   Stadhuset

   -   It’s the Stockholm City Hall.

   -   It’s the building of the Municipal Council for the        City. 

   -    It’s one of Stockholm's major tourist attractions.

•   Gröna Lund

-   It’s an amusement park.

- It’s relatively small compared to other amusement parks, mainly due to its central location, which limits expansion.

-  However, it has over 30 attractions.

-  It’s a popular venue for concerts during the summer.

•   ABBA Museum

-          It’s an interactive exhibition about the pop-group ABBA.

-          ABBA’s collected works are show here.

-          If you like this band of music it’s a really good decision to visit it.

4.      Some useful tips for those who are going to travel to Stockholm

•   Clothes: If you’re going to visit Stockholm, you will have to bring with you some winter clothes, because although it was the summer season, the higher temperature they reach is about 20 degrees, so at night, it is quite cold. Moreover, the weather is a little bit unpredictably, and it will probably start raining even if half an hour before the sun was shining.

•   Currency: You must be aware that 10 kr are, more or less, 1 euro, so that way, when you purchase something, you will know if the price fits your pocket or if it doesn’t. By the way, you have to be conscient that you are going to spend much more money than in Spain, because prices are really high.

•   Season: Try not to visit Stockholm (nor Sweden) in November, because most of the day it’s dark. Remember that they are closer than us to the polar cyrcle and they receive influence of the six-month-dark phenomen. It would be great visiting the city in August, because there are about twenty hours of sun and your days will be so profitable!

•   Treatment forms: If you meet with Swedish people, don’t kiss them! They are not used to our way of receiving people. You will better give them a handshake (women included), remember that their culture is cooler than ours.