Actually, it's soon time for me to head on to Stockholm. Tomorrow actually, in the morning. My aunt is giving me a lift while also taking my cousin Joseph to the airport as he heads off to Hong Kong for a work thingy. Cool.
So I haven't written in over a week, and when I did that I was still close to a week behind. So I guess this is catch up time.
I'll try not to be too, what was the word Derek?, oh yeah, gabby. I'll try not to be so gabby.
Christmas and Gabby. Huh.
So what's been going on? Well, essentially I've been spending my days figuring out what to do next and where to go, and then wandering about town, or going on a day trip somewhere, or meeting a cousin for lunch, having deep thoughts, finishing the first book of Game of Thrones (yes, I am finally getting around to reading it), and having fun in the evenings with my family and new friends we make along the way, either while hanging out in my favourite pub here, Bishop's Arms, or bowling, or floor ball (yes David I've now played floorball and I want to talk about joining your league when I get back), and other fun stuff like that. Oh, and walking. Lots of walking, which you may recall, I like to do.
So here are some of the highlights that make up all of that.
This is St. Nikolai Church, right in the heart of Orebro. Orebro by the way is either the 6th or 7th largest city in Sweden and is thought of to some extent as a university town. The university is growing as well, having recently added a medical programme. So things are looking good.
Anyway, here is the interior of St. Nikolai.
It's a lovely church with a nice acoustic. How I know it has a nice acoustic is because the first time I popped in to take a look around I noticed a poster for an organ recital Saturday morning that I decided to go to, and actually did attend. Oh wonder of wonders.
The church has two organs; this is the one that was used for the recital given by Karl Magnus, the resident organist. He is the first organist I have met that, when you start talking about the organ, doesn't eventually say something bawdy. Seriously. Organists are the worst for this.
It was a solid 45 minutes of the best of Bach, and was an excellent reminder of why Baroque music can be so darn good. Having played the violin for a long time growing up I really got to dislike Baroque music. At 15 I recall complaining that "it all sounds the same". Which is wrong of course. So it was nice to be reminded of that.
Throughout the church, mounted on the walls, are these wonderful bits of what I assume are heraldry.
All of the curly bits remind me of those plastic knights on horses you can get that are made by Schleich. You know the ones. They're not jointed at all so they just kinda sit there. And they're available where the "finer" toys can be found. They also make the smurfs now though, so that says something for them I suppose. And for whatever reason my father thought that Noah and Jake should have the Schleich cows. Don't ask me why, as there are some questions that I will not pose my father. Likely something to do with the dairy farmer heritage. But who knows.
These are called Our Saviour's Wreath, and come in a glass bead bracelet form that is known as the Pearls of Life.
Now, it sounds like something Lara Croft might shoot you over, but in fact it's not. Or at least I hope it's not. They're actually a bead based prayer practice attributed to a Swedish bishop who thought Lutherans would benefit from such a thing. Apparently he was riding out a storm on a small greek island at the time. Why he was there in th first place I don't have a clue, but apparently he had time on his hands and figured he should put it to good use. Each bead represents something different. I have no idea what, but I did take a picture of a sign that explains it all in case you are interested. It's in Swedish mind you. I should probably guilt a cousin into translating it. Or maybe an aunt. Not sure which one is more susceptible. I'll go find a greek island and think about that one for awhile.
And this is the outside to all of that inside.
St. Nikolai is an excellent reference point for finding other places in Orebro. For example, early this week my cousin Tim and I had lunch at a restaurant. At dinner that evening with the rest of the family, but not Tim, I was asked where we went. Now, I didn't know the name. I wasn't paying that much attention. Come on. So they asked me what type of food. I said "swedish". And yes, I said it with a lower case. They started throwing names at me. Not knowing the name that didn't really help. Finally they asked if I remembered where abouts it was. And yes, that I did. I don't think my directions would work well on Google maps, but if you're in Orebro and looking for a decent lunch then here you go. Go into St. Nikolai Church. Climb to the top of the tower. Take a swan dive off the top of it, but make sure to get an initial good leap out so that you can clear the bit of hill. If your trajectory is good you should splat down right in front of the place.
This is one of a about four squares in Orebro city centre.
For the entire time I've been here, and likely for a while before that, this particular area of the square has been home to the various municipal, regional, and national political candidates' drop in boxes. Here is where you can come and talk to the various candidates and learn more about their platforms, and what they intend to do for you and Sweden. And you can find them in every town in Sweden I suppose, or at least you could until earlier this week when everyone voted. Okay, maybe not everyone, but the numbers that turn out I believe are a lot higher than they are in Canada. It's taken pretty seriously here. I may of course be a bit biased as my uncle is a journalist and not only does he believe intelligent participation in the political system is the responsibility of every eligible Swede, he's also been writing about it non-stop for a while now.
Between that and Rob and Doug Ford attempting to tag team the wrestling match I'm sure they wish the mayoral campaign in Toronto would be, I've had a lot of politics recently. And nothing against wrestling. It, like Rob Ford, can be highly entertaining. But I wouldn't want Hacksaw Jim Duggan running my city either.
This is Orebro Castle. I have now successfully not been able to set foot inside this castle twice now. First time six years ago, and now again on this trip. Third time the charm possibly?
It's in the middle of the city centre and is really quite lovely, surrounded by water, nice parks, excellent benches for reading. At this time of year it is only open to the public on the weekends for a few hours, and while I'd planned to go on Saturday after getting my fill of Bach I ended up in the park with my cousins and their kids playing. Definitely the better choice. The castle is not going anywhere, and as far as I can tell is not growing up or changing much. My family though, well, apparently no one listens to me when I tell them to seal their children in tupperware at night to keep them fresh.
Here are a few more pics about Orebro just so you know it's there.
These next few are also in Orebro but are part of the historical park Wadkoping. Kinda like Toronto's Pioneer Village, but accessible. Wadkoping is part of a larger city park where I hung out in lieu of castle touring.
In some of the buildings they have folk going about some traditional trades and talking about how it's done.
This is Jacob, you may have guessed that he is a blacksmith. You are correct.
What you may not have guessed is that he, and Tommy, a "just getting started" blacksmith have a plan to form a league of blacksmith/historical recreationsists. Said differently, they are going to get a group of people together with the skills to make their own swords and a desire to then smite each other with them. I truly look forward to coming back in a few years and see how that is going.
I suck and do not remember this man's name. What I can tell you though, which you can't tell by looking at him necessarily, is that he is a very kind man, patient, and generous with his knowledge. We had a nice chat.
He's busy there making a bowl out of apple wood. Unlike what I believe standard lathe work is like, he works with moist wood, not fully dried wood. It's a different technique, and he enjoys it much more. It also smells incredible.
He didn't make these, but they're at the shop, and they are super cool.
My mom's late husband Jac was Dutch and a cabinet maker, and later on in his life he decided to get himself a lathe and learn the trade, just for the heck of it I think. While he didn't get to that sort of thing, there were plenty of things in the shop that reminded me of him, the garage where the lathe was set up, and the mantle in the living room where various little wooden bits of wonder would end up.
These are all the wood shavings from that bowl being carved up there. The smell reminded me of the dairy farm in Sussex. And why include the picture? Well, I warned you in a previous blog about the danger of hanging out with my uncle when you've got a camera. He wasn't with me this time but I guess it's rubbing off a little.
These are bowling balls. They were not made in Wadkoping.
Pitchers is a sports bar/bowling alley conveniently located right across the street from Bishop's. I say convenient because it was really easy to walk there from Bishop's one evening when we were invited to go play with James, Rebecca, and Steffan, folk we had met and had been chatting with at the bar. Originally Joseph and I were going to see a movie. People are better.
Joseph's friend Simon also joined us along the way, so the six of us had a fun time bowling, shooting baskets, and generally hangin' out. Sadly we did not get to Rebecca's office where there was the promise of a grand piano and a Segue, but it was about 1am I think, so probably a good thing we didn't.
For the record I am not that good at bowling. Joseph is. Well, good for our league anyway. I don't imagine he'll crop up on a slow Tuesday morning on ESPN any time soon. Let's hope not anyway.
There were actually two trips to Pitchers. The other was last night with my cousins. Again, a really fun night. And again, I am not that good at bowling. Doesn't really matter though, it's still fun.
Before that though, last Friday actually, my aunt, uncle, and I went on a day trip to Likoping. It's Per's home town and a couple of hours away from Orebro. Per had some writing to finish up so we didn't get out of the house quite as early as we had hoped, but we still had a very full, interesting day.
And actually the trip to Likoping was really an excuse to see some other things nearby.
This is Husaby Kyrka. Yes, let's use the Swedish word for church at least once, shall we.
As you can see, it is a lovely old church, and is likely best known for what is near to it and what happened there in 1008.
This is St. Sigfrids Kalla, or spring. Legend, or history, or something in the middle that hasn't been fully proven but generally seems to be accepted, is that this is the site where Sweden's first king, Olof Skotkonung was baptized into Christianity.
It may be the wrong country, but you still just kinda want to sit down and read some Yeats for awhile.
And this one we did get to take a tour of. Which was pretty cool.
The angel below is one of many suspended from the ceiling of the great hall.
Apparently they are not pinatas.
And this is the great hall from which those not-pinata-angels are doing all the suspending.
I warned you, I was with my uncle.
And this is the chapel. Unlike the great hall, it is possible to wait for everyone to get out of your shot.
The castle also has a small, but rather nice garden to stroll around. Nothing at all like what I saw in Denmark, but that's okay, it's not a competition or anything. I imagine they'd all lose to Versailles. I hope to let you know in a while.
Oh, and in case you missed it on the way in, here's the castle again on the way out.
And here is a sheep.
Again, you can blame my uncle's influence. It's like he's got some sort of aura.
That said, when you drive by something neat on the road and yell "Stop the car!", then he's the guy you want to have behind the wheel. A) He doesn't seem to startle easily, though I may perhaps put that to the test in the wee hours tomorrow just to check for you all. Call it science. And B) it meant I got to hop out and catch these cool little bits of stuff we saw along the way.
Eventually we got to Likoping where we wandered about and had some dinner. We were all pretty hungry. Have you noticed how hard it seems to make a decision about where to eat dinner when in fact you could probably start chewing on your own arm you are so ravenous? We suffered from that same indecision. Where we ended up though was decent, except of course that it took a long time to get our meals. Exactly what we were looking for.
We then wandered about a bit more, found a bakery to pick up some pastries for coffee later, and then headed for home.
I have no idea where these geese were headed. Oh, a neat thing about geese...
Another time perhaps.
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