I absolutely loved springtime in Sweden – the days got longer, the weather got warmer, and the landscape exploded with greenery and flowers. I did a lot of traveling in the spring: to Denmark, Latvia, Poland, and a few places within Sweden. I celebrated a few holidays (Valborg, King’s Day), attended some school events, and spent lots of time with my friends. I also spent a lot of time outside enjoying the beautiful weather and nature. In addition to all of that, I even attended some classes and learned a few things about sustainable energy! Imagine that!
This recap is about 90% April, 10% May. April was extremely busy and full of fun. In May, I spent 10 days traveling in Poland for a school trip and I will cover that in a separate blog post. The rest of May was spent paying for my fun by studying full-time (for once), taking exams, and figuring out how to apply for my Portuguese visa for next year.
- Choir trip to Gothenburg
- WindEurope Conference in Copenhagen
- Home for five whole days
- Solo trip to Riga
- CONNECT InnoEnergy Event
- Kulturnatt (Stockholm Culture Night)
- King’s Day
- Huseby Bruk
- Valborg (Walpurgis Night)
- May Days
- Poland
- End of May or early June ( a picture-perfect afternoon)
During the first week of April I caught up on schoolwork and spent time with my friends. As the weather got warmer I started to spend more time working or hanging out outside and I also got back into running. The huge park near my apartment – Norra Djurgården – offered endless opportunity for exploration and recreation. One evening, a friend and I grabbed a couple of beers and a pack of cookies and sat on a dock by the small river pictured above and just chatted for an hour or so.
Choir trip to Gothenburg
I spent the first weekend in April in Gothenburg, Sweden with my choir. Our choir at KTH has a sister choir at Chalmers, the technical university in Gothenburg. We get together for one weekend a year and alternate who hosts and who travels. We did a lot of singing together (as is expected), played some fun games, and enjoyed a gasque. We did a “trivia walk” around the Chalmers campus that gave us an opportunity to explore the campus and learn about the university. We also played a silly soccer/drinking game where the rules were that you can’t run, can’t talk, and the game ends once the score is tied 3-3. It was extremely funny to watch. We rehearsed a few songs together for an hour or so and promptly went over to a main square in Gothenburg to share our music with a dozen or so spectators. Most of these songs are Swedish student choir classics that people who have been around for a while know quite well, but for me it was definitely a challenge to learn them. In the video below, I’m the person with the blue hat in the front row who has their eyes glued to the music the whole time. Sight-reading an alto line in Swedish is hard work (it literally made my brain hurt sometimes) and so much fun!
I also had a little bit of free time during this weekend to explore Gothenburg. This was my third time in Gothenburg so I got to explore some of the less touristy places. My favorite spots were the Gothenburg Museum of Art and the free zoo in the park called Slottsskogen. The zoo is just a part of a normal looking city park and as you wander around you come across all sorts of cool animals like penguins, seals, horses, and ducks. I can’t help but imagine attempting to recreate this in America and the legal battles that would ensue. I enjoyed the art museum so much that I actually went twice during this weekend. I learned a lot about Nordic art history and local artists. And, like any good Nordic art museum, they have a large collection of different chairs. I’m not sure what it is about the humble chair but it is a cornerstone of Nordic design for some reason and almost every museum has a chair exhibit.
WindEurope Conference in Copenhagen
From Gothenburg I took the train directly to Copenhagen, Denmark to attend the annual WindEurope conference. I had discovered that it is free for students to attend and I was able to get myself a train ticket to Copenhagen and a hostel room for the week. It was a really fun and exciting opportunity to learn more about today’s challenges and opportunities for the wind energy industry. I will make a separate post (eventually) about my full trip to Copenhagen. I was able to fit some exploring and a few museums into my trip and I took hundreds of photos of this gorgeous and impressive city. There is far too much content to fit into this blog post!
Home for five whole days
When I got back from Copenhagen I had five whole days to enjoy at home before heading off to Riga for my next big trip. I spent the week attending classes, studying, and working on group projects. I promise this is true, although I don’t have very many photos to prove it. I also went bouldering with my friends and participated in a music trivia night at the climbing gym, had a lunchtime choir concert in the library followed by an excellent traditional Swedish lunch, admired the spring flowers popping up everywhere, and enjoyed a delicious dinner of Mexican food made by one of my roommates, Estrella, and her friends.
I had very little downtime in April, which hopefully explains why I’m posting about it in August. Click through the photos below to see what my day-to-day life looked like. How lucky am I? Traveling and seeing new cities is a lot of fun but the life I built in Stockholm was even better. It was full of good friends, beautiful nature, fun and challenging hobbies, and community.
Solo trip to Riga
We had a few days around Easter with no classes scheduled so I decided to take a solo trip to Riga, Latvia to complete my tour of the Baltic states (I had visited Lithuania and Estonia in November, on separate trips).
The day I arrived in Riga was unseasonably hot, in the high 70s, so after checking into my hostel I took the train out to Jūrmala, a resort town on the shores of the Gulf of Riga. On a delightfully warm Friday afternoon before Easter, the train was packed with what felt like every other person in Riga heading out to the seaside to cool off and have some fun. It was lovely!
On Saturday I did two free walking tours in Riga, first through Old Town and then an Art Nouveau architecture tour. I enjoyed a delicious lunch at a classic Latvian buffet restaurant with a new friend that I had met on the walking tours, browsed a craft fair in the park, and had a quick look around the National Art Museum before they closed. The whole city was decorated for Easter and there were swingsets and colorful ribbons everywhere I went. I went back to the hostel to recharge with a shower and a nap before joining a pub crawl.
In the evening a large thunderstorm came through, delaying our pub crawl. We sat in the hostel living room drinking beers and getting to know each other in that delightful way of 20-somethings at a hostel. Someone offered to buy everyone a round of Riga Black Balsam, a uniquely Latvian herbal liqueur. It has a very strong flavor but I think it’s quite nice. According to Wikipedia, “its aroma is described as ranging from acetone to licorice to chocolate and the flavor is characterized as a combination of birch, lime, ginger, cocoa, licorice baking spices and berries.” You’ll just have to use your imagination. The rain cleared up eventually and we made our way to a few local bars, including one very cozy and mildly bizarre bar that was partly a bookstore and felt more like someone’s living room (last photo in the slideshow below). I’d give it a 5/5.
Sunday was Easter Day and I spent it at the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia. The museum is huge and would have been amazing on its own, but they were also having a big Easter celebration that was so much fun and an incredible experience overall. I explored the historical buildings of the museum, enjoyed traditional Latvian music and dancing, tried some delicious foods, and browsed the wares of many different artisans and craftsmen. I also learned about Latvian pagan traditions and the many ways this time of year is celebrated.
It was really fun and interesting to spend Easter Day in a country that celebrates Easter, but not at all with the ways I am used to. Latvian traditions derive from a unique blend of Lutheran, Catholic, Russian Orthodox, and Pagan traditions and beliefs. One of the most fun Easter traditions is swinging! From Latvia.eu: “A Latvian Easter tradition claims that enthusiastic swinging on Easter brings year-round energy and wards off mosquitoes and snakes.” I highly recommend clicking on the link above to learn more about how Easter is celebrated in Latvia. There are some really fun and unique traditions and beliefs.
During the rest of my long weekend in Riga, I saw the iconic House of the Blackheads, visited the excellent and sobering Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, explored the Riga Central Market which is located in a military airship hanger, attended a small Easter concert in a cathedral, made friends with some fellow American tourists, wandered aimlessly around the city for a bit, and finally worked up the courage to take my turn on one of the Easter swings. Riga is a very beautiful city full of complex history, thriving culture, phenomenal architecture, good food, and wonderful people.
CONNECT InnoEnergy Event
In late April we had a school event called CONNECT. This event brought all 150 of the first-year students in the InnoEnergy program to Stockholm to connect with each other and with industry professionals. We attended workshops, keynote speeches, fireside chats, and one-on-one meetings between students and companies. We had a “reverse pitching” session where company representatives pitched their company to students, telling us why we should want to work for them. On the final day, we had an excellent workshop with David Young, a psychologist for the Manchester City football team. He shared with us his top 10 lessons from elite sports, covering topics like taking small imperfect steps in the right direction, proactively choosing body language, getting to know your emotional and logical brains, recognizing and breaking avoidance cycles.
During CONNECT we also celebrated the winners of the Green Seed Journey, an entrepreneurship competition within InnoEnergy. Overall, this was a really fun opportunity to connect with our fellow classmates from different universities and get to know some companies working in the sustainable energy space.
Kulturnatt (Stockholm Culture Night)
Saturday, April 26th was Culture Night in Stockholm. From 6 PM to midnight, the city came alive with over 180 free events at museums, churches, stages, galleries, parks, and other cultural institutions. There was singing, dancing, arts and crafts, history lessons, literature readings, architecture tours, theater, and more. Stockholm is not usually a lively city, especially at night, so it was really fun to see so many people out on the streets enjoying Kulturnatt. My friends and I decided to go to Nordiska Museet (the Nordic Museum). The main floor of the very beautiful building was set up with a DJ and dance floor but all of the regular exhibits were open for guests to enjoy. We did have to wait in line for a while to get in since it was so popular but it was worth it and the evening was beautiful. After the Nordic Museum we went down the street to the Museum of Spirits to explore some different flavors of aquavit and learn about the history of alcohol in Sweden. This was a really fun opportunity to visit these museums for free and with such a fun and lively atmosphere. I wish they had events like this more often!
King’s Day
The next day, April 27th, my Dutch friends hosted a party to celebrate King’s Day. This holiday celebrates the birthday of the reigning Dutch monarch, currently King Willem-Alexander who was born on April 27th. We wore orange (the national color of the Netherlands), played some lawn games, ate tompouce, and learned about Dutch history with a trivia quiz. This holiday is traditionally also celebrated with a nationwide flea market in which the Dutch sell their used items. According to Wikipedia, King’s Day is the one day of the year that the Dutch government permits sales on the street without a permit or value added tax. It was a gorgeous spring day and we enjoyed playing outside together. We played two classic children’s games: koekhappen and spijker poepen. For koekhappen, you tie slices of dense gingerbread cake to dangle from a line and race to see who can eat their piece the fastest without using their hands. We tried it both with and without blindfolds and it was very fun to watch. For spijker poepen (lit. nail pooping) you tie a string around your waist with a nail dangling at one end and attempt to lower the nail into a glass bottle. I did not take pictures of this game. My friends also made tompouce, the Dutch version of a mille-feuille or Napoleon pastry. Learning to celebrate new holidays from around the world was definitely a highlight of my year. The people hosting get to share their culture and feel nostalgic and everyone else learns new things about the world and we all have a lot of fun.
Huseby Bruk
One of my classes this year was a consulting project aptly named Project of the Year (POY). We had about 7-8 students on each project and they covered many different areas such as bioenergy, batteries, lifecycle cost analyses, and flexibility markets. My project was working with a historic property in southern Sweden to determine how the property can reduce energy costs and be more self-reliant. Our team worked on this project throughout the year and in April we got to visit the property. It is called Huseby Bruk and it is located near the town of Växjö. The estate contains many well-preserved buildings, including the large and ornate manor house, as well as farmland. Huseby Bruk was one of the first properties in the area to be electrified, using hydropower from the river to generate electricity, and the property still generates electricity this way today. Our team’s solution for Huseby Bruk involved installing a solar PV carport in the parking lot, increasing hydropower production, and installing a bioenergy generator on the farm. It was great to visit the property in person to see the features we had learned about and the space we were designing for, as well as to get a feeling for its history and character. We toured the small hydroelectric plant, had a guided history tour of the estate, and talked with property managers about the challenges and opportunities for Huseby Bruk today and in the future. We also had some free time on this trip to explore the local area, including the ruins of a very old castle and a very cool playground in Växjö.
Valborg (Walpurgis Night)
On April 30th Sweden celebrates the end of winter and coming of summer with Valborg (Walpurgis Night). Massive bonfires are lit, once believed to scare off witches and spirits, and now used as a reason to gather, sing, drink a little, and celebrate making it through another winter.
Choral singing is an important part of the tradition so it was especially fun to celebrate with my choir. On the morning of April 30th, the men and women of my choir gather separately to have brunch and then come together later in the morning to sing for each other. As you can see in the photo below, this is a white tie event. The men wear formal attire called a “frack” and the ladies wear gowns. The men enjoy a classic breakfast of pickled herring, potatoes, and beer while the women host a brunch with baked goods, fruit, and champagne. In a country known for its gender equality and neutrality, this was a delightful experience of gender-based traditions that go back many many years. Once the men are good and drunk they come in and serenade the women with classic Swedish choral serenades (there are many). In return, they typically receive a kiss on the cheek and some leftover waffles.
In the afternoon I took a much needed nap then met up again with choir friends to go to a local bonfire in a small park near someone’s apartment. That one burned out pretty quickly so I went over to Skansen, the open air museum in Stockholm. They had musical performances from choirs and solo artists as well as a very large bonfire that burned into the night. Some people danced around the fire but I got the sense that was more of an activity for tourists and international students. I really enjoyed Valborg as an opportunity to observe and honor the changing of the seasons and also just to gather with friends and be outside. It felt powerful and primeval.
April 30th will forever be an important date in my life for another reason, one also related to the celebration of life and light and new beginnings. When I got back home late after the bonfire, I received a video call from my brother from the hospital, introducing my newborn nephew, a beautiful healthy baby boy named Torin.
May Days
May was slightly less busy than April but not by much. I spent a lot of time studying, preparing for exams, and finishing up the many group projects I had this semester. My free time was spent cooking and eating dinner with friends and going for walks and runs through the woods. We had a few outdoor BBQs and went swimming a few times. We had a choir concert on May 24th full of delightful Swedish summer music. I went to a small concert at the Stockholm Concert House to see Antonio Zambujo, a Portuguese singer-songwriter my friend had introduced me to years ago. I watched Eurovision with choir friends and was sad when Sweden’s entry, KAJ’s Bara Bada Bastu, didn’t win. Do yourself a favor and watch their performance. It’s a lot of fun.
Poland
In mid-May I went on a 10-day trip to Poland, primarily for my program’s Spring Seminar which was held in Krakow. The trip turned into a big adventure and very much deserves its own post. I’ll give a very short description here and add a few photos as a teaser. Instead of flying directly to Krakow, some of us opted to take an overnight ferry from Stockholm to Gdansk and then a train from Gdansk to Krakow. The primary objective was to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, but it was also a fun way to spend time together and see more of the country. We spent an hour or two quickly seeing Gdansk before hopping on a long train ride to Krakow. We got to Krakow three days early so that we could go on an absolutely gorgeous hike in the Tatras Mountains on the southern border of Poland and Slovakia. We stayed in a mountain lodge for the night and hiked back down the next day, through a light layer of fresh snow at the upper altitudes. The next day we visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. That was a heavy day. During our Spring Seminar, we spent three days together with other students from our program taking business classes from ESADE Business School. On my last day in Poland, I got a chance to explore the beautiful and historic city of Krakow. I was honestly a little surprised by how much I loved it. I believe I’ll get to go back again next year for the Spring Seminar and I’m very much looking forward to it!
End of May or early June ( a picture-perfect afternoon)
By the end of May the days were long enough that it never really got dark at night but the sky would turn a gorgeous cobalt blue. The ivy on the brick campus buildings came back to life. It was sunny and warm and absolutely gorgeous all month. I de-stressed by taking long walks and runs through Norra Djurgården. I am so lucky that I got an apartment right next to this amazing park.
April and May were action-packed and full of joy, community, celebration, hard work, and fun. In writing this blog post I came to terms with just how much I did and saw in these two months alone. Thanks for following along!
Nordic Breeze | Iberian Seas 
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