Joel Welch
I’m on a train hurtling west through the beautiful Swedish countryside and have time to contemplate what just happened with my stay in Stockholm. Those of you who are aware of the infamous condition known as the “Stockholm Syndrome” know that the gist of it is that the captive becomes aligned, irrationally, with his captors during a hostage situation. What I just experienced in Stockholm will be my own rational version of the Stockholm Syndrome.
There are many great cities in this world and I have had the pleasure of visiting a nice sample of them. Some are overpoweringly large like New York City. Others have overwhelming history to offer the visitor like Rome. Paris is stunningly beautiful, London has its buttoned up nature and Venice, it’s unique charm in it’s amazing canals.
Stockholm though has it’s own niche….it is a perfectly integrated place of land and water and it flows seamlessly between the two and lures you in with it’s busy harbors and a relaxed, confident pace. As I said in another write up, it is a big, small town and thus makes you fill connected and like you have been there all your life. Because of being built upon several islands, it is interconnected by water and roads equally…..so many ferries, large and small, operate in it’s waters that it is just as easy to connect the islands by water as it is by bridges although you can do it either way. These islands essentially become small towns scattered across the waterscape and operate that way….on a very human scale…..Gamle Stan, Södermalm, Östermalm, Kungsholmen all have their own identity although they are of close proximity to each other. There are few large buildings and so the human scale theme is further emphasized. Huge swathes of green space, including the massive Djurgården, cover the city and along with the ubiquitous water front, makes it feel as though you are hardly in a city at all.
And yet, it is an exceptionally urbane place. Fine restaurants abound but I found that they were never so stuffy as to make you uncomfortable…just the highest quality ingredients and fine service. Sidewalk cafes offer a perfect respite from a day of walking the city….offering both amazing food and drink and stunning views of the city and it’s handsome inhabitants….people watching here is not to be missed. Beautiful palaces and churches are around every corner. Gamle Stan, which I fully expected to be Disney-like isn’t….somehow it manages to avoid this even with the crush of tourists that roam it during the midday hours. A nice revelation is that once the evening begins, most of those tourists head back to their cruise ships and a stunningly beautiful old town becomes your own, as does early morning….those times became mine to roam through the quiet, cobbled streets. I picked Gamle Stan as my home base because it is “center mass” for the city and thus, you can walk, ferry or take the Metro (subway) almost anywhere easily from there. But in truth, I now know that each island would be a great place to base your visit and offer a unique experience from the rest.
So, back to MY Stockholm Syndrome. I became quickly aligned with my “captors” about why their city is one of the greatest cities in the world…..the perfectly integrated blend of water and land…..of history and culture….of indigenous and world cuisine. They asked me a lot about what I thought of it….if I agreed with what they saw in the place they call home. I quickly fell into line with how they perceived their amazing city…a very rational response to an incredibly lovely spot in our world. MY Stockholm Syndrome indeed!