After a few days in Stockholm, we headed northwest to the university town of Uppsala to see a friend. We met him about four years ago when he received a scholarship to study in the U.S. and ended up at Armstrong. We met him at the train station, put our stuff in a storage locker, and set off walking through the town. Just outside the train station is one of the largest collection of bikes we’ve seen since Amsterdam. He took us to a building close to the train station that is more modern than most of the buildings around because he wanted to show us a great view of the city from the top but unfortunately, the one day we were in Uppsala, it was closed. So instead, we headed towards the center of town. There were a couple of small canals that wound through the town and some nice cafes that lined the area near them. Sometimes, they would form little ponds and these areas were especially nice. At the main square, we saw a lot of small little houses with what appeared to be political advertisements. Indeed, they are for politics and there is an election here in Sweden on Sunday. Our friend told us that these little houses are for supporters of various candidates and if you feel inclined to talk about politics, they were a place to go to talk because politics is a more private matter in the public space. Sweden has a near 80% voter turn out, not too shabby.
We walked over to some nice gardens but the admission fee to the gardens and museum was a little high so we headed over to the church instead. The church in Uppsala is famous in Sweden and is home to the archdiocese of the Swedish church. This happened because the current city of Uppsala was once a small outpost of the original town Uppsala and it was the pagan center of Sweden so as a way to replace the old Scandinavian gods, the church was established there. The outside of the cathedral is similar to another of the same style we saw in Stockholm, red brick. I think they call it Neo-Gothic. The inside is quite impressive with arches and tall walls with lots of small rooms off of the main corridor honoring various saints, royal members, bishops, and other church leaders of the past. Apparently, it was common that all Swedish born children were counted as members of the church but this practice has recently been done away with and church membership is based on a decision made by the person and not being born.
After the church, we had lunch in one of the local student unions called a Nation. There are thirteen nations in the city and membership was once obligatory upon being enrolled in the university but now the membership is optional. There continues to be a high rate of enrollment due to the excellent benefits. In the evenings, only members may go into the various nations around town and the beer and liquor is a lot cheaper in them because they are exempt from a lot of the taxes other establishments have to add to their drinks, thus making them more expensive. As we discovered later that night, it’s a popular tradition for new students in the first couple of weeks of school to go bar hopping and must visit all the nations in one night. Each nation is supposed to represent a region of Sweden. Our lunch was good and super cheap because it was in the student building and according to our friend, anyone can walk in and have lunch.
We visited the first university building that was opened in 1477 and is the oldest in Scandinavia and one of the oldest in Europe. The inside has some impressive domes and there is a concert hall on the back of the building. Next to it is another impressive looking building and we were told it’s called a scandal building because it caused a huge uproar upon being built. Because its architecture was as nice as the original university building, a lot of people wanted to move the important office into it and leave the original building behind, thus causing a huge scandal. From there, we headed up a steep hill to the Uppsala Castle, a fortification that sits on high overlooking the city. It’s from the 16th century and what stands there today is nothing but reconstruction because the original was destroyed in a fire in 1702. I don’t think it’s possible to tour the castle as it now serves as the home of the local governor. The gardens of the castle on the other side are quite nice to walk through. After our visit to the castle, we went for a traditional Scandinavian afternoon tradition, the fika.
A fika is a word in Swedish that solely describes the act of having an afternoon coffee/tea and some sort of pastry dessert. Our friend took us to a local bakery where we tried some blueberry crumble cake with a cream and another raspberry and vanilla cream dessert. The coffee was free to take along with water and some other juice, probably lingonberry. The dessert was incredible and sweet and we left none of it on the plate. Afterwards, we went back to collect our things at the train station and went to his house to start working on dinner. Dinner was some meat dish with carrots and potatoes. Another friend who attended Armstrong but had been working all day joined us for dinner and brought his girlfriend. Afterwards, we met up with some other students and went to a nation for some drinks. It was funny to say the least to watch all of the students coming and going on their nation pub-crawls because they were all dressed up in ridiculous costumes. We had a great time and hope to see our friend in Madrid soon. Enjoy the pictures.
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