(NOTE: We are posting these from Ireland, in a part of Donegal that lacks broadband access, making adding images difficult to upload...more photos to follow...)
ernet
Heathrow is a nightmare to travel through these days. And a high security alert caused by a self-immolating driver crashing his jeep into Glasgow Airport Terminal that day only made matters worse. We had been prepared for the “one bag” policy, allowing each traveler only one bag of small size to carry on. At the BA transfer desk we explained about the long flight from Hong Kong, delayed even longer by the staff exercise and joked with the agent that we certainly hoped our bags arrived in Stockholm safely. And then we waited three hours for the next flight, having already missed our original connection.
The opposite of Heathrow, Arlanda is an efficient and easy-to-get-around-in airport. Once we cleared immigration, we waited for our luggage to appear on the carousel and weren’t altogether shocked, although we were certainly disappointed, when Amy’s large green bag failed to materialize. Where it had gone would take us days to discover. After missing for three days, a call to BA in London revealed that the lack of personnel, equipment failures, compounded by who knows what other security measures, had created a backlog of some 11,000 bags gone lost and waiting to be delivered from London to whatever final destinations. Miraculously, the bag appeared at our hotel in Löngholmen on Wednesday. We were lucky to have packed smart with enough clothes to attend the conference and be about town.
Löngholmen Island is to the west of the old part of Stockholm. Situated on an island, it is the site of a former prison, now defunct since the sixties, and more recently transformed into a hotel and conference center. Surrounded by a small forest and abutting a part of the river used for swimming, it makes an excellent location from which to explore what has to be one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.
Stockholm’s gracefulness is the effect of a number of factors, including the cityscape itself, which retains the signature architecture of old Europe uninterrupted by the metal and glass structures that have transformed the outlines of London and, to a lesser extent, Paris, for instance. Positioned on the water, Stockholm is actually part of an archipelago that constitutes this part of Sweden, itself dotted throughout its landscape with lakes. (We had hoped to take a boat trip to some of the outer reaches, but didn’t have the time on this trip.) The weather was perfect; even the occasional rain didn’t dampen the mood created by the days of long light, days that begin with a creamy 400 AM dawn that descends into a “night” whose darkest hues reach no deeper than the cool violet of dusk, even at 1100 PM!
The fact of Löngholmen’s former existence as a prison was evident throughout the hotel, in some places more starkly than others, which created quite a subject of conversation and controversy at Amy’s conference. Luckily our room, a double, was devoid of photos of former prisoners which were stenciled onto the walls in some of the smaller rooms, whose dimensions closely mimicked that of the former cells from which they had been transformed. Even the bed linen was grey and white striped!
Each morning Amy woke early for a brisk forest walk and then we both went to breakfast in time for Amy to make it to the “social dreaming matrix”, which is one of the methods of group study explored at the conference. Participants share dreams and associations a way to tap into some of the unconscious workings of the group. Kathy even participated in two of the sessions, which are open to non-members, and found the associations in the second particularly insightful and moving.
Kathy had intended to visit her friend Anna’s summer home, but plans were changed by a
family emergency, which took Anna unexpectedly back to Iceland for a few days. For two days, Kathy wandered around the old town of Stockholm, enjoying the gorgeous weather, the wonderful sites and gathering ideas for future art projects. We sampled some of Stockholm’s excellent restaurants, including in Södermalm, the former working class area of the city, which has recently become a mecca for boutique-seekers and café-goers, discovering a newly opened restaurant, Binbadgen, that served dishes from around the world.
On Wednesday, Kathy traveled to Örebro and worked with Anna for one day on the final edits for their new anthology, returning to Stockholm on Thursday in time to hear Amy’s excellent paper and enjoy the stimulating dialogue her work generated, which reverberated over the remaining days of the conference.
That night we celebrated friend Bridget’s recently completed and certified Ph.D. in an Italian restaurant, La Famiglia. Reputedly the place that Frank Sinatra frequented when he visited Stockholm, we enjoyed its old world elegance and classical dishes, such as Osso Buco, which Kathy savored. On Friday, there were more panels and an early evening supper at the stunning city hall, site of Nobel Prize award dinners. After a buffet of excellent Swedish fare, including salmon dishes, salads, some fine wines and a selection of cheeses, we sailed along the port and enjoyed Stockholm’s graceful skyline. But Saturday found us both “grouped out” and we opted not to attend the final conference celebration. Instead, we enjoyed a final simple dinner of pizza and salad at a nearby Italian restaurant, and prepared to leave for London the next evening.
The opposite of Heathrow, Arlanda is an efficient and easy-to-get-around-in airport. Once we cleared immigration, we waited for our luggage to appear on the carousel and weren’t altogether shocked, although we were certainly disappointed, when Amy’s large green bag failed to materialize. Where it had gone would take us days to discover. After missing for three days, a call to BA in London revealed that the lack of personnel, equipment failures, compounded by who knows what other security measures, had created a backlog of some 11,000 bags gone lost and waiting to be delivered from London to whatever final destinations. Miraculously, the bag appeared at our hotel in Löngholmen on Wednesday. We were lucky to have packed smart with enough clothes to attend the conference and be about town.
Löngholmen Island is to the west of the old part of Stockholm. Situated on an island, it is the site of a former prison, now defunct since the sixties, and more recently transformed into a hotel and conference center. Surrounded by a small forest and abutting a part of the river used for swimming, it makes an excellent location from which to explore what has to be one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.
Stockholm’s gracefulness is the effect of a number of factors, including the cityscape itself, which retains the signature architecture of old Europe uninterrupted by the metal and glass structures that have transformed the outlines of London and, to a lesser extent, Paris, for instance. Positioned on the water, Stockholm is actually part of an archipelago that constitutes this part of Sweden, itself dotted throughout its landscape with lakes. (We had hoped to take a boat trip to some of the outer reaches, but didn’t have the time on this trip.) The weather was perfect; even the occasional rain didn’t dampen the mood created by the days of long light, days that begin with a creamy 400 AM dawn that descends into a “night” whose darkest hues reach no deeper than the cool violet of dusk, even at 1100 PM!
The fact of Löngholmen’s former existence as a prison was evident throughout the hotel, in some places more starkly than others, which created quite a subject of conversation and controversy at Amy’s conference. Luckily our room, a double, was devoid of photos of former prisoners which were stenciled onto the walls in some of the smaller rooms, whose dimensions closely mimicked that of the former cells from which they had been transformed. Even the bed linen was grey and white striped!
Each morning Amy woke early for a brisk forest walk and then we both went to breakfast in time for Amy to make it to the “social dreaming matrix”, which is one of the methods of group study explored at the conference. Participants share dreams and associations a way to tap into some of the unconscious workings of the group. Kathy even participated in two of the sessions, which are open to non-members, and found the associations in the second particularly insightful and moving.
Kathy had intended to visit her friend Anna’s summer home, but plans were changed by a
family emergency, which took Anna unexpectedly back to Iceland for a few days. For two days, Kathy wandered around the old town of Stockholm, enjoying the gorgeous weather, the wonderful sites and gathering ideas for future art projects. We sampled some of Stockholm’s excellent restaurants, including in Södermalm, the former working class area of the city, which has recently become a mecca for boutique-seekers and café-goers, discovering a newly opened restaurant, Binbadgen, that served dishes from around the world.On Wednesday, Kathy traveled to Örebro and worked with Anna for one day on the final edits for their new anthology, returning to Stockholm on Thursday in time to hear Amy’s excellent paper and enjoy the stimulating dialogue her work generated, which reverberated over the remaining days of the conference.
That night we celebrated friend Bridget’s recently completed and certified Ph.D. in an Italian restaurant, La Famiglia. Reputedly the place that Frank Sinatra frequented when he visited Stockholm, we enjoyed its old world elegance and classical dishes, such as Osso Buco, which Kathy savored. On Friday, there were more panels and an early evening supper at the stunning city hall, site of Nobel Prize award dinners. After a buffet of excellent Swedish fare, including salmon dishes, salads, some fine wines and a selection of cheeses, we sailed along the port and enjoyed Stockholm’s graceful skyline. But Saturday found us both “grouped out” and we opted not to attend the final conference celebration. Instead, we enjoyed a final simple dinner of pizza and salad at a nearby Italian restaurant, and prepared to leave for London the next evening. 
1 comment:
hi kath and amy.
oh my heart aches for such adventures! -- so an inner traveler i must be today, hewing to the poetry adventure once again, which, like all sojourns into the unknown passes through storm, drought, and the loveliest and lightest of summer days. ah so. i love your blog -- it really is the closest thing to being there, and with the dearest of friends. three cheers for virtualosity!
p
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