Sweden April 2024

Hello sausage lovers,

After visiting Germany and Sweden in the fall of 2023, I began to experience an immense desire to move to Sweden.  Doing so would require me to find a job in Sweden in order to obtain a work visa and be able to live there legally for more than 90 days.  Being somewhat half-fluent in Swedish, familiar with the food and culture, and working in the field of cybersecurity, this seems like a realistic possibility.

In the interim, my sister Chelsea floated the idea of a Q1 trip to Sweden with her and my 3-year-old nephew, John.  In my current position at work, I have a great deal of flexibility and can take weeklong vacations with fairly short notice, and decided to go with her to be her food guide and translator.  She took care of finding the best flights and renting an Airbnb, and I just paid her my share, which was great for me.

About a month away from the trip, my Swedish paternal grandfather's health began declining and he was in and out of the hospital a few times.  Because of this, my dad Peter decided to accompany us and we were able to find room on the same flights for him.

After a 10 hour flight to Amsterdam, a 2 hour layover, a 2 hour flight to Stockholm, a 35 minute ride on Arlanda express, and a 30 minute subway ride to Farsta Strand, and a 10 minute walk to the Airbnb, we finally made it.  The first thing we did after getting settled in was venture back to Farsta Strand subway station to get some groceries at COOP.  You know exactly what I bought.

Falukorv

It was pretty late and we were weary from travel, but on a whim decided to visit farfar Leif around 6 PM.  My grandpa was so ecstatic to see my dad for the first time in 6 years that he almost burst into tears.  We continued to visit him in Farsta every day until the last day of our trip.

3 generations of Lindwalls

The next day we headed to Gamla Stan (old town).  Given that John is a 3-year-old boy, he was very fascinated by the various transportation methods that are common in Europe but sadly missing in SoCal.  He was often the loudest passenger on the mellow Swedish tunnelbana.

Lindwalls ride the tunnelbana

The weather was wonderful, ~60 degrees F; perfect for just hanging out and exploring.

Mikael and John

We saw a quaint hole-in-the-wall cafe and I took the opportunity to get my favorite fika snacks: Punschrullar (rum-flavored marzipan-covered chocolate cake bar), Kanelbullar (cinnamon roll), and Kardemummabullar (cardamom roll) 

Fika snacks from Bellmans Café

Once we finished wandering around Gamla Stan and visiting Sound Pollution record store, we headed to Hötorgshallen so I could pick up some high quality charcuterie before heading back to Hökarängen to visit farfar.  

I settled on some timmermanskorv, rackabajsare, torkat kallrökt renkött, and kallrökt älgsalami.  See my post on my 2023 Sweden trip for explanations on what these are.

Each day we were in Stockholm we visited farfar, raided his fridge, ate many sandwiches on knäckebröd (rye crispbread), and drank copious amounts of coffee and tea over conversations.

After wrapping up with farfar today, we headed back to the Hökarängen subway station to pick up 2 kebabpizzas from Peppar Pizza in Hökarängen Centrum.

Kebabpizza

During a conversation with farfar, my dad, and my farfar's caretaker Susanne, my dad mentioned potentially visiting Nynäshamn, a coastal city about an hour by train from Farsta Strand.  When Susanne heard Nynäshamn, she mentioned "rökta räkor" (smoked shrimp).  

I did not know such a delicious thing existed, let alone within Swedish cuisine.  It turns out that there is a famous fish smokehouse and accompanying restaurant sitting on right on the water.  Immediately I was very excited to visit it.  The next day we set out for Nynäshamn.  

Nynäs Rökeri

Nynäs Rökeri is wonderfully quaint and the ultimate Swedish smoked seafood experience.  They were not very busy, given it was a weekday during spring.  There can be a long wait during summertime.  

We all ordered the Rökeri Special, which included the smoked shrimp, smoked salmon filet, smoked salmon fins, and Skagenröra (shrimp salad), along with aioli and potato salad.  John was very well-behaved and distracted by his iPad.

Rökeri Special

After the meal we went to the fiskaffär to purchase some smoked fish.  I bought some more smoked shrimp and smoked salmon, as well as böckling (smoked herring) and some smoked Icelandic salt from Denmark.  We then headed back to Farsta.

The next day we decided to go to the cultural island Djurgården by ferry to visit Skansen and the Vasa museum, which currently was hosting a lego shipwreck exhibit called "brickwrecks".  I am a big fan of lego, and the Vasa museum is pretty cool, having been there before in 2019.

Fun at Skansen

After a fun day at Skansen and a fish n' chips lunch at the kiosk in front, we walked back to the entrance of Djurgården where Vasamuseet is.  

I went to Vasamuseet when I was here in 2019 and have already seen and read all the exhibits, so I did not feel the need to do much other than take fresh pictures of the massive sunken galleon.  The brickwrecks exhibit was neat; there was a lego version of the Vasa and other famous historical shipwrecks.

The Vasa in lego

On another day, my dad's long time friend and former bandmate Janne drove us out to another old friend and former bandmate Björn's house.  We were also graced by another former bandmate, Helene.  They served us a wonderful Swedish meal, with everything from an ostbord, medwurst, inkokt lax, gubröra, köttbullar, prinskorv, sill, and more that I forgot.

Synd och Skam

The former members of Synd och Skam then reunited once again to jam to some songs that they all remember how to play.

Synd och Skam play Johnny B. Goode

We also did a surprise visit to another of my dad's childhood friends, Ewa.  She was very surprised and took a great photo of the family in the playground courtyard of her apartment complex.

Lindwall and McDevitt families

The next day we planned to visit another one of my dad's high school classmates, Sven-Erik.  I started the day by having some böckling on toast, which turned out to be the best herring I have ever eaten.  It is going to be really hard to go back to eating canned kippers again.

Böckling

We were picked up by Sven-Erik later that afternoon to have lunch at his house in the archipelago of Saltsjö.  Sven-Erik's house is beautiful and has a stunning view of the archipelago.

View of Saltsjö from Sven-Erik's second story

Sven-Erik's wife cooked yet another marvelous Swedish spread of traditional fare.  This included fläskpannkaka (oven-baked bacon pancake), and Västerbottenostpaj (Västerbotten cheese pie).

Fläskpannkaka and Västerbottenostpaj 

We were again surprised that another of my dad's high school classmates, Frederik, was already there.  My dad had very nice conversations with his old friends, and I was able to have interesting conversations with Sven-Erik and his wife about working in the technology field, which both of them do.

Sven-Erik, Peter, and Frederik

The next day we headed out to visit farfar once again, this time stopping to get a tunnbrödsrulle (Swedish flatbread roll with mashed potatoes and two hot dogs).

Tunnbrödsrulle from Hökis Grill

We went on to visit grandpa Leif and took a handful of heartwarming photos.

Four generations in one photo

John opens up to great-grandpa

The tattooed Lindwall men

After a tearful goodbye to grandpa and another promise to visit him again soon, I headed out early to visit the son of my dad's friend Janne, CJ, who is my age and lived at my parents' house for a month in 2021.  He took me to a sushi place in Haninge centrum, which was pretty good.  He had just got back hours ago from Budapest, where he had lived for the past couple of years.

Haku Sushi in Haninge Centrum

The last evening in Farsta was spent mostly cleaning up and packing our things.  We had walked past another pizza place next to the Farsta Strand subway station many times and I was craving another kebabpizza, so I set out to try it.  This kebabpizza was thicker, cheesier, and had a lot more kebab and sauce on it, so I could only eat half of it.  I took the rest home for the others.

Kebabpizza at Farsta Strands Pizzeria

I also smuggled home some dry meats and sausages, as well as some canned classics such as Bullens Pilsnerkorv and Norrlands Pölsa (haggis-like organ and barley slop) in addition to the Swedish candy meant for my coworkers.

In the morning we finished cleaning and packing our things and took one last subway trip to central station, and one more train ride on Arlanda Express to get to the airport, thus concluding yet another fantastic trip to Stockholm.

Grandpa Leif passed away on June 17, 2024.

-Michael Leif Lindwall

Comments

  1. Hej Michael!!!! That was absolutely wonderful, thank you for posting! Love, Dad.

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