Vasa Museum and Salsa Bar

Today we visited the Vasa museum. Although we can reach the island where the Vasa museum is by bus, we decided to take the ferry for the experience and since it was free with our monthly tunnelbana and bus card. I like Stockholm’s tunnelbana system. (more on that next time when I’ve the time)


On the ferry.


Me and Stockholm scenery. There is another nicer photo in Dom’s cam, but he has refused to release my photo. Humph!


Scenery of Stockholm from our ferry. The island we left. The tallest building is Stockholm cathedral.


The island we are approaching. Looks like a nice amusement park. But it wasn’t open. It’s probably closed for the winter.

At the island, we take our time to admire the other lovely buildings around.


I have no idea what this building is. I decide to take a photo of its magnificant architecture first. I’ll check it up next time and see if it is worth another visit.

Finally, we reach the Vasa museum itself. It’s a 40 kroners = S$10 entrance fee and the first time I'm paying to visit a museum in Stockholm. But I’ve heard so much about the Vasa and how it’s a must-see, so I have higher expectations than usual.


First sight of the Vasa.


Group picture with the Vasa.

Once you enter the Museum, you see the Vasa immediately. It’s hard to miss since it occupies just about the whole museum. The lighting is pretty bad, so you have to be pretty professional with the camera in order to get good pics of the ship. It’s one of the biggest objects to be placed in a museum, measuring 64 metres in length and I forgot how much in height. The museum is very detailed. We went for a guided tour of the museum, took some random photos on our own, watched a short show on the Vasa and continued our tour. It’s rather amazing how much can come from just this one ship. Some short history first.

In the early 17th century, Sweden was busy building an empire around the Baltic Sea in northern Europe. During the 1620s, Sweden was at war with Poland. In 1625, the Vasa was ordered to be built in Stockholm by the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus. The Vasa was the first ship in Sweden to be built with 2 gundecks instead of one. Besides the 64 guns on board the ship, the Vasa was also designed intricately with many colourful sculptures adorning the ship. The Vasa was built as a war ship, but more importantly as a display of the king’s power. The ship was completed in 1628. But the vasa sank only after 10 or 15 minutes after leaving Stockholm’s harbour. Of the 150 people on board, 30-50 died in the disaster. When Vasa had been salvaged in 1961, archaeologists found the remains of 25 skeletons.


A better view of the top of the ship from the gallery.


A group photo in front of a model of the Vasa.


The numerous sculptures on the Vasa. Many of the art pieces were designed with a meaning. For example, there are the sculptures of 19 of the roman gods, with the first and strongest god missing ( I can’t remember who), probably showing that Adolphus hoped to be viewed as this god.

The most amazing thing about the Vasa is that it remained under the Baltic sea for 333 years before it was retreived still 99 percent intact. The sea worms that usually feed on sunken ships did not thrive in the less salty waters of the Baltic Sea. Since then, a lot of work has been done on the Vasa. They have done analysis on the skeletons to rewrite the stories of the people who perished with the Vasa. The paint on the sculptures has worn off and a lot of analysis was done to predict the initial colours of the ship. Missing parts of the ship were replaced with another type of wood intentionally so that people could differentiate the original ship from the patched work. The entire rescue operation of the ship was explained with models. We cannot enter the vasa itself in order to protect it, but a small part of the Vasa's interior was reconstructed for visiting. They also have displays of objects used in the Vasa and an exhibition on Swedish life in the 1620s. I also liked the small models they had of the Vasa and the Swedish town and harbour in the 1620s.


Intricate designs on the Vasa. The paint has already been washed out over the years.


A reconstruction of how the coat of arms of the Vasa ship would have been looked.


A reconstruction of the interior of the Vasa.


A reconstruction of the gun deck.



Sweden 1620s


Me in Sweden in the 1620s.



A small model of the inside of the Vasa. I like this model. It shows so much activity in the Vasa. Notice the lowest compartment of the ship. They are supposed to fill this compartment with heavy rocks in order to lower the centre of gravity of the ship. There was much discussion whether the Vasa’s base was too narrow, such that insufficient rocks could be placed at the Vasa’s base and led to the Vasa tipping over and sinking during high winds.


A model of the Swedish shipyard in 1620s


I really like this picture of this globe. Think the lightning is very nice, credit to Dom. It shows a battle between Sweden and Poland.


All of us trying to act cool in front of the Vasa.


Another group photo with a painting of the Vasa.


After the Vasa, we took a bus to Slussen. After we alighted and bus and started walking, Qiang was telling me how that he always wanted to take photos of the little kids in Sweden cos they were so cute, but he was afraid of being misunderstood. Then 2 minutes later, Dom showed us a photo of this baby he took on the bus. Cute or not! Dom can read our minds. I will see if I can take some photos of people next time.


Cute baby on the bus.

We were in Slussen and checked out the prices for Vikingline. Then we walked to T-centralien because Aiyi recommended the fish soup there. But it was closed, and so we went down to Odenplan because we knew there were some cheaper cafes there. Dom recommended a nice café, but it was too expensive and others that we wanted to try out were closed as well. Eventually, we went back to this café which we have been to already. I don’t really want to go back to the same place twice, since we don’t eat out very often and I wanna try something new each time. However, when you are hungry and have run out of ideas, you’ll just decide to head to a familiar place. I like this place actually, cos the prices are reasonable, the ambience is good and there are comfy seats. Relative to food prices in Stockholm of course. Initially, we thought we missed the lunch menu cos lunch is till 3 and it was 5, but the lady said it was still the same. Whew! A meal is 59 kroners = S$15 dollars. The meal comes with free flow bread, punch and coffee. So we eat a lot. Basically this is about lunch and dinner combined. Actually, eating in Stockholm isn’t all as bad as people make it out to me. It’s not like in Singapore where you have such a large range of prices. However, once you are willingly to pay $15 ( a good bargain) to $20 for a meal, you usually can have a good meal and get very satisfied. This is because there is usually free bread and also because their portions are generally bigger than what you get in Singapore.


I have pasta with Turkey in pesto sauce.


Good meal after a day at the Vasa

Later on at night, I go to a Salsa Bar with Shian Chin and his friends. Shian Chin invited me to join him and his friends from his salsa class to this Salsa Bar, because I was interested in learning more about salsa. We have a drink at his friend's place before heading off. Shian Chin has been asking me to practise a bit before going off to the salsa bar, but I never did get around to doing so. As I head off to the salsa bar, I'm a bit apprehensive about the whole idea and I regret not going to Shian Chin's place for some training before today. Basically, I end up going to the bar with Shian Chin, his Swedish neighbour David, and another 4 girls from his dance class.

At the salsa bar, they played some usual disco music before the salsa music started. Usually I don't feel very self-conscious whenever I go chionging with my friends. That’s cos everyone is not very pro and you just move and shake however you want. However, all of them can really dance and move even if they are not dancing salsa, and I suddenly don’t know what to do. Throughout the night, I’m not exactly very comfortable. For one thing, I’m probably the only one who doesn’t really know how to dance. Another thing is, Shian Chin’s friends are not exactly very friendly and they don’t make much of an effort to talk to you. Besides Shian Chin, the other person I knew before hand was David. However, thirdly, David leaves early and almost all the rest left behind are French. Since Shian Chin has spent 5 years studying in France, a lot of their conversations were in French and I feel pretty out sometimes. This is the first time I feel out of place since I’ve been to Sweden. I don’t feel like that even if I’m with other exchange students from other countries. However, I did enjoy myself the very few times Shian Chin danced the salsa with me. It was a new experience. The parts where you get turned around are the most fun. Maybe I will indeed consider taking lessons. After Salsa, I wanted to go home, but they wanted to go for drinks, so I felt pressurized to join them. . Fortunately, we couldn’t get into the place and went home instead.