Nationaldagen at Tjolöholm

June 6, 2012

Another early morning.  I managed to sleep till 5:15, and then lazed in bed for another 30 or 40 minutes before getting up.  We were both dressed and ready for breakfast by the time our 7:20 alarm went off!  Today is “Nationaldagen” in Sweden, which is their national holiday, so the schools are closed.  We noticed this difference immediately when we entered the breakfast room this morning.  Yesterday, the room was severely silent and my husband and I felt uncomfortable even carrying on a whispered conversation.  This morning, kids wearing green bunny ears (Apparently these are the Liseberg theme park (in Goteborg) equivalent of Mickey Mouse ears?) were running wild and there were no chairs left!  We brought our trays to our room and ate in here.

J was headed to the conference again, so he left shortly after eight.  I planned to visit Tjolöholms Slott, a huge manor house about 30 km south of Goteborg.  I double-checked my route online before heading out.  When I arrived at the Central station, I explained my route to the ticket agent and she gave me a blue transit card that you swipe when entering a train or bus.  Only a few minutes after boarding my train to Kungsbacka, it took off, and about 20 minutes later I had arrived.  Directly across from the train’s exit was the bus I planned to take!  It couldn’t have been easier.  I asked the driver to make sure I got off at the right stop, and we were soon heading to my stop: “Torpa Smedja”.  This ride took another 20 minutes or so.

When I disembarked from the bus, I was in a thoroughly rural area.

I was surrounded by fields, farmhouses and cows and that is about it. The road to Tjolöholm was easily found, and I just started walking.  Google told me it was about a 3.5 km walk, and I was early, so I took my time.  Thankfully, today was sunnier and warmer than yesterday, and I dressed in layers.  I took lots of pictures on my walk on the narrow country road.  One car stopped and (I think) offered me a ride, but I told them I was happy to walk.

As I neared Tjolöholm, vehicles pulling horse trailers and old-fashioned carriages began to stream past.  They were headed to Tjolöholm for a special event.  Finally, I rounded the corner, and there it was!  It is a breathtaking manor perched on a hill, with the sea directly behind it.

I arrived about an hour before the first tour, so after purchasing my ticket, I took my time exploring and photographing the grounds.

I had some time to read my book on a bench in the woods– it was so relaxing and peaceful!

The tours are only in Swedish at this time of year, with an English pamphlet which gave me some of the information, but I would have loved to understand all that the tour guide was sharing.  We saw most of the “public” areas of the house, including a spectacular grand hall, billiards room, music room, library and the children’s nursery.  We also saw three bathrooms with sunken tubs (that looked more like modern day hot tubs in public pools than bathtubs) and comical, frightening looking shower contraptions that sprayed from the sides and below (!).  Among the impressive guest rooms was a “royal” room intended for the King of Sweden, but he never visited because the man who commissioned the house died before it was completed.  However, Prince Philip stayed there in 1983, which is good enough for me.  The staircases permitted beautiful overlooking views of the 2.5 storey high main hall and the windows provided beautiful views of the forest and the sea.  Sadly, we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the house, but I did get one or two before I learned about that rule.

After the tour, I bought some postcards, strolled through the little village nearby and had lunch at the cafe.  I chose a bunwich and a raspberry crumb cake (the menu was in Swedish, so I had to pick something that was already made…).  They were both fantastic.  I ate outside and read my book in the sun.  Then I walked the long trek back to the bus stop and made my way back to Goteborg without any difficulty.

When I arrived at the hotel, J was already here, having spent the last part of the afternoon working on his presentation for tomorrow.  He fell asleep shortly after I arrived (I am a very stimulating travel partner, apparently).

After J’s nap, we went out in search of an affordable dinner and landed at a vegetarian cafe for bunwiches and carrot cake.  Both were delicious, but this was my third meal in a row consisting of a bunwich.. If it weren’t for the copious amounts of cheese on each sandwich, I might get bored… but no, cheese is delicious.  mmm.  So far so good.  After dinner I mailed some postcards and then we stopped at a convenience store for a few snacks.  Since we were both pretty tired, we went back to the hotel and had an early night.

 

Exploring Göteborg: highbrow touristing and low class eats.

June 5, 2012

What a full day!  It is amazing how much one can accomplish when you wake up at 4:23 am!  We got dressed in a very leisurely fashion.  My husband, J, tried the shower first and was incredibly impressed with its separate pressure and temperature knobs.  He’s already planning our ensuite reno with the design features from this Swedish bathroom… I hope he isn’t disappointed with the availability of these particular fixtures in Canada when the reno becomes a reality.

I watched Golden Girls episodes with Swedish subtitles, then got dressed.

We ate the continental breakfast just after 6.  It was impressive, with several different meats and cheeses, brie, fresh vegetables, cereal, hot chocolate, yogurt, eggs, bacon, buns, sweet breads, etc.  Much better than the typical continental breakfast in Canada, but I wished there were more fruits available than just apples and oranges.

After breakfast, I decided to join J on his walk to the university campus where the conference was being held.  It was supposed to be about a half-hour, but after a few detours, it took more like 45 minutes on the way there.  The walk back was much more efficient!  The streets are cobblestoned and the walk goes past a 19th century church in an old district called Haga.

There is also a very steep path through the woods up to the top of a hill.

By the time I got back to the hotel, not much was open yet, so I spent an hour relaxing and reading my book.  When I headed back out, I wanted to see if I could find the Central Station, since I want to take the train from there tomorrow.  I found it, and then wandered through the inner city exploring.  I found a mall, and stopped for a chai latte at a coffee shop.  I was nervous about only speaking English, but is apparently not a problem–everyone just switches to English once I start speaking.  The chai latte was absolutely delicious, and I spent another hour relaxing in the coffee shop reading in a comfy leather chair.

Finally, the shops opened and I spent some time browsing, then walked to a different area of town where the Goteborg Konstmuseum (art museum) is located.

I arrived just a little early, so I walked around a block or two taking pictures and then went in.  The museum was full of school groups, but once I got upstairs, things were quite quiet and I really enjoyed the whole museum in relative peace.  The special exhibit was a comparison of the works of Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol, with similar artists from the same time periods, but I really enjoyed some of the classical Scandinavian art more.  I bought some art postcards to send, then took my time returning to the inner city for a cheap lunch at McDonald’s.  The McChicken sauce was different, as was the Diet Coke, but still tasty.

J and I had agreed to meet at the hotel around 2 pm, but he caught up with me on the way there.  We spent an hour or so relaxing at the hotel, then decided to head back out for a boat tour of the canal.  This tour goes under several low bridges that criss-cross the canal, and we learned a lot about different architectural landmarks in the city.  Although it was a bit pricey (300 SEK or just over $40 CAD for the two of us), it was worth it to get a view of the buildings and see the landmarks in the harbour.  The water levels were high, so we actually had to take an alternate route, avoiding the lowest of the canal bridges.  Even on the alternate route, we had to duck down on the floor of the boat to avoid hitting our heads when we went under the “haircutter” bridge!  It was a lot of fun, and there were only seven of us on the tour. (That’s our tour guide there on the floor of the boat!)

After the tour, we went to look at a church built in the 1600s, but it was closed by that time.  We meandered back towards the hotel, but stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few snacks.  The grocery prices seemed a lot more reasonable than the restaurant prices.  We brought our pastries (an apple turnover and a pain au chocolat) and ate them back at the hotel.  We also bought a chocolate bar called Plopp, a delicious chocolate and toffee concoction which led to some enjoyable and immature jokes.  J had a nap and I relaxed till nearly seven, when we left for a wine reception for the conference.

The wine reception was held at a different location on the university campus, but it was still about a twenty minute walk.  It was outside, which was hilarious, because it was windy and maybe 15 degrees C outside, at the most.  At first, J was feeling shy, but we eventually met some interesting people from England, Japan and Germany.  J seemed to make fast friends with an important figure in the heritage academic community – a professor from England who is colleagues with J’s supervisor.  After several glasses of free wine and almost no food, we headed home and stopped for some Burger King dinner.  It was after ten by the time we were back at the hotel and eating, and J fell asleep shortly after he ate.  I stayed awake and read for a little while, but then went to sleep.

 

Stupid Crafts Arrives in Sweden

June 4, 2012

Today we arrived in Sweden in the mid-afternoon.  We had trouble getting our debit card to work at the Forex at the airport, but managed to get some cash via credit card.  Catching the shuttle into town was inexpensive and easy.  It was raining and the bus was very crowded, but our first glimpses of Sweden actually looked a lot like Canada. 

Although the walk from the shuttle stop to the hotel was actually short, with all of our luggage and the sleep deficit, it seemed to take an eternity.  When we arrived, check-in was very smooth and we found our room without any difficulty.

It is tiny!  A short entry hall contains some wall hooks and the door to the small, but clean and efficient bathroom.  There is no bathtub, only a shower, but it is very nice.  The rest of the room contains a small table with two chairs, and a bed tucked against three walls. 

A TV is mounted on the wall at the end of the bed, and there is a tiny closet on the other side of that wall.  The bed has no sheets for sleeping under, and each of us gets our own duvet.  Hilariously, there is one full pillow and one small pillow about the size of a throw cushion.  I’m not too sure about this sleeping arrangement, but I will be against the wall in the corner, which will require some climbing. 

Although exhausted, we were also starving, so we headed out and got some cash (with our debit card this time).  I really just wanted to eat dinner and go to bed, but it was around 4 pm, so we killed an hour by wandering through the downtown streets.  I am always amazed at my husband’s sense of direction.  Despite the exhaustion (he slept even less on the plane than I did), he managed to find the downtown core, and many restaurants.  When the clock struck five, we agreed it was reasonable to eat dinner.  We finally settled on a tapas bar called El Corazon.  It was tasty, but very expensive (400 SEK – almost $60) for the small amount of food.  It think eating out is just more expensive here than it is in Canada. 

Immediately after dinner, we returned to the hotel to go to bed.  We had originally intended to stay up till 9-ish to reset our internal clocks, but it was impossible.  My husband fell asleep shortly after 6 pm and I only lasted till 7 or so.

 

Things in Twos

P.R.O.C.R.A.S.T.I.N.A.T.I.O.N.

I can only blame my inconsistent blogging on 1. laziness and 2. too many projects, most of which are useless.

However, I have recently participated in two very useful projects:

1. Planning a trip to Europe (!) and

2. Buying a house (!!)

Before I tell you about those two awesomely useful (and time-consuming!) projects, I just want to take a quick sidebar to congratulate two amazing women who are not quite family, but I consider them to be part of my family.  They are both doing pretty awesome “crafty” things that are definitely not stupid.

1.  My soon-to-be sister-in-law, Caitlin

This is Caitlin.

She is going to marry my brother someday.  She just graduated at the top of her class from Vancouver Film School with her certification in Special Effects Makeup.  She won two separate awards for her achievement during her one year program!  Congratulations, Caitlin!  You can see all of her amazing work here.  And one sneak peek:

2. Lindsay Anderson, foodie extraordinaire

This is Lindsay.

Lindsay is one of those family friends whom I have literally known since birth.  While we are not technically related, I’m closer to her than any of my cousins, because we grew up in the same town, attending the same get-togethers, camping trips and schools.  A few days ago, she won the Richmond 365 contest, beating out over 1500 applicants for a paid food blogging job in Richmond, BC where she will eat at 365 different restaurants in 365 days and blog about each and every one of them!  Congratulations, Lindsay! We are so proud of you!  Check out her blog posts here.

And now, my two projects, the trip and the house:

1. Stupid Crafts Goes to Scandinavia!  I am actually in Scandinavia right now!  I am in Sweden!  I’ve been keeping a journal about it which means I am going to post a blog post for each day of the trip.  It isn’t very crafty, but it is what is going on in my life, so if you want to know about, you can read about it here.

Why am I in Scandinavia?  My awesome husband is attending an academic conference in Gothenburg/Goteborg, Sweden, and I was not about to let him travel to Europe without me!  After Sweden, we’re going to Denmark and then to Norway, where some of my relatives live.  Stay tuned for all of our Scandinavian adventures, or lack thereof.

2.  My house, Bernard Camden.  At the end of April, we bought a house.  Our first house!  His name is Bernard.  He is hideously ugly and my husband is infatuated. I am concerned about Bernard’s potential, even post-makeover, but he is located in an awesome neighbourhood and we are so excited to move in at the end of June.  I think I put too much emphasis on aesthetics anyways, so this should test my commitment to a life of substance.  I also feel that Bernard will provide me with endless project opportunities.  I foresee continued overcommitment in my future and I can’t wait!

 

Minute Monotonous Monday

After the barrage of posts this weekend, I’ll keep this Monday’s post to a minimum.  Making Thanksgiving dinner from scratch last week apparently took a toll on me because I was sick sick sick last Monday (why does that always happen on holidays?!), so that is my excuse for last week’s absence.  Here’s what my cross-stitch looks like this week:

I’ve actually reached the bottom of this panel!  Exhilarating!!

Wasn’t that thrilling?  (if you’re looking for something a little more scintillating, check out my Man Booker Project posts.)

 

The Man Booker Project Review #6: Half-Blood Blues

Of the six Man Booker prize nominees, I read Esi Edugyan’s Half-Blood Blues last.  Told from the perspective of Sid, a now-elderly American bass player who achieved some success in the 1930s, the entire novel consistently captures the dialect of the jazz culture.  Although Half-Blood Blues is set both in the early 1990s and at the cusp of WWII, Edugyan’s subtle prose connects the two eras seamlessly, making them equally compelling.

WWII is a difficult topic–it is frequently and famously chronicled in countless novels, and although never mundane, it has become challenging to provide a unique and compelling angle.  Edugyan succeeds entirely in this regard: her focus on the experience of black ex-pat musicians is original and thought-provoking.  The experience of Hiero, a half-black German, is haunting and subtly highlights the ways in which law was used to subjugate “half-bloods,” removing their citizenship and declaring them stateless persons. It is a significant historical thread that is frequently dropped.

From this portrayal emerges a striking scene of inhumanity that could easily have been overplayed, but was expertly and beautifully handled to great emotional impact.  The circumstances surrounding Edugyan’s characters could be prone to melodrama, but the novel lacks even a single overwrought detail.

Sid is portrayed as a straight-forward guy, but in fact, there is nothing simple about any of the relationships in the novel.  His connections with his bandmates, Chip and Hiero, as well as his romantic relationships, are complex and unpredictable.  Sid tells the story, but is unable to articulate a justification for all of his actions.  This rang true for me–human behaviour is frequently shaped by ambiguous and unspoken motivations.

Unlike some of the other Man Booker nominees, I felt the storytelling device of flipping between the two eras was well-balanced and smoothly integrated into the text.  The pace of the novel was not as quick as some of the other nominees, but never dragged.  Of special note is Edugyan’s ability to communicate through language the experience of playing and listening to music.  Despite my lack of musical sensibility, the notes and rhythms palpably exuded from the text.

Half-Blood Blues is a literary triumph.  It is accessible and interesting, but multidimensional and complex.  The imagery is powerful and evocative, the characters subtle and complicated.  Half-Blood Blues effortlessly carries the burdensome sadness of loss, and I would highly recommend it.

And the winner is…

L and I held a Man Booker meeting to decide which book we thought should win the Man Booker prize.  Independently, we drew up a list of the six books in an order from worst to best.  We met to compare lists, and it was unanimous!  Our lists were identical!  So here it is.. the unanimous Stupid Crafts Man Booker jury list:

6. Snowdrops by A.D. Miller

5. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

4. Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch

3. Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman

2. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

1. Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

For what it is worth, I feel that the top two were notably superior to the other four.  I would not be at all surprised to see Patrick deWitt win, and it would certainly be deserved–I enjoyed The Sisters Brothers immensely, and would even say I liked it a little more than Half-Blood Blues.  However, on the whole, I felt that Esi Edugyan’s novel was a more significant and impressive accomplishment.

I would love to discuss/debate our picks and the reasoning behind them, so feel free to comment on them here or on twitter!  I am interested to hear what you think.  Good luck to the nominees and I can’t wait to see who the real Man Booker jury picks on the 18th!

 

The Man Booker Project Review #5: Jamrach’s Menagerie

I am conflicted about Carol Birch’s Jamrach’s Menagerie.  Although difficult to get into at first, the second half of the novel is incredibly gripping–I read about 60% of the novel in a single sitting.  The story opens on Jaffy Brown, a small boy living in absolute poverty in coastal Victorian England.  Jaffy begins working for Jamrach, the owner of a fantastical menagerie of animals, and befriends another impoverished boy, Tim.  The boys eventually head out to sea hoping to locate a rumoured creature at the behest of one of Jamrach’s customers.

In the acknowledgements, Birch notes that this book re-imagines true historical events and characters, combining them in an entirely fictional way.  This decision lends tones of magic realism, usually an appealing and interesting quality, to the text. However, Birch’s choice of one significant true event makes the tale feel almost stale and lacking in originality.  Although her retelling is brutal, lyrical and captivating, her subject matter detracts from the effectiveness of the story as a whole.

Jamrach’s Menagerie is consistently written with a fluidity of style and depth of imagery that some of the other Man Booker nominees did not achieve. Some moments triggered deeply instinctual and physical reactions, an accomplishment in it’s own right, but enhanced by the skill with which it was executed–a skill that generally avoided the overwrought and explicit. Birch’s narrative decisions were justified, but for me the story lacked originality.  I felt disappointed that such unique and finely-honed writing skills were utilized to tell this particular tale.  While I was emotionally connected with all of the characters, I thought they deserved an equally intriguing and original setting.

You can see the source of my conflict–I loved the writing, appreciated the talent, but was exhausted by the subject matter.  I felt Birch ignored some really interesting narrative opportunities in order to pursue the true events she was inspired by.  Those events led her down a fantastical path, but one that fails to provide lasting literary excitement.

My irritation with the setting should not be confused with dislike for the novel as a whole–despite my frustrations with it, Jamrach’s Menagerie is an interesting and complex novel, which I would recommend reading. It is an achievement of emotional connection and human intimacy, with a plot that will keep most readers spell-bound.  Only when set within the wider canon of English literature does it lose some of its lustre.

 

The Man Booker Project Review #4: The Sisters Brothers

I have two confessions:

1. I didn’t think I would like Patrick deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers because it was branded as a Western.

2. I was dead wrong.

The Sisters Brothers is a hilarious dark comedy with wide appeal.  I found myself laughing out loud at several points and even read some segments aloud to my husband.  The tale focuses on two brothers, hired killers, heading out to do another “job” in California.  Charlie, the older brother, has a taste for his work, but Eli, from whose perspective the story is told, would rather marry and settle down to run a small shop. The tension between the two brothers’ plans adds momentum, hilarity, and moments of true heartache.

deWitt manages to derive rollicking humour from situations others could only portray as morose, gory or demoralising.  He achieves this not only through his concise, intelligent storytelling, but frequently uses literary structures to his advantage by ending sentences and chapters at opportune moments.  The modern structures provide a freshness to a genre that is otherwise viewed as outdated and overwrought.  Both dark humour and Westerns lend themselves to caricature, but deWitt’s characters are finely drawn, dynamic and multidimensional.  The novel is set in the Gold Rush days in California, but is both rooted in that historical period and thoroughly contemporary.

The ending of The Sisters Brothers felt ambiguous and sad, and in some ways was not the tidy, robust ending I anticipated.  I’m not sure whether this can be described as a fault; while a more predictable ending might be viscerally rewarding in that it leaves the reader with a sense of finality and redemption, the ending written by deWitt is a more challenging, thought-provoking ending, adding depth and colour to what might have otherwise become a cartoonish depiction.

In my opinion deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers is a complete success.  I would recommend it to most, although the overly squeamish might have difficulty with a few passages, the humourous writing and compelling characters will convince the majority of readers to continue.  The Sisters Brothers is imaginative, hilarious, thoughtful and surprising.  I couldn’t ask for more.

 

We now interrupt the book reviews for…

Have you seen this trailer?  It is for a movie called “Man on a Ledge” which sounds suspiciously like “Snakes on a Plane.”

Perhaps we could do two mash-ups and get the thrilling, but likely very short (possibly animated to avoid PETA complaints) film: “Snakes on a Ledge” and the seat-gripping, white-knuckle thriller, “Man on a Plane.”  That is all.

 

The Man Booker Project Review #3: The Sense of an Ending

At a mere 160 pages, Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending is a brief foray into the mind of a now retired man, which opens in a recollection of his schooldays.  As the story progresses, the focus shifts away from concrete experiences and towards a more philosophical reflection on the subjective intersection of memory, history and relationships.  As a result of his experiences, the protagonist realizes the fluidity of history and the significant impact of our own mindsets on our understandings of the past.

Barnes is an accomplished author and the text shines with a depth of thought and a precision of language.  At times, the prose becomes deeply philosophical, which might discourage some readers, but the brevity of the text as a whole keeps the novel from drowning in its own musings.  The protagonist is an almost exceptionally ordinary sort of man, the type we often don’t read about in novels because they are too commonplace. This factor assists in providing realism to a plot that might otherwise drift beyond the realms of believability.

Without revealing any details, in my opinion, the ending of this book was unsuccessful.  The plot takes a sudden turn, that felt almost sensationalist and “tacked on” to the prior text.  It was almost as if an editor sent Barnes back with the original manuscript and asked him to add something a little more shocking.  To some, without its current ending, the novel might seem thoughtful, but meandering and lacking in that “it” factor that makes a bestseller.  However, I thought the ending cheapened the overall experience of the book, which was otherwise a thought-provoking and engaging experience.

The Sense of an Ending is not for everyone.  Those who are uninterested in metaphysical musings shouldn’t bother with this one, but those who are willing to tackle some interesting questions on the subjectivity of the past will find this a worthwhile read.