Lost in wilderness
Silver waves.
Though the post office was the ultimate deal clincher, the Åland Islands by themselves have some interesting facts that might intrigue you!
This little known beauty is an autonomous, Swedish-speaking, Finnish province with a German name!!! Apparently, in the days of yore(!), when political power was being transferred from Russia to Finland, Åland voted that they be ceded to Sweden. Not too kicked by this request, Finland however, made them an autonomous state, allowing them to follow their own culture and tradition, have their own government and keep Swedish as their official language. In addition, Ålanders get their own flag, their own stamps and even their own web ID!! - (.AX). And you can transact in Swedish Kroners everywhere - even in temporary stalls at open markets! What a mature way of handling land dispute! UN, are you listening? Can we have delegates from Finland and Åland visit Srilanka, Pakistan, Israel, Russia and China please??!!!
Btw, the name 'Åland' is derived from the German word "Ahavaland", meaning "land of water".
Being an overcareful (well.. sometimes) Indian gal travelling alone, I did some pro-active homework. I researched on the cheapest way to get to Mariehamn, the captial city, went one week early to check out the bus stop from where i had to take a bus to Grisselhamn. The bus-driver who gave me the instructions was impressed! 1 day before the travel, on a rainy Thursday, I went back to the bus stop and waited for the bus to Grisselhamn. As soon as it stopped, I asked the driver if they would still ply the next day, as there was to be a Stockholm-wide bus strike. He said they would still ply. Check! Impressed bus driver no. 2!
I called my host in Mariehamn, Susanne. She is the sweetest darling you can meet. She said that she would be happy to have me, inspite of the short notice and even offered to pick me up from the bus stop! Check!
Next day, on Friday evening, I board the bus to Grisselhamn. Ordinarily, it would have been a quiet ride, given the fact that Swedes follow the 'don't talk to strangers' rule diligently. But, what do you know? The girl sitting next to me, started chatting after she heard me speaking over the phone in English. She was an Ålander who was educated in South Africa. She had some real amusing stories to tell! The best one, that I never tire repeating at parties was the one where she got written permission, signed by the school principal, to allow her to come to school without a tie and jacket (the compusory school uniform) as she was from Scandinavia and the heat would kill her! Hee Hee! Funny huh? (She's now on my facebook!)
As promised, Susanne met me at the bus stop. You have no idea what it feels like to be travelling alone for the first time to a place whose language you don't speak and be met by a lovely native. Your nerves are immediately calm. Susanne had that effect on me. All the remaining apprehensions were gone when I met her family - Per, Emma and the 2 cats. They were all so easy to talk to and such loving people.
The next morning, I set out on my own. Susanne made sure I carried her address and telephone numbers.
Mariehamn isn't very huge. There is a small but modern city center, a very big library and a fancy post office. Ah yes! The post office. First of all, it is designed to look like a boutique. They sell stamps, postcards, t-shirts, sweatshirts, memorabilia and even plant seeds!! And the best part - the one that won the heart of this ardent stamp collector from India? You can make your own stamps!!! Yep!! So, if you are a narcissist, all you have to do, is give them a picture of yourself and say you want that as a stamp and you actually get it!! And it is a valid stamp that you can put on a letter and mail off! I'm not kidding! So, there I was talking to the lady, trying to handover a CD full of JPG PPTs that I wanted on stamps. I was there to create my own stamps! But ofcourse, if everything went as planned, Uncle Murphy and his law would be redundant. His law loves me! I was very politely told that I have to place my order online, pay for it and come to the PO 2 weeks later only to pick it up! And no, she wasn't aware of any exceptions. Not to give up easily, I asked her for directions to the library. I walked as fast as i could.
The library was huge. I'm telling you - Swedes love to read. During the entire 20 minutes for which I had the internet, the PO website was unavailable! Damn Murphy's law!
Disappointed, I decided to walk around the rest of the city center. The police station caught my attention. It looked more like a hotel than a police station. From the street, I could see fancy, modern interiors with lots of glass and soft lighting. Hardly, the atmosphere for a police station. My mind started picturing policewomen with their feet up, filing their nails while the policemen kept busy at their Xbox. They must be the most bored police personnel in the whole world given the fact that the crime rate in Mariehamn is almost non-existent!
If you've been to America, you'll understand what huge parking-lots mean. Have you seen those endless spaces outside of prime outlets and big supermarkets marked out for cars to park? Well.. Mariehamn has its own answer to such a vast parking lot, only much larger! And it is in water rather than land. Endless stretches of boats parked alongside its shores, is an easy part of Åland's landscape!
An acquittance timed it perfectly and called me just then and suggested that I join her and her 3 friends in her speedboat to one of the islands in the archipelago. And that's what I did. Head out on a speedboat to one of the many uninhabited island. The shoreline on this island was amazing. It was a mix of blue water, green moss and red rocks. I learnt later from Per, that the red rocks were the reason for the red in the flag of Åland. We decided to walk along the shore of the island and covered it entirely in just under 2 hours. I cannot recall the name of the island, but it reminded me of all the Famous Five books that I had read.
Oh btw, whilst on the way back, I learnt a few lessons on fishing (the hard way!!). One of the guys wanted to fish in these waters. So, here we were, 4 of us in a little boat eagerly waiting for some fish to take the bait. What does this guy do? He flung the line far into the sea in such an awkward manner that it swung around and landed on my ass! Ooooh! That was painful. I spent the rest of the trip back to Mariehamn, rubbing my hurting ass!
For all you you beer guzzlers and great fans of the dark Guiness Lager, here's the secret behind its 'flavour'.
Big deal!! Guiness still tastes like water mixed with burnt saw dust!!
Swedish Newspapers must carry the most gripping stories and spell binding articles in the world. How else can you explain one guy picking up all four newspapers laid out on the plane, for a journey that would last only one hour?
Or that every commuter whether he/she is on a plane, train, bus or taxi is engrossed in a newspaper?
I sympathise with the Swedish public transport service. They arrange seats in buses and trains facing each other in an attempt to get the Swedes to socialise but looks like those efforts are going down the drain!
Then...
Yes...there's more.
Kudos!
But when I walked into the narrow alley on the opposite side, I knew I was walking into history. 
It was Stenbastugränd, the oldest street in Stockholm. The street itself, extremely narrow, is paved with stone slabs in the centre and cobble stones on the sides.
I found one of the iron doors in the street open. A smart landlord had rented the basement of this old building to a tattoo parlour. Down the staircase, I went, into a dimly lit cavernous room. The floors and ceilings were uneven and the room didn’t really have any particular shape. Just some random divisions. The owner took one look and guessed I wasn’t potential business and went right back to his customer sitting in front of him after an effusive greeting.
If you thought this is a plan from an architect's ad campaign, you are wrong. This is reality. A recent bus strike in Stockholm, forced me to take a long winded, 40 minute walk to the metro station. Though I was pissed off the first morning that I had to walk so much, the evening was different. I decided to walk "between the houses" rather than take the main road. And that was when I discovered that I lived in a very beautiful locality. The pic above, is the block behind our building. What a beauty!
Here's the path I took to reach the metro station.
And now that I leave the house earlier than 7.10, I even get to spot some animal life. Deer, rabbits.. The strangest thing is, the hares are just not afraid of you. They stay right where they do, even when you are just inches away from them. And check out the fruit bearing trees to the left.
