Thursday, August 28, 2008

Pictures from Vadstena, Sweden

My brain is fried. I have spent the day trying to find a job. And applying for various jobs. And it is frustrating and exhausting all at the same time. Due to the ridiculous amount of time I have spent on my job search over the last couple of days nothing exciting has really happened. At least nothing worth writing home about.

So in lieu of any sort of actual post about boobs in the elevator, my immaturity, or even immigration reform, you get a post full of pictures from a recent day trip to Vadstena. A lovely little town on the shore of Lake Vättern. And of course, the holy site of Heliga Birgitta. St. Bridget of Sweden. Patron saint of Europe if you were wondering (you would think I was really religious the way I am drawn to churches). Anyway, I’ll spare you the history lesson, although her fifth book of revelations makes for a lovely six months worth of research and writing about rebuke, rationality, and reason.

And now… the pictures.



Vadstena Kyrka from graveyard. Consecrated in 1430. Built according to one of the 700 visions Birgitta is said to have experienced.










One of Vadstena Castles towers from the bridge over the moat. Yup... there's a moat. One of the best preserved castles from the Vasa era.









View of Vadstena Castle from the shore of Lake Vättern.










The streets of Vadstena. Not exactly a bustling metropolis in this medieval town.










Birgitta's coffin. She was a little woman apparently. This thing made the trip from Rome to Vadstena in 1373.











And of course, one of my favorite Swedish signs. Don't drive into the water.





Welcome to Vadstena, Sweden.

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8 comments:

  1. Nice pictures, those streets didnt seem busy at all as you said, though extremly clean.

    If you really are into castles, churches and other old things i think either Visby or Lund will give you some experiences.

    Also u can pretty much drive random in Skåne and find churches each 10 min or so by the roads. Though as i'm neither religious or that into churches, yet, i cant say if its worth it.

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  2. Hi! I am (tentatively) going to study at Uppsala University next year, and found you while looking for a Swedish blogger. Amazingly (haha), I've found most Swedish bloggers write in Swedish. I'm still learning Swedish, so I was very excited when I found your blog!
    So anyway, you'll probably see me comment every once in a while, so I thought I would introduce myself.
    And I love that last picture! Too funny :D.

    -Jessica

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  3. Loved the pictures! It brought back memories of my family in Motola. Vadstena was the first place my cousin Sven (yes, I know it sounds fake - but it is true) brought us on our whirlwind tour of local sites and family history. Makes me want to go back. Thanks!

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  4. @anonymous - glad you liked the pictures.

    and visby and lund are pretty impressive places. gotta love the old stuff.

    it's true, it seems the farther south you go the more ol churche. probably because of the way the country became christian and the population density.

    @jessica - yeah most of them do write in swedish. but check out a few of my links to the left. there are a couple of bloggers here in sweden that write in english.

    and you shoud definitely make the uppsala thing happen. it's an amazing city and being an exchange student is great. and I think they might even have a nice little water sign there too.

    @dave - glad you liked the pictures also. and trust me, after being here for over a year, no swedish name is too swedish.

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  5. the reason the coffin was so small is that it only contained the bones of her. if what i heard is correct they boiled the body so the flesh fell off the bones ... this was apperantly a common practise among rich and famous that needed to transport corpses long distanses at the time.

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  6. To be "really religious" is nothing to be ashamed of.

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  7. you're right. I am not a religious person at all and need to be better about not immediately reacting negatively to religion.

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