Stockholm, Sweden: On Assignment

We just returned from a brief trip to Stockholm, 3 days to be exact. S was needed in her new role as artist assistant to help complete a piece at the residency program IASPA. We left Berlin Monday morning with a tripod, a video camera, and prepared to explore a new city

Sweden is a rather wealthy country, with a high standard of living and everything is expensive as a result. However, most everyone speaks perfect English along with Swedish and probably a handful of other languages. So we did not have trouble navigating after we figured out just how much money we needed to convert, first taking out 300 Kroner a piece then 700 Kroner more just to be safe. We caught an express train from the airport into the city center and entered into the great labyrinth that is Stockholm's subway tunnel system. I assume that Stockholm receives a lot of snow and winter weather during the year, as a result there are entire sections of the city that you can navigate underground through the subway tunnels without every seeing the light of day. Many of these tunnels have been created to resemble a network of caves and decorated with ornate murals and tile work (see above photo).



Sweden is an ancient port city located about halfway up the coast of Sweden where a river meets the ocean. It is a very old city, having never been bombed in either of the two World Wars, with buildings dating back to the 1600's and a history of viking inhabitants (or at least that is what all of the souvenir shops would have you believe). A hotel was arranged for us near the city center and the residency program was located a few subway stations on the other side of the river. Upon arriving in town we stopped at a Max Burger for lunch. This was my first fast food experience in years, but the food looked relatively fresh. This Swedish hamburger chain was very concerned with maintaining an image above your average McDonald's, they had an Express option where you could order your food from a computer and then retrieve it from the express line. In the regular line you chose from a simple menu with a lot of dipping sauces where they listed the amount of CO2/carbon offsets that you were purchasing with each meal. I can only assume to compensate for the consequences of factory farming and mass transit that are necessary for a fast food chain. Anyway, I guess you could say they sold "guilt-free" burgers. [Correction: with a little more research I have learned that they are listing the amount of carbohydrates on their menu, but the first impression is funnier.]



We then headed back into the tunnel system because S needed to meet WN at his studio and get to work. After years of navigating subways in several different countries our learning curve is pretty high. Even with all of the signs in Swedish we found the correct platform, luckily numbers and colors are a universal language. Sweden is also home to another 'universal' language, IKEA. IKEA is an amazing store that sells modern, modular home furnishings. They do not just sell furniture, they sell "solutions for living". If you have never been to an IKEA store I highly recommend it just for the experience alone. Anyway, here in the land of IKEA they were running an impressive new design for an ad campaign that consisted of a series of larger than life portraits, where the persons face is made up of small pieces of furniture from their catalog of every color and shape. These lined the subway lines and were all over the city, but I digress...



[Spoiler Alert: Stockholm may not be for those with weak stomachs.] While we were waiting on the platform photographing IKEA posters something entirely unexpected happened. About 40 feet away someone fell onto the train tracks. We heard a loud THUD, then people yelling and scrambling about. Before anyone knew what to do you could hear the train coming down the tunnel, everyone leaned over the tracks and started waiving their arms in both directions. The man stood up and was obviously dazed, blood was dripping down the back of his head and he managed to lean over to the platform where 4 or 5 people pulled him out just as the train stopped short of where he was standing. It was unclear how it happened, whether he was pushed, drunk, or has a poor sense of depth perception. Unfortunately, on my second day in the city I was standing on a platform where the victim was not so lucky. As I sat down on the bench, everyone else jumped up and gasped. All I saw was the train stop short on the tracks and the driver with his head in his hands. I have also heard that in Scandinavia, with its nearly 24 hours of daytime and 24 hour nights, the rate of suicide is quite high. Let's just leave it at that.



Maybe this fountain of mythical creatures, can help turn around the mood of this story. Either way, this is the fountain that greeted us as we arrived near the residency. We met up with WN and he gave us a tour of the facilities. After dropping off the camera equipment we went to our hotel, ran several errands to gather materials, they got to work and I wandered around the city, then we all met up at a Chinese restaurant for a meal and a night-cap.



On the second day, S spent the entire day working and I caught up on some reading around the fountain. We met for lunch then I took off see the Modern Art Museum, located on a small island in the middle of the city. I exited the train a little early so I could walk past the Royal Palace, then followed this bridge with the golden crown over to the island with the museum. The island looked like a colonial park with buildings resembling Monticello and a large sailing ship docked nearby. I was under the impression that the island was the geographic and historical center of the city. The exhibitions at the Modern Museum were not disappointing, and they have the largest collection of Duchamp work in the world (for anyone interested). After I bought a $3.50 can of coca-cola I headed over to the central station and the Kulturhuset, Stockholm's cultural center complex.



This area is a hub of activity, where people walk across the black and white triangles all day long or just sit on the adjoining stairs as if watching a parade of the latest fashions from the nearby designer boutiques. The Kulturhuset is a five story modern glass fortress that houses a theater, a comic book story, the city library, several galleries, a dance club and much much more. It is the Swedish equivalent to what the Palast der Republik could have been for Berlin, but that gets into the politics of former East Berlin and communist governments, so I'll just use pictures.


Kulturhuset, Stockholm


Palast der Republik, Berlin circa 1980 (currently being demolished)

I ate dinner in the cafe at the top of the Kulturhuset, then rode the subway around for a while and went back to meet S at the residency. We stayed late into the evening to finish what they had begun because we were scheduled to catch a flight the next morning, even though the Olympic Ping-Pong games on the TV in our hotel room nearly made us late.

New Rad

Bikes in Berlin are Rad, well they are called Rad. It is short for Fahrrad.

I bought a new bike today check it out.

Day Three: Fri. June 6th -Freiburg

Before I continue with this next part of our journey I would like to give a bunch of background information of why we went to Freiburg in the first place. To do this, I have to explain my genealogy...which means shedding my pseudonym "S" for awhile and referring to myself with my full name, Sarrita Hunn [*gasp!* you didn't know it was me, did you!? : ) ].

Some of this information I knew before the trip and some because of the trip, but the story goes something like this...A German named Helmut Hunn became a sort of country records clerk for a small four-village office just north of Freiburg. With daily access to the records, he decided to do a bunch of genealogy research on his family who had been living in the area for as long as anyone could remember. He discovered that a few generations back a whole wing of the family moved to the United States and ended up around St. Louis. Helmut contacted someone he knew in St. Louis to get the information listed for all 'Hunns' in the phone book for that area. After a few years and a few letters later, my Dad's cousin Ramona (who I believe was already doing genealogy for our family on this end...?) ended up writing Helmut back and an exchanged ensued.

From my side, my Dad's family had always been aware of the German heritage (I mean, how much more of a German name can you have besides Hunn, right?)...and it was said that even though the Hunns has been in the States for a few generations, they mostly married other Germans (until my generation) and so my great-grandparent's still spoke German. Maybe I am making all this up, and someone can correct me, but that is what I remember from family conversations.... anyway ...from my side, I knew that my great-great-greatgrandfather was the first German to moved to the States (around 1828). From me it is my Dad (Paul), Grandpa (Norbert), Great-Grandpa (Vernon), Great-GreatGrandpa (Richard)...and Joseph Hunn, who moved outside St. Louis (where my Grandpa grew up) from Germany.

OK, let's see if we can still follow this....it turns out that this Joseph "that moved to St. Louis" Hunn was the Grandson (I believe, but maybe Great-Grandson) of Anton Hunn (born 1779) in Germany. We are descendants of Anton Hunn's and Helmut's side of the family are descendants of Anton's brother Paulus Hunn...and, of course, we share their father who was named Johann Konrad Hunn.

Anton had 4? kids, one was another Joseph Hunn....the father of 11 kids, one of which was Joseph "who moved to St. Louis" Hunn....but actually, according to the records, most (if not all) of Joseph I's kids moved to the States and most (if not all) moved to the St. Louis area...and so, it was really an expansion of that whole side of the family on that side of the ocean.

Are you following me so far?
OK. From the German side....Paulus Hunn had a son (also) named Josef Hunn. Josef had 2 sons named Michael and Johann. Michael's Great-Great-Granddaugter was Maria Hunn and Johann's Great-Grandson was Martin Hunn. Maria Hunn and Martin Hunn married (which was convenient since they already had the same last name) and they are Helmut's parent's. Helmut also has two sisters Irene and Lydia.

So, to summarize, my Dad and his brothers and sister are roughly the same generation on the US side as Helmut and his sisters on the German side. We have a common ancestry in two brothers, Paulus and Anton...one whose decedents mostly stayed in Germany, and one whose decedents mainly left Germany and came to St. Louis.

whew. Well that's enough for now...but all of this will be discussed further in the following posts.

To go back to our trip, one of my main goals when in Germany was to visit these distant Hunn relations. Shortly before leaving Missouri I was in contact with Irene, who happened to be in St. Louis on a business trip (her Freiburg-based company happen to open a field office there about 3 years ago!) but I missed her there. But, once in Germany I corresponded with her to arrange this visit. She had worked as a translator so is a very good English speaker.

When arriving in Freiburg Irene, and her husband Willi, meet us at the train station and immediately gave a us a quick tour of the city.


Here is R and I upon arriving in Freiburg, walking into the old part of the city.


Here is R, Irene and Willi.


R and a city street in Freiburg. You can start to notice the little water gutters on the right of the street. These are all through out the old part of the city and Freiburg is very famous for them. There is a saying in Freiburg that if you visit the city and accidentally fall into the stream, you will end up marrying a girl from Freiburg. Willi, who is originally from Bavaria, said that happened to him and that is why he and Irene got married.


No, 1120 is not the address of the building...it is the date of the original building... that was then rehauled in 1995.


The Freiburg Cathedral (going through some reconstruction)


I believe that Irene said this was the oldest hotel in Freiburg. You can get a sense of the native architecture.


In addition to little gutters, the city is also full of river/canal systems. Lots of water everywhere.




Willi works for the University of Freiburg, one of the oldest universities in Germany (founded in 1457), whose notable alumni and professors have included Hannah Arendt, Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. As a special treat he took us to the highest tower of the school to have a great view overlooking the city. The picture above overlooks Freiburg (to the West I believe). I think the distant mountain is the Kaiserstühl, which I will discuss later.

Update: Spotted at Obama's Berlin speech

(click for larger image)

We have been scanning any image of Barack Obama's speech in Berlin that we run across in the press to see if we can find ourselves in the crowd of visitors that gathered at the Column to hear him speak. The best we have come across so far was a photo that showed my ear and S's hair. However, I just found an image that places me at the event and in the frame with Sen. Obama. Well, myself and about 5,000 other people but you CAN identify me in this one. Take a look...no over there...nope, a little lower...




Yes, I am right there >>>>>>


I'll have to admit I have kind of a strange expression on my face but it is hard to describe the emotions that I was feeling at that moment in time. First of all we have almost entirely given up on the American political system after the past two elections and have been avidly following this one since January, shortly after we moved to Germany. In fact following along with these elections and specifically this campaign has become how we are able to stay connected with America from thousands of miles away. Then, the opportunity to participate first-hand in this process presented itself unexpectedly and came to our doorstep here in Berlin. Literally, just on the other side of the Brandenburg Gates. And finally, we were sharing this experience with thousands of people from all over the world (which includes America) who came here to support Sen. Obama and a new direction for America.

This photograph was taken just seconds after I was crushed in a wave of people trying to reach Barack and shake his hand as he passed the gates in front of the stage. It was a perfect model of how a wave passes through water or sound passes through air demonstrated at a human scale. Thousands of bodies started to gather, then compress, then contract as he walked by. It is a moment that was entirely chaotic yet equally ordered by laws of natural forces. I had not attempted to fight for a handshake. This photo was taken at the moment I turned to the tall man next to me from Wales, with the Elvis hair, and he told me that he got to shake Barack's hand. So in turn I asked him if I could shake that hand. We did and I said 'thanks'.

This photo is from the portfolio of the Obama campaigns official photographer. There are hundreds of impressive photos (whether you like Obama or not) on her site documenting the campaign from "The Early Days" through the "General Election".

Click here for her website Scout Tufankjian.

Beach Day 2008

I hope to return to our trip log soon...but it has finally gotten warm here in Berlin...a few days it was 90...so we have been trying to take advantage of this short lived heat and hit the lake!



This is Wannsee Strandbad, which is only about 45 minutes from our house on the S-Bahn. European beaches are slightly different than US beaches. For one thing, about one third of this beach is marked off as 'nude beach'. No cameras allowed! So, I don't have pics of that...but also, kids are around everywhere partially or totally nude, most men wear speedos and for women tops are optional.

UPDATE: It wasn't just us...

...who found the picture of Obama on a bicycle from the woman next to us amusing. So did Stephen Colbert. Watch the intro...