I mentioned in an earlier piece that I like visiting different types of museums. Art is fine, but sometimes there’s too much art. You know what I mean? Especially modern art. Pretentious [expletive deleted] stuff does not move my needle of interest.
It just so happens that Stockholm has a bevy of museums that cater to wildly different interests. From music to ancient ships, you can scratch just about any itch that you may have. The best part is that these are things that you will actually want to see. I’m being 100% serious here. There are numerous places around the world you are told you need to see, but they end up being duds. Two out of the three places I am going to take you through are not those places. The third is a bit more niche, and your mileage may vary in terms of how you feel about electronic music, so it may or may not be a stop for you.
Our first “museum”, I put it in quotes because it is a museum in the loosest of terms, was The AVICII Experience. If you didn’t know, or forgot, Avicii was a Swedish DJ who made a giant splash with his hit “Levels,” which sampled Etta James’ “Something’s Got A Hold On Me.” He tragically took his own life in 2018. This experience is a walk through his childhood, his early DJing and mixing, and his ultimate rise to fame.
This photo was from his set at Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in 2012. I’m including it because I was there. No, I can’t find myself in that photo, but I was there for some of his set. I remember hearing Levels and dancing around, feeling the beat in my chest because the speakers pound you with the music.
The reason this post is coming so late after my previous entry about Stockholm is that I have been trying to find my older external hard drives containing my photos from that Coachella. Because, while I was “feeling myself,” I still took photos and remembered the giant head on the stage and Avicii doing his thing. And after days of digging through other hard drives and boxes, I found it!
It was quite the experience to walk around and see his childhood room, the different studios where he worked, and the impact he has had on others.
They also had a few interactive components. Along with photos and videos, you could listen to audio from Tim (Avicii’s real name) and those closest to him as they describe his artistic process and what he was like to work with. You could also create your own mix of one of his popular tracks, and you could stand on stage, behind the turntables, and bring out your inner DJ. Those were some of the highlights of the experience.
But what really got me was at the end. I mentioned earlier that you could see the impact Tim left on his fans and the music community at large at this experience. It wasn’t until the end, as we were leaving, that I saw it in black and white. There was a guestbook that people from all over the world signed, thanking Tim for his music and presence. Seeing that and reading what people wrote really hit me profoundly.
If you didn’t know, Tim took his own life after years of battling with addiction and mental illness. He was only 28 years old. That’s way too young. The pain he was feeling was too much, and it seemed like he felt that there was only one way to manage it. I have no shame in sharing that I, too, have struggled with my mental health. Seeing a therapist and getting on medication has truly helped me in profound ways, and I don’t know where I’d be without it. So, if you or anyone you know is struggling, please reach out. There are people in your life, and professionals, who are willing to help you.
After being emotionally impacted, I hate to say it, but it was time for a drink.
Enter Icebar Stockholm.
If you’ve made it this far through my Stockholm series and are a fan of certain travel shows, you might be noticing a pattern in our points of interest. My partner told me about the TV show The IT Crowd (it’s hilarious, btw, and I need to keep watching it) and that one of the actors on it hosted a travel show. Richard Ayoade hosts the first few seasons (or series if you’re British) of the travel show Travel Man. The premise is that he has 48 hours to spend in a European city or another part of the world, and he brings along another comedian to make it colorful. The show highlights spots that are not always the most popular or obscure, yet remain engaging.
Meatballs for the People, the narrow street and the lodged cannonball from my last post were highlighted in his Stockholm episode, so was the Icebar and the final museum that will show up in this piece. Safe to say, the show gets it right. These were great spots to visit!
You can probably guess what the Icebar is – it’s a bar made of ice. You make a booking, don some gloves and a poncho, and make your way into the subzero (-5℃, 23℉) saloon. I believe the booking included a drink in a solid-ice shooter. The drink was tasty, and looking around at all of the ice sculptures and structures was really fun and interesting.
Some people cannot handle the cold. We entered shortly after a couple, and they were in there for maybe five or ten minutes before they left. We had the place to ourselves and took advantage of the space, taking a plethora of goofy photos. After we finished our drinks, it was time ot head to our next destination.
From the frozen confines of the Icebar, to the frozen in time Vasa.
The Vasa is the only almost fully intact 17th-century ship currently on display. There could be other ones out there in the world, but you can’t visit them on dry land! Walking up to the museum highlights the enormity of what you are about to see. The structure is massive, as I said, and it’s easy to see why once we step inside.
I am not sure if the photos do the ship justice. You can see people at the base of the ship, off in the distance, or right next to it, to help provide a bit of scale, but it still does not seem to illustrate how impressive the ship is. It’s also amazing to see this ship nearly fully intact and see the work that was put in by humans in the 17th century to build this damn thing.
It’s mind-boggling, if I’m honest. From the intricate inlays to the levels on levels built to house the crew, it was impressive. The Vasa is a must-see attraction for anyone visiting Stockholm, and so is our final museum!
I have a memory from my childhood that is so vivid. There I was, sitting at my Aunt and Uncle’s house on Thanksgiving, watching the Cowboys or Lions play football. The game was getting out of hand (aka a blowout was underway), and my uncle sauntered over to his sound system and pressed a few buttons. What came through the speakers was none other than Sweden’s own (and Norway’s, ahem, Frida) ABBA. I was so shocked that I did not know how to process it. My uncle danced around the room for a minute and then went back to the kitchen.
The ABBA Museum is another stop on the Travel Man tour, and it was also a spot that we knew we wanted to visit before we watched the Stockholm episode. ABBA was and is huge. I mean, you don’t get a stage musical and two subsequent movie-musicals made about you if you are not immensely popular. I have always enjoyed ABBA. I’m not a superfan by any means, but I understand their importance to many people around the world. The Eurovision singing competition is the reason that they exploded, and they kept on cooking.
The museum was a tour through their start at Eurovision, their rise to fame, and their current status as music legends.
Oh, and there were costumes. Lots and lots of costumes.
It was really fun to walk through ABBA’s various eras and see how they evolved and continued to make music that spoke to millions of people.
Toward the end of the tour, you could take a look at some memorabilia from the movie Mamma Mia!, which, until our flight home, I had not seen. You see, it came out the same weekend as The Dark Knight in 2008. I made different priorities.
I tagged Pierce Brosnan in that photo on my social media, but did not hear back from him—sad face emoji.
I really found the entire museum experience to be one that catered to the hardcore/diehard fans as well as those who were just normal fans.
The line to get in was long. The ticket takers staggered the entrance, even if you had a timed entry, and it was still a bit of a wait. So I would advise anyone visiting to make sure they allocate enough time for waiting and experiencing the museum. This isn’t something that you want to rush through. That should be said for all of these places we visited, but if you love pop music history, then you should say gimme gimme gimme a ticket to the ABBA museum.
