The Sunday Times May 22, 2022 3Fifty years ago my fiancé and I set out for
a campsite in Brittany with my childhood
back-garden tent, which had no attached
groundsheet. After an evening of mussels
and wine we retired to our tiny tent. All
went well until the morning, when I
awoke, nightdress awry, under the guy
ropes of a big Dutch tent, in full view of
those having breakfast. The memory
still entertains my husband and me.
Dr Gillian Vanhegan, London
FLYING IN THE FACE OF
Georgia Stephens’s article sums up
how I feel about flying “post-pandemic”
(“I’d never fly with Covid — but am I in
the minority?”, last week). Crowded
airports can’t be safe spaces, and no
airline will convince me that the air in
any aircraft is truly clean and safe — it’s
not as though you can open the window.
The answer for European travel is surely
to take a train. It is certainly less hassle,
with more luggage allowance, and is
also more comfortable and relaxing.
Ian Smith, South AyrshireStephens is correct that many people
are selfish enough to get on a plane
knowing they have Covid. But she
misses an even bigger point — most
people in the UK do not have test kits
now that they have to be paid for, so
there is even less need to feel bad about
putting other people at risk of serious
illness. Travellers who suspect they may
have Covid could simply not do a test
and convince themselves that they just
have a cold or hay fever. How sad that
we have not learnt from this pandemic
to be more thoughtful and considerate
of others who may be more vulnerable
than ourselves.
Wendy Nichols, BuckinghamshireA fresh zest for life has gripped the Swedish capital —
but Nato deliberations loom large, says Maddy Savage
COVER PHOTOGRAPH: ROSSHELEN/GETTY IMAGESFOTOVOYAGER/GETTY IMAGESSTOCKHOLM
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fresh breeze plays on my face
as I cycle over the Liljeholm
Bridge, with the glistening
blue waters of Lake Malaren
below and the spice-coloured
shoreline apartments glowing in the
sunshine. This is the westerly touchpoint
of Sodermalm, a former industrial
inner-city island that’s now a playground
for gentrified creatives and foodies.
There’s only one bike ahead of
me, and as I get closer I notice that
it’s being pedalled by a super-trim
pensioner towing his smiling wife
in an open-topped buggy. Such
zany moments are rare in the
Swedish capital, which prides
itself on conformity and calmness,
yet there has been a noticeable new
zest for life in the city since Covid
restrictions were lifted in the spring.
While there was never a lockdown
here, nightclubs were largely closed for
two years. So last month dancefloors were
pulsing well before 11pm at a new DJ night
at Sodra Teatern, a 19th-century hilltop
building near Sodermalm’s northern
shores. The sometimes shy, sometimes
too-cool-for-school Stockholmers that
frequent these parts seemed to be much
more open to chatting to strangers than
when I last partied here, pre-Covid.
The city’s entertainment industry is
banking on this vibe continuing, with
posters for long-awaited gigs and festivals
plastered on billboards across the capital.
But finding staff has been hard for some
venues — many Swedish bar and events
workers didn’t laze around while they
were on furlough; they made the most
of the country’s free adult education and
retrained as healthcare workers or even
learnt to code.
My cycle ride continues, zigzagging
across Tantolunden Park, where a group
of school pupils in high-vis vests are
practising using skipping ropes. Two
twentysomething men do pull-ups at
a wooden outdoor gym and there’s a
women’s walking group wearing zip-off
trousers and clutching hiking poles.
When a friend visited from London
recently she asked whether all this open-
air activity was an extension of Covid-
cautious outdoor socialising. My answer
was no; Swedes have embraced an
outdoor lifestyle for centuries. The earlyA flood
of people
mourn
the shift
away from
Sweden’s
neutral,
peaceful
identityAbove, street life
in the old town
district of Gamla
Stan, belowsummer double-digit temperatures here
are welcomed by even the hardiest of
locals, who are pleased to reintroduce
picnics, late-night swims and camping
trips into their healthy repertoires.
There is a dark undercurrent to the
renewed buzz, though. The ink is barely
dry on Sweden’s application to join Nato,
upending more than two centuries of
military non-alignment in the face of
Russian aggression. It has been a divisive
decision, but polls suggest that the
move is backed by almost 60 per cent
of Swedes, compared with less than
40 per cent before the invasion of
Ukraine. A charity worker tells me
that she’s still in shock and her
social-media feed is a flood of
outpourings from emotional friends
mourning the shift away from the
nation’s neutral, peaceful identity. But
overall the response is pragmatic.
Magdalena Andersson, the prime
minister, believes that the country
needs to adapt to the new mood music
in Europe, and people here agree; or at
least that’s what they’re saying in public
— deep political debates are usually
taboo in Sweden, unless you’re among
your closest friends. There are other,
safer topics to discuss, such as whether
Cornelia Jakobs, who represented
Sweden at Eurovision last weekend,
was robbed of a win (I disagree).
I join friends for an evening run to
Djurgarden, the city’s biggest public
park. The Abba museum is here too and,
with the sun still high in the sky at 7pm,
tourists are out drinking bubbly on the
terrace of Pop House, its adjacent hotel.
A short stroll up the road the band
member Björn Ulvaeus will next month
launch a children’s circus show based
on characters from one of the country’s
other popular cultural exports, the Pippi
Longstocking books of Astrid Lindgren.
Looping back towards the city centre,
there is a line of black cars waiting
outside the ornate Grand Hôtel guarded
by police. Andersson met the American
senator Mitch McConnell and Sauli
Niinisto, the Finnish president, here
for Nato discussions last week, and
Niinisto was still in Stockholm before
further security talks in Washington.
During a magical evening it’s a stark
reminder of our uncertain times.