BaroqueW

As a part of the course I’m taking at Stockholm University, my class needed to go to Falun in order to do the interviews and research necessary for a field work report. (I’m studying ethnology aka cultural anthropology for Americans.) My research was actually focused on the wolves of Dalarna, the hunters, and the politics between Stockholm and Falun concerning the wolves. But enough about that – on to the sites of Falun.

Most of you probably have absolutely no idea where Falun is or why anyone would want to do any sort of research there. Falun is in Dalarna County, home of Falun sausages (falukorv) and Dalecarian horses (dalahäst), both of which are taken for granted by Swedes to be a part of the Swedish culture.

It’s also considered to have an importance to the entire world, because it is one of UNESCO’s world heritage sites. The mining area of the Great Copper Mountain in Falun is considered world heritage because it was one of the major producers of copper, as well as developing mining techniques that influenced the mining all over the world. For some odd reason this means that the copper slag heaps are “protected”. I never got a chance to visit the mine, but the evidence of it was all around. The streams of water have green edges. The hills of earth are bright orange and copper, even the symbol for copper, features heavily which is sort of amusing from a feminist point of view as the symbol for copper is the same as the symbol for women. Do the men have to be extra manly to make up for their town symbol being feminine?

The houses are almost all painted using a special red paint called Falu Red which is actually based on the residue from the mines, full of silicates, iron oxides, copper compounds and zinc. It’s actually forbidden to paint a falu red house another colour in Falun. Way to support the local industry!

We stayed in a local youth hostel, but not just any youth hostel, oh no. Our youth hostel was the “Falun Prison” (Falunfängelse). We stayed in “cells”. With bars on the windows. The disturbing thing is that this place was in operation until 1995 but still felt completely non-modern, which isn’t so unusual considering it was first put into operation in 1849. They claim it’s been completely rebuilt, and as I haven’t found any pictures of how it looked pre-youth hostel, I guess I’ll have to accept that. But the guys were standing in square metal tubs for their showers.

We also had the added joy of sharing our accommodations with some kind of Nordic youth symphony group, who had no concept of “quiet after 11pm”, or even “don’t go around pounding on everyone’s door at 7:30am”. The second morning they stood and pounded (while giggling) on one person’s (metallic) door long enough to wake me up, have me climb out of my top bunk bed – which has no ladder – and go out into the hall to shout loud enough to be heard over the banging, with barely controlled murderous fury – “Excuse me, but there are OTHER people sleeping here.” They’re lucky letting go of the door would have locked me out of my room. And that it was cold.

On the nicer side of things, my project partner and I had time to take a long walk through the forests of Falun which was the most appealing part of the entire trip. We literally walked through a field of blueberries, taking up handfuls of them as we walked. Even a few lingon berries were floating around. There were also a lot of mushrooms around, including the infamous spotted mushroom, fly mushroom (flugsvamp). According to the 19th centuries popular unproved urban legends, the Vikings were purported to carry these mushrooms on them in order to help them go “berserk”. But these are the same people who think that Viking helmets have horns on them.

Taking up another chance to be immersed in nature, we also visited a sheep farmer. With evil sheep. Even a black ram. They were actually slightly cunningly smart though, because they were aware that the fence was electrified, and kept a safe distance. (No, I didn’t try to coax them closer for fun but when we first approached the pasture they all got hyperactive and came running over as fast as their little sheep legs could go. Expecting to be fed, I suppose.) It’s a good thing I hadn’t seen Black Sheep yet.

Falun wasn’t all plants and animals though. It also boasts a very impressive nightclub/bar called Harrys. Every section of the restaurant had it’s own cultural theme, from Egypt to England – probably based on the idea that the Dalarna people were one of the most widely traveled groups of people in Sweden (due to the land being poor and having a low yield, they often went off in work groups to work in distant cities to earn extra money). Of all things, the entrance was guarded by none other than Super Mario. I have to say that they made one nearly glaringly offensive mistake. The Native American statues are wearing American flag patterned skirts. So wrong, in so many ways.

Even without the interviews, it was an informative trip and a great chance to get to see more of Sweden!