Week 4 – Uppsala Uncovered

Hello again folks! This week I don the persona of your stereotypical Tour Guide in order to give you a bit more of an idea about Uppsala, “the big city with the small-town charm”, where I’ll be for the majority of my five months abroad. Just to give you an indication of how far away I am, Uppsala is:

1,483 miles from Tremough Campus,
1,331 miles from Stroud,
1,219 miles from London, and
453 miles from Copenhagen.

According to Google Maps, if I were to travel by car/coach, it would take me over a day to get from Cornwall to Uppsala, and I would also have to travel through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Denmark in order to do so. It would take me seven hours alone just to get out of the country, so my location is in ways very remote!
Uppsala itself is located in South Central Sweden, about an hour's drive north of the capital, Stockholm. Unsurprisingly, it is the capital of Uppsala County, is based in the province of Uppland, and is an hour ahead of Western European Summer Time at the moment. It is the fourth biggest city in Sweden – after Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö – and is about the same size as Oxford. Uppsala is home to the imaginatively titled Uppsala University, the oldest University in Scandinavia: founded in 1477, it’s older than all but four of Great Britain’s Universities, so it’s fair to say it’s ancient. More to the point, it’s huge: there are about 40,000 undergraduates, which is four times as many undergraduates currently at the University of Exeter.
Uppsala also has Scandinavia’s largest church/cathedral, the Domkyrka, which dates back to the late 13th Century and is a staggering 118.7m tall: that’s taller than St Paul’s Cathedral, but shorter than Wembley Stadium. The Domkyrka is home to the Archbishop of Uppsala, who’s the Swedish equivalent of the Archbishop of Canterbury: the current chap is Anders Wejryd (whose surname alone would win you a game of Scrabble), who’s been there since 2006. The post of Archbishop of Uppsala has been around since 1164 – in other words, ages – and from 1531 until 1557 had the unusual distinction of having two archbishops, due to a bit of a ruckus over the Reformation. Anders is the 74th Archbishop of Uppsala, and if he manages to reach the average reign, he’ll be in the job until at least 2018.
It’s fair to say that Uppsala is a lot like Oxford: a fairly large city with a thriving student population, a historic University, a large cathedral and only an hour or so from the Capital of the Country. Both cities have a noteworthy river as well, with the river Fyris in Uppsala dividing the city into two parts: to the west of the river is the historic quarter and to the east, the administrative, commercial and residential area. Of course, I’ll probably be spending most of my time to the west of the river, which is where the cathedral is situated, as well as several parks.
Uppsala does appear to be everything that Falmouth isn’t: close to the capital; huge; home to an enormous university and cathedral; a decent train service! Oh yes, and without a coast or beach for miles. Hmm. Still, not that I’d want to visit a beach between the months of October and January anyway, but I will probably miss having a view of the sea from my bedroom window. But then, Uppsala also seems a large, noisy, busy and most of all, cold place, so whilst it seems to have a fair few advantages, the tourist would do well to realise that, like all places, it ain’t perfect. But from the looks of it, a trip to Uppsala should be well worth however much I’m spending on this blasted study-abroad programme. Next week, I’ll be discussing the joys of the Swedish language, and how learning a foreign language can be extremely handy, especially when it comes to making a good first impression. But until then, stay tuned for the next exciting instalment of…
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sweden (But Were Afraid to Ask)
Chris Stanley