From the top of my head, a couple of things I learned in Stockholm.
- My way around town:
– Walk 2 blocks to Luma tram station.
– Take the tram towards Alvik
– Get off at Gullmarsplan
– Take the subway (tunnelbana) towards the city (or Hässelby strand, Åkeshov)
– Get off at Slussen or Gamla Stan - But my favourite way to town was this small ferry that would take us from Hammarby Sjöstad to Södermalm. It even had some pillows for you to sit on and books to read. Sadly the ride takes around 5 minutes.
- The garbage pick-up trucks are little. They look like toys!
- Record stores still exist but most of them carry lots of crap. (which is not exclusive to Sweden, this is the worldwide norm, of course). I was recommended to check out Record Hunter and I couldn’t find anything worth there. But there is one fantastic place for indiepop lovers: Nostalgia Palaset. I found lots of rare gems (a Feverfew flexi, a My Favorite 7″, etc.) there that I bought and some others that I had to hide.
- Delicious Goldfish opens only a couple of days. I wanted to visit that store! Shame.
- That churches should be built on the hilltop. Makes a lot of sense. They look huge that way.
- There are some huge birds around town. Well not huge as a condor or even a pelican, but bigger than your regular pigeon. But they are the size of a chicken even though the idea of making rotisserie from them seems to scare the swedes. I can’t remember the name at the moment of this bird. It had some blue feathers, rings a bell?
- Twenty kronor are, more or less, what a half-liter Coca Cola costs.
- Making the line at the Systembolaget, not being carded.
- To count from 1 to 10 (ett till tio), though my Swedish skills have improved considerably since then. Now I can count till a hundred at least.
- How to order a subway ticket: the famous remsa. Worth for taking only 8 rides, though it has 16 spots to be stamped.
- People prefer texting over calling. Telia was the company giving service to my German sim card this time.
- It’s not unusual to walk around the streets and listen to ABBA. That makes the whole Stockholm experience complete.
- That people can be civilized even though there’s a manifestation/parade asking for Kurdistan’s independence. Hey, no smoke grenades!
- I’m not supposed to eat inside a bus. Had to hide my döner among my records! Still not sure what kind of meat was on it. Didn’t taste like lamb, that’s for sure. But it was quite tasty for a 4am snack.
- Everyone was excited and hopeful about the Sweden – Denmark game. They all came late for the party because of the game. But by then their excitement was gone, Sweden was virtually out of the World Cup (which would be later confirmed). Felt good to at last have some people that share the sorrow of having your national team out of the World Cup. It sucks so much!
- Trying to get the whipped cream to be a bit more dense. Ok. This I didn’t master.
- Pancakes with raspberry jam and cloudberry jam (plus that whipped cream!) are way too sweet! I was full with one! My fantastic host could easily eat 4 and look great still!
- Candy stores are quite common. You can find candies of every colour and sizes. These are Kajsa’s favourite affären, Godis, godis, godis.
- And of course, I learned that kyckling is all I need to know. Kyckling och potatis! Kyckling med curry! Yum!
I miss it. Crossing fingers that I can go again in 2010.
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