H&M, Ikea, Absolute... Oh my!

This last weekend trip to Stockholm was possibly one of the most stressful flip-flop back and forth decisions I've ever made. It almost made me feel like a politician. Here's the drama: Stockholm is far away. No really, its anywhere between 10-17 hours away by train. Seeing as I invested in a Eurail, I intended to use it for everything. But when you are at the last weekend of your trip, you just came back from Poland, and are heading to Russia in a week... this seems a little bit daunting. I have a Swedish family friend, Andreas, who had offered me a free place to stay and have as a guide through Stockholm. How often does that randomly happen? And initially my Cuban friend, Emil, was going to come with me. But he ended up pulling out. Now being me, I was starting to debate, ok, what is the responsible thing for me to be doing... maybe I will fly. So I looked at airline tickets, and they weren't half bad. Then I said, lets see how I feel post poland. While in Poland there was an air strike in Hamburg. Flights shot up 100 euro... but only the flight there. Reluctantly, I decided to cancel. Made the phone call and everything. I was worried about time, money, etc. So, I went to a going away dinner for my friend Lucio, and on the way home was talking to another friend, Bruno, who, it happened was leaving the institute and heading to Sweden the next day (this is Wednesday, same day I canceled) and I'm like, oh man. So lots of kicking myself the whole night for canceling, then getting to work the next morning to realize most of my friends had left that week or were sick, or stuck doing work b/c their computers crashed, there was no reason for me to be in Hamburg. (There were a couple of people that were just flat out missing... and i didn't learn till this week where there were or anything). So I looked, and during lunch, decided, I would go reserve a seat on the train for the way there, and fly back. This was the best impulsive decision ever... (ok maybe not the best, poland may have stolen that spot, but definitely one I'm very glad I made, or else I would always question whether I should have gone).

The train ride was long. There were two potential trains i could take, late and early... however the second half of the early train was full and the first half of the late train was full... the end result was that i had to split the ride in two and spend a couple of hours in Malmo, Sweden. Which wasn't bad b/c I got to grab food and watch yet another beach volleyball tournament going on in front of the town hall. During the second half of the trip I got the worst seat in a cabin... the middle seat w/ out arm rests or anything... and always in the sun. It was a long, hot trip... And I was quite happy to get to Stockholm.

By the time I got it, it was already pretty late, so we grabbed dinner, chatted and called it an early night. Andreas had another friend staying with him, Lena, who had just gotten a job in the area cataloging crawfish.

The next morning, I set off pretty early on my own. My goal was to grab a boat tour of the archipelago, but I missed the boat by literally seconds. I opted to take the next one, and wandered around the town hall to kill time. The tour was amusing. I learned all about Swedish industries, and how in all these different locations there used to be factories, and are now homes. The tour also played a lot of swedish pop music, including, abba, ace of base, and the cardigans.

I then proceeded to walk through an absolute downpour into the old city. Meandered around a church that housed the tombs of Swedish royalty; it was a lot more... British, and medieval than everything else I had seen during this trip, which I rather enjoyed. Then, I braved the elements and headed towards the castle. Where I saw 3 different museums, all very very nice. And I actually quite loved the inside of the castle.

Here I should point out, that getting around Stockholm for me was no the same as getting around Krakow. My theories for this include: 1) If i go underground (such as via train) i lose any and all sense of direction-- this also happens in Hamburg, 2) I only function directionally when there is sun, 3) I clearly never lived in Stockholm in a past life.

As I was leaving one of the exhibits at the castle, my timing was perfect to see the Changing of the guard, which I thought surely I had missed. For those keeping tabs, thats my second changing of the guard this trip. Its not something ridiculously special, its more just interesting to watch. As my time was winding down, I did not hit the 4th museum in the castle. But as I was leaving I could here the thump and rumble of bass... the distinct sound of... a night club... in the middle of the day in Stockholm. Well, I am a creature of curiosity, so I followed the "um-cha, um-cha, um-cha" and found myself in the middle of a gigantic gay pride parade. It was fantastic. A colorful mixture of people, banners, costumes, and floats... Combining stereotypes, in the best of ways, with serious political messages, and rocking floats that were basically discos on wheels. The whole thing went on for hours, and provided a very fun backdrop for my time in the city.

After getting lost for about the bagillionth time that day, I finally managed to catch up w/ Andreas and Lena, and we wandered around old town a bit, checking out old cafe's built in cellars, and swinging by H&M (this was a must, as i needed to be involved in some way in Swedish consumer culture in some way. Afterwards, though was a major highlight of the trip.

We went to the Absolute Icebar Stockholm. You may have heard of the Ice hotel or at least seen it on the traveling gnome commercials... well, cut from the same glacier and shipped down to Stockholm, is the Icebar... A bar made of Ice. Where they give you special coats, and you are allowed a whole 45 minutes to stay in. Drinks are all made w/ Absolute vodka (another swedish product)... and they are served in glasses made of Ice (also shipped down from glacier). This place was awesome. In the corner there was a statue of a guy doing graffiti and many people had left their marks on the ice. There were some plants frozen in some blocks... and Tv's frozen in others. Fur lined the ice couches. Overall, incredibly awesome.

That night, I got a slice of Swedish culture... a Swedish Fish Party!!! hahaha, ok, not really a Swedish Fish party, but rather a Traditional Swedish Crawfish party. Andreas' friend Jonas came over, as did his cousin and his cousins' wife, who, I apologize to, I can not remember their names to save my life. I got to try all sorts of traditional Swedish foods... I even ate crawfish... yes ladies and gents, I actually ate a new type of seafood, and did become ill from the en devour (well... not from the actual eating of the crawfish i should say). About every 5-10 minutes or so, there would be a drinking song sung, and shots of schnapps. I learned valuable lesson... I do not drink like a Swede. But it was riotous good fun overall.

Next morning involved a large breakfast, and more or less laying low, till it was time to catch my bus, to grab my plane. And then another bus back to Hamburg, which, managed to break down just as we reached the city limits.

While it was a very very very short trip, I have to say I had a ton of fun, and definitely hope to go back at some point in the future.