Oh Happy Days: Wintertime In Sweden

Hej! (My Swedish has improved, no?)


Aha! Ha ha 'Nique' yes you can have some fun too lol it sounds like all trois bros are very, very confident in their decision to go overseas. For my part, I don't think my mind was built to be able to sustain such an extended period of bliss! This colossal groggy smile is climbing up my face as I think of all the amazing things nick has already done, the excitement timqt must be feeling about to embark on his own tour de yourope, and as I think about Farhad (Manijeh's husband) laughing as he was throwing snow at Manijeh (Farhad's wife) who was pretending to be mortally embarrassed before she returned fire herself. And yes. 'Woly shi' as pheebo would remark. My extremities are only just having feeling returned to them after trudging, not feeling begrudging and not through sludge here but through fresh, pure, crunchy white snow! I am so complete right! Everything looks like it's out of a Hans Christian Anderson fable! Little picturesque cottages and stoic red barns all blanketed in an obstinate layer of snow! yay!

So last post was just before bed. I called mum (because I know she thinks about nothing else but her son roaming the world all by himself) at about midnight and then slept. So that day I set my alarm even earlier to compensate for my terrible waking abilities. But I managed to haul myself fully geared up out the door by 0900 which was a feat!

Which brings me now to my new segment: Sweet as Swedes; which chronicles my first encounter of the day with a classic aryan femme. And today it was at about 0920 at the bus stop. I'm just lucky I guess! But the segment gets better. Yes, he said it. It turns out the bus was travelling a school route lol. I almost missed my stop!

Ok so I caught an impressive coffee on the water's edge to kick start my day, then I made my way across the archipellago that is east Stockholm via ferry. I met a Swiss woman who was getting pretty frustrated because I kept asking her questions and she said it had been years since she had had to use so much English!

mmm some smooth familiar beans to begin a cold day with!

This was taken from the ferry with great difficulty because my hands were so damn cold from the wind off the water.

After the ferry I toured a gallery dedicated to the history of Swedish culture which was, at times, a little bit dull (one hall was set aside for table settings) but the next museum was pretty impressive which housed a fully restored C17 ship that was lifted out of the Stockholm waters a few years ago. Then I headed to Skansen, which is like a zoo. I didn't have much time because I had to meet Abtin at his work in an hour and a half so I was power walking my way around all day. This was a good call I got some really good photos of things I saw. I was so involved I didn't realise that I missed lunch! It's about as big a deal as trick forgetting to tell someone, anyone, about how much he loves Obama or tim forgetting to get his daily hit of Mitchell Davis. So I made my way to station centralen with an empty stomach and my body seizing up from the cold. I left my gloves in Lund and only had two layers on and I tell you I could feel it that was for sure.

This was the first museum, which like most buildings here is completely sublime


This is a university affiliated building that I thought looked fantastic to omit


It's a really big boat

Les Grand Garcon (a psuedonym for le trois bros) vying for supremacy in bear form. Timqth isn't quite at the same level as trick and I (he's the one at the bottom of the rocky peak and also at the bottom of the world), he can only watch for the moment until he sets foot in you rope.

'wow woo we wow wow' was the most eloquent reaction possible to this scene

So Abtin and I (after visiting 'Mk Daniels', which reminded my of 'coming to America' all the way) made our way through snow covered nordic plains and craggy tree lined overpasses to get to Vasteros, a student city west of Stockholm. Doing (only a couple) of burnouts on the black ice in the carparks, we headed into town to this club where a cover band took me straight back to the australian pub scene. 'Don't feel like dancing', 'Sweet child of mine', 'Suspicious minds', 'Highway to hell' all characterised what was a great night out. Abtin's entourage and I then meandered through the streets to Konrads (Wayne's world?) where we rode out the majority of the night. Lots of fun and lots of beer. We then climbed like 40 stories up to a sky bar and mused over the night with the yellow sea of lights pulsing below. I may have overcompensated my undernourishment of the day a bit as my wallet was quite a bit lighter!

I parted ways with Abtin today, and there was as much guy love in the air as could be deemed heterosexual before I caught the train to Stockholm. I then met Olaf (Olaf!) and Saro with whom I shared stories of Australia in the summer sun and became a little nostalgic. So far today Manijeh, Farhad and I have also been to see the runestones left by the marauding nordes a millenia ago and see the viking town Täby Kyrkby which still hides a few nordic remnants such as this old church which listed all the pastors since the 1500s! pretty moving.

Bye Amir

Now who did that? I'm bringing in snow-fitti, which is a clever combination of the words snow and graffiti. The Swedes will love it.

It's a house from a fable!

Ancient stones left by bloodthirsty seafarers as they abandoned their heathen vestiges to erect these monuments in the hope that eternal life would ensue

Now I look for trains tomorrow morning (preferably at 0600, to get the most out of the day!) and pack, plan and procrastinate my way towards leaving Stockholm and, inevitably, Sweden. Some parting shots will be fired tonight, however, as I am yet to explore the more bohemian south side of Stockholm, and will keep you informed and glued to your monitor in due time.

Hejdo, och vises snart! Goodbye and see you soon in case my very. very. good Swedish accent was difficult to interpret!