STHLM

'Water is the nerve of Stockholm. It opens up the sky & lends a glow to this incredible fairytale city of the north, not far from the Arctic Circle. Stockholm is the city, it is always the same, everything changes, people come & go...'

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It's been a while! School started properly about three weeks ago, & between classes & weekend trips & my general lazy habits, I've hardly had the time to upload photos or write journal entries. It's been absolutely lovely though, the primary experience of living here, & a thousand things have happened but for now I'll start with one of the biggest highlights: Stockholm.

In the past six weeks (crazy, just thinking about it) I've been in Sweden, I've managed to visit its capital a total of three times. It's strange, but I never expected to love Stockholm as much as I do. Many of us know cities like Rome or Berlin for its illustrious history & definitive architecture, or Paris for its romantic sentiment, but when it came to Scandinavian capitals, I didn't know quite what to expect. But Stockholm took me by surprise with its curious mix of metropolis & nature, the cosmopolitan vibe & old culture melding together effortlessly so much as to make a tourist feel at home. The city, made up of numerous islands & vast inlets of waters, expresses a certain kind of openness that's rare in European capitals. One can walk the streets for hours without getting bored or tired, for there is always something to do or see in Stockholm, be it the countless museums or Gamla Stan or even just the beautiful waters... The events & chronological timelines have gotten a little mixed up in my head, but I'll do my best to remember :)

First glimpse: Stockholm Central. Breathtakingly massive.

Stepped out & St Clara's krykan (church) was the first thing we saw! I love taking pictures of anything made out of brick & covered in ivy.

Headed to Hotorget flea market, which is just off the main shopping street (Drottninggatan). Flea markets are always my favourite places to go to & something I look out for in new cities. I inevitably drag along whoever is with me (in this case, Sam) & spend hours browsing through dusty second hand books & records. This particular one was reminiscent of Thieves market back home, with many Arabic & Indian dealers peddling old cameras & leather goods & odds & ends.

Managed to snag a T.S. Eliot poetry collection, a Graham Greene novel & Henry Miller's 'Tropic of Cancer' for 40KR :)

Took a walk from the city to Gamla Stan (literally translates to 'old city'), which is arguably my favourite part of Stockholm! The cafes & colourful houses have such a charm to it, along with the narrow alleyways that heap haphazardly across each other.

Got some nice ice cream from a nice shop called 'Muren'. Ice cream is almost outrageously cheap in Sweden & since its one of the few inexpensive commodities, I take full advantage of this on a daily basis. We sat outside for about a half-hour, just watching people pass by.

'The English Bookshop' in one of the quieter alleys, along with this cute candy-making boutique. 

& here comes the embarrassing bit.

We had a couple of hours before church started, so we decided to take a walk along the river. After being all touristy & taking a few nice shots of the shoreline (like the one below), I decided to take a seat at the edge of the river & of course... my black ballet flat fell right into the waters below. Could not believe my sheer bad luck & had to walk barefoot for an hour, hunting doggedly for a pair of shoes. It was a truly mortifying experience & I'm sure everyone thought I was some kind of Asian gypsy, roaming across the city & hobbling painfully down the cobbled streets. 

Anyway, I finally got some Fred Perrys on sale, so all was well :)

On our second visit to Stockholm, I managed to visit Alfa Antikvariat, which I wanted to go to previously but it was closed. It was the biggest secondhand bookstore I had ever seen, full of old ship journals & volumes of good fiction. I liked how it had no frills, but was lovely all the same. Was completely ecstatic over finding a first American edition of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover for only forty dollars. Couldn't stop talking about it for days afterwards :) 

It happened to be Stockholm's cultural week when we were there, so there were plenty of street musicians & performers the whole weekend! Loved how there was a classical guitarist or a street magician at every turning, really changed the atmosphere of the city.

Lots of beautiful ships which looked like miniature houses, or at least backyards, along the piers. I liked this particular one very much.

Visited the Vasa museum, which has an amazing (& also hilarious) back story. It would take forever to go into detail, but you can read more about it here  

Fika in the museum's cafe.

Being tacky at the ABBA museum.

The famous buildings & central square in Gamla Stan where everyone loves to have fika & take a break in the afternoon

A glimpse of the hostel I stayed in. It was pretty cosy, but incredibly noisy at night with all the partying hipsters outside.

The last time I went to Stockholm was with Jennifer & we went to Skansen! It's a strange but pretty great concept, comprising of a carnival, a few cultural museums, a fresh food fair, beautiful gardens & a zoo! Definitely a whole day activity. I loved how well-preserved everything was, definitely a special experience just walking around & taking photographs.

Copper red houses.

Horsing around (hello, predictable caption)

Visited Rosendal's garden, which was on the other side of the island Skansen was on. It was absolutely amazing, large open fields of flowers (which you could pick for a fee) & fresh produce. We had fika at the greenhouse cafe & it was a real pity I didn't take more pictures. Trust me, there is nothing else better than enjoying rooibos tea & a cinnamon bun in good summer weather.

Gelato that we had on the last day in Stockholm in the Sodermalm district. It's another island, off the mainland, & it's sort of like the 'bohemian' part of Stockholm, full of cool record shops & hipster cafes (the first cafe we walked into was a dimly-lit, vegan, gay-rights supporting one, I kid you not). We were joined by Denise, a friend of Jen's which I had met before previously, & she was nice enough to bring us to a lovely tea shop & also to a special place to take pictures of the city from above.

Amazing views.

So that was basically it! I know I'm missing something. There were so many good fikas & places we visited & great conversations, but these were the highlights I remember. It's going to be awhile before I visit Stockholm again (perhaps for the legendary Christmas markets) because it's a) pretty expensive to travel there & b) school's starting to get a bit insane, so I'm going to miss it but for now, it's back to reality. Ah. I've got more to write about, like about our trip to Gotenborg & visiting Uppsala & just general updates on life but it's currently 2:44am now & that will have to wait!

Till next time.