Ahh Stockholm one of my favorite cities. I wandered out of the airport without finding customs and bumped into my friend Ulrika who I was staying with and was told there is no customs. I stayed with Ulrika and Ralf, friends I had met in Santa Rosa through Leigh a friend of mine. They had a great apartment on the 6th floor with views of the city and lots of clock towers and churchs. The first night I got in they walked me around Stockholm so I could get a feel for the city and where to go. The next day I slept in which I had not been able to do since I started my travels, and had a nice coffee and read my book outside. I then spent the rest of the day walking all around Stockholm, they have such beautiful parks and buildings. That evening Ralf got a ticket for me to watch his futbol team play at the Stockholm Olympic staduim a few blocks from their place! Lots of songs, chants with a predominitely male chorus (not a lot of women at the game). There was even a stopage of play due to fans on the field and retaliation for a player from the other side flipping off our teams fans!! Fantastic game--I got to be decked out in Djardin blue with a jersey and a scarf with great seats...but we stood the whole time --very intense match which in the end we did lose...next time! The team mascot is a rabbit with an iron pot on its head!
The next day I went to the Vaser museum--all about a extraordinary ship that was commissioned by a king which promptly sunk on its first voyage due to too many cannons. It was salvaged and put into a museum. Then I went to the Swedish culture museum and looked at folk art, wedding dresses, furniture and Sami (Lapland) culture. All this was followed with a wonderful classic Swedish meal of veal meatballs the size of your fist with fresh ligonberrys and mashed potatoes-- so yummy! After dinner we went to the south end of Stockholm to a bar on the 25th floor with all glass windows and looked out into all the lights of Stockholm with a tasty cosmo martini in hand-absolutely wonderful night. We ended the night at a bar that looked exactly like the Cheers bar and talked politics and culture differences into the night!!! 
The next morning early Ralf guided me to my bus terminal for my airport tranport onto Prague---thank you so much Ralf and Ulrika!!See you in my next city!
So Rachel, what is the metaphor for the iron pot on the rabbits head? Lunch? Those crazy Europeans and their football! Love you Dad
ReplyDeleteHi Rachel, how's the mushroom picking going? Stay away from the red ones with white spots :-p
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked Stockholm, it was nice having you over, finally someone to share a bottle of wine with, even though Ulrika has promised me she will catch up in some months.
Keep us posted about your forthcoming adventures and if you need a get-away from those crazy Czechs you are always welcome back to Sthlm.
PS: One of the nick-name of the Football team (Djurgarden) is the iron stoves. The word Stove and Rabbit is similar in Swedish. So a fuzzy rabbit with an iron pot of it's head works better with the kids than a stove *tada*
// R