Starting in Stockholm

October 27, 2012:

On August 27th, Danielle and I both arrived in Lyon. On October 27th, we "celebrated" our two-month Lyon anniversary in Stockholm, Sweden.

We were so exhausted from our travels that we woke up at the last possible moment, leaving only enough time to pack up and take a quick 10-minute shower before check-out at 11am. We opted to do our make-up in the lobby (which was totally necessary, since it was not yet Halloween and we didn't want to be mistaken for zombies).

Our hostel. Hint: It's the boat.

We walked around Stockholm a tiny bit before meeting up with our Couchsurfing host Andreas so that we could drop our bags at his apartment. We were thrilled by the crisp autumn air. Stockholm is stunning. When we reached the "Telefonplan" metro stop (which we found extremely entertaining), we were introduced to Rachel, an American studying in Galway, Ireland who would be "surfing" with us for two nights.

Rachel had plans for the day, and we did not, so we decided to tag along with her. We had lunch on the edge of Gamla Stan, the Old City, at a famous fish hut. I am a fish eater. I was traumatised by having to eat fish sticks as a child (that's my story, and I'm sticking to it). I decided to give it a try. It was lightly breaded herring with delicious spices and pickled cucumbers on top. It was so delicious.

We went into Gamla Stan to look around and found a lot of trolls and a lot of great pictures. We stopped for a chocolate-marzipan snack and found lots of souvenir shops filled with creepy looking trolls and lots of moose.

We bought some alcohol with Andreas, and it was the strangest set-up I have ever seen. If we think in Canada that it's strange that we have separate stores for beer and wine, they take inaccessibility of alcohol to a whole new level. When you enter the building, there are glass cases filled with your options of alcohol. You have to take a number from a machine (which is a theme in Scandinavian countries... comparing the ways a culture structures their queues is interesting...) and then wait for your turn to go up and order whichever alcohol you'd like. The drinking age is 18 in bars and 20 at the liquor store. Afterward, Andreas showed us the narrowest road and the smallest statue in Stockholm.

Andreas and Rachel went to see a movie, so Danielle and I decided to explore the city on foot. Mainly, we were in search of autumn. The whole city is surrounded by water. The architecture is so unique. The sun makes it seem like late afternoon all day (which was perfect for Danielle who loves photography). I got sunburned. Badly. The air is really fresh. It's definitely cleaner than the air in Lyon. One of the islands in Stockholm is almost entirely a park so we walked there and found fallen leaves in different colours! This is what we had been missing.

I had been wearing my Canadian Olympic mittens around in the chilly weather, but tragically, I forgot them on the metro ("What fresh hell?!") so we stopped at a store that resembles The Bay and I bought a new pair of mittens and a hat. While waiting for the movie to get out, we happened across a store called Canada Snow, where the mannequins were only dressed in boots, socks and toques featuring maple leafs or plaid. That's how we do it in Canada ... accessories only. ;)

We met up with Andreas and Rachel at the grocery store near his appartment. Everyone was dressed in their winter clothing and it seemed like everyone was in a rush to grab things as quickly as possible (a contrast to the style of grocery shopping in my home town where everyone strolls languidly through the aisles, being courted by flashy marketing and buzzwords; and in France, where great care is taken to select the perfect baguette, a good cheese for dessert and the perfect wine to go with it). We opted to make Flying Jacob (traditionally Swedish), inspired by the following video:

We added bananas to the mix and it was seriously delicious. Danielle was so hungry that she had threatened to run away with the chicken before we got back to his appartment. Lucky she didn't! Andreas' kitchen looked like an Ikea kitchen. It is my dream to have an Ikea kitchen. I would love living in a tiny apartment with a 100 sq. ft. kitchen and lots of cupboards and effective organizational tools. You don't have to tell me ... I know I dream big.

After dinner, we got to know each other a bit better while playing Kings with our own rules and Andreas taught us useful Swedish (that we immediately forgot). The most important was how to say "Sorry" after someone bumps into you, as is the Canadian way, but it was too complicated and we couldn't remember it. I find that I say "Pardon" all the time and it sounds way weirder in French than "Sorry" does in English. He also made the mistake of teaching us this peculiar sucking sound that they use in Northern Sweden to mean "I agree with you". Apparently it's not a Swedish custom but a North Swedish (Norrland), North Norwegian and Finnish custom. It sort of sounds like a "shoooop", but we thought it was about the funniest thing we'd ever heard and continued to do it for the whole trip. (For more information on Swedish customs, read here).

We went out to a bar with no cover, because we were trying to be economical, but the dance floor was reserved exclusively for "regulars". I don't know about you, but it would be very difficult for me to become a regular at a bar where I was excluded from the dance floor. I was frustrated by this a lot and we decided to go home sooner, rather than later. Danielle and Andreas stopped for a post-bar snack, and I ended up trying some of Andreas' callamari. We also stopped for a few minutes to re-enact a scene from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Andreas narrated in Swedish while I pretended to be on a motorcycle. I have never seen the movie. The video was a top comedy moment, with such memorable lines as "Now, in Swedish!, "It's so cobble-stoney, I almost broke my ankle!" and "That's it for this Hollywood Report!" We closed out the evening by taking song requests from a man in the metro that wanted a cigarette. He said we sounded better than the original versions.. Classic.