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| A nice park through the center of the boulevard. People walking to work in the morning. |
Stockholm is a nice city. Pretty in its own right, but in a subtle way at places. It's a different city. Different from a lot of other towns I've been in, architecturally. Really a mix of influences, from my point of view. As I've noted on previous trips, some of the architecture makes me think of St. Petersburg in Russia, some of it brings back memories of Rome with the striking reds and oranges and yellows of ancient Rome that are still favored by modern Romans.
A quick word about the Swedes. Truly the tallest people on the planet. Good God. In America, at 5-10, I often feel average height, to maybe a little short at times. Here I'm a midget. It's not at all unusual to see guys well over, and I mean WELL over, 6 feet tall and then some. Just a very tall people, and healthy, skinny, good-looking, but not all blonde. Though certainly more blondes than you see in America. They're a nice people, good English of course. Rather mild-mannered. You even see it in the way they walk down the street (I tend to notice the gait of different cultures). For men at least, very unassuming, regular guy, and seemingly happy.
Sweden is also shockingly expensive for an American. The cab ride from my hotel to my friends' office, which is about ten minutes away, is $30. A hamburger in many places is $25. Want a mojito, try $20. Hell, I was looking at a dog toy in a pet shot, a cute little ball with a hole in it that you can put food... $50. My friends tell me that Sweden is not known for its food. And while it's not exactly England (i.e., it's better than that), it's also not quite France or Italy in terms of culinary expertise and tastes. But you can still get a solid meal, if you can afford it :)
Anyway here are a few photos from around town. Enjoy.
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| Sasha the night before my trip, looking like she knows something is up. |
PS Sorry I've been blogging a bit less this week, but now that Google has launched Blogger's new interface, which is incompatible with both the iphone and the ipad, I'm only able to blog when I have my computer with me, which limits things greatly. We're planning to finally move to WordPress. It was a great 8 years with Blogger, but this latest upgrade was such a step backwards, we really have no choice but to move.
Take the iphone app (please), which is the fall-back for mobile blogging - it's a joke. It doesn't even let you schedule posts, or worse, unpublish them (your only option is to delete them). It also doesn't show posts that are already scheduled, so you have no idea if you need to post something at all. Seriously not ready for prime time. I've said before, whoever approved this new Blogger Web site, and didn't see a problem with it being incompatible with the iphone and ipad - who builds a web site in 2012 that doesn't work on the iphone and ipad? - should be fired. Same goes for whoever built the iphone app (and whoever approved it). Google, and Blogger, are better than this. At least they used to be.
Now on to Stockholm...
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| Interesting architecture. |
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| Even more interesting architecture. Note the black clothing. If you ever come to Sweden, bring your black and navy blue clothes. Anything else and I feel out of place. |
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| Stockholm has wonderful light. I've noticed it in previous trips as well. A very mid-winter's shocking yellow/orange. |
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| A night view of Stockholm from restaurant suspended on a walkway far above the city. |
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| A rather large park in the middle of town. And of course it's safe to walk through at night. |
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| A large, cool, school near my hotel. Some of the architecture makes me think of the old Soviet, fascist architecture. Not in a bad wal, per se - it's just the strength, and imposing nature of some of the buildings, like this one. |
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| People cycling to work. More dark clothes. |
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| Sasha doing her best to thwart my packing. |
