Four Day Frenzy

I had my first visitors in Sweden last week, and it was pretty spectacular. Albeit they were only here for some 100 hours or so, we had a hell of a time! Looking back on it, the trip seemed to revolve around three things:  eating & drinking, sight seeing, and shopping.  In that order.

The Highlight Reel:

Day 1
After dropping off the bags, we headed directly to EspressoSostaBar.  The place is straight from Italy, and serves amazing drinks.

With enough caffeine to momentarily overload the jet lag, we jumped on over to Östermalms Saluhall via Humlegården (park behind the Royal Library in central Stockholm).

Östermalms Saluhall is a swanky food hall, and the "...haven for lovers of good food." After oohing and awing for a bit, we picked up three open-face sandwiches (smoked salmon, fried herring, and roast beef) and a Västerbottensost pie (Swedish cheese pie). Everything was delicious, but we weren't completely sold once we did the currency conversion... 

The first day finished with some power naps and mediocre tapas at Mamas and Tapas.  Those two were champs!

Day 2
It may seem a bit tacky, but we thought it would be fun to see the world's largest IKEA...and it was!

Just inside the entrance we had our first fika of the trip. With a coffee and kannelbulle for something ridiculous like 5 Kr. each, things were looking good...

The store, however, is a complete mind f**ck once you are inside.  It is a circular building with ramps and escalators everywhere.  We obediently followed the arrows guiding us throughout the store, and had a chance to awe at the piles of cheap housewares.

Upon reaching the checkouts, we were severely disappointed to find out that the main cafeteria was back in the middle of the store. Entering for the second time, we disregarded the arrows and went straight for the food. On the menu, Köttbullar (Swedish meatballs)!

We made a pit stop at a grocery store on the way back to laugh at all of the strange products

Determined to see more, after returning to Stockholm City we wandered around Riddarholmen and took in the beautiful views of City Hall and Riddarfjärden (the bay of Lake Mälaren).

No trip of Stockholm is complete without visiting nearby Gamla Stan (Old Town).  While there, we made sure to see the guards at Stockholm Palace,

check out all of the fancy shops,

and hang around the narrowest street in Stockholm.

We then made our way over to the northern shore of Södermalm to enjoy the beautiful Scandanavian weather at Hermans vegetarian buffet.  The restaurant has loads of outdoor seating with fantastic views of the city; a perfect place to enjoy the 9:20pm sunset!  The food was super tasty, but we did see quite a bit of questionable buffet etiquette (caught a girl sniffing the serving spoon...TWICE)!

The walk back to the tunnelbana was a tad chilly, but those views can make anyone smile

Day 3

After a quick pit stop at System Bolaget for some essential Swedish picnic supplies (boxed wine), we headed off to Drottningholms Slott.  It stands for Queen's Palace, and is the current residence of the Swedish royal family.  To get there, we simply hopped on a steamboat that left from City Hall.

It was pretty overcast and cold when we first arrived, but it clouds began to open up as we sat down for our picnic.  One of us (I won't name names) made the mistake of feeding the ducks during lunch...

After touring the grounds the lighting was just right for a mid-afternoon photoshoot

and a little bit of fooling around before the palace closed for the day.

It was a perfect day trip...nice boat ride with great scenery, beautiful weather to enjoy the grounds, and of course a mid-day fika!

Following a small walking tour of hipster central (SoFo in Södermalm), we set out to find a nice place to have some dinner and drinks.  Our first choice was Urban Deli, but the combination of hunger, crankiness, and poor service caused us to leave after our first brewski.  We moved on to something a little more familiar, and went to an "American restaurant" in Sweden. The waitress tried wayyy to hard to sell the food (would make a fantastic car saleswoman), the burgers were decent, and the size of the mussels gave us all nightmares.  I would say that America's American food is much, much better!

Day 4

Just another Saturday in Stockholm with perfect weather.  After enjoying a leisurely breakfast, we headed over to Djurgården to visit the Vasa Musuem.  The Swedish warship Vasa sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 before it had even left the the harbors of Stockholm.  In 1961 (333 years after it sank), 90% of the ship was recovered and is now on display.  The lighting was very dark so we were unable to get many good pictures, but it is a pretty awesome museum; really one of a kind.

After enjoying some traditional Swedish street food (Tunnsbrödrulle) outside the museum, we took a breather and enjoyed the weather in a park along the water.

Since Sweden is apparently famous for their design, and this was their last day, we made sure to visit a few design stores too.  Not all of us were too interested in perusing their fine selection of fabrics and furniture, but we easily managed to enjoy our time together.

What a great trip.  So many memories and so many laughs.  You guys are the best!  Thank you so much for making the trip over.

Pit Lane

Sunday-funday indeed.  After being disappointed with the size of the queue for a tour of Stockholm's future tunnelbana (subway) tunnel, I was sure that it was going to be just another lazy sunday.  The weather was perfect, so I took a ride out to the island of Lidingo for an afternoon fika.  

After nearly 2 months in Stockholm, I have realized that fika is not about the coffee or pastries, and is not about having an excuse to slack off...it is all about slowing down and taking a taking a break from your day-to-day life to get together with friends/family.  Everyone should really take a fika, it does the body good.

While taking in the beauty of a small harbor on the north shore,

the smell of burning oil or a backfiring engine filled the air.  I turned around and scanned the parking lot and quickly found the culprit, an old VW Polo.  A woman was in the front seat, the car was puffing out smoke from the tailpipe, and a man was pushing the car from behind.  As quickly as I had turned to look, I saw a small flame form below the car, most likely the gas line from the tank to the engine.  Within seconds the flames had spread to the rear of the car and the two people had no idea.  The next picture was taken just after we screamed for them to get out of the car, and it was left sitting halfway in the spot.  The man ran to get a fire extinguisher, but it was far too late for that.

Within minutes the flames reached the gas tank and the fire erupted with a loud pop.  Luckily no one was near. For fear that there would be shrapnel, we took cover around the corner near the water. 

Large clouds of dark black smoke began to billow from the fire as the wheels began to burn and the flames engulfed two adjacent vehicles (3 in total).  The entire car was burning, and the smell of plastic, rubber, and other materials was extremely strong...this has got to be why Nascar fans are so crazy; too much smoke inhalation.

 

The firefighters arrived 10-15 minutes after the whole thing started, and quickly had the fire contained.  As the smoke subsided a pretty gruesome scene was revealed...three cars totally burned, three extremely shaken up Swedes, and one extremely excited American.  It was scary to see something like that happen, but I am extremely happy we were able to get everyone out before it got out of control.

The rest of Stockholm had no idea of what had recently taken place...what a crazy day!  I will never forget my visit to Lidingo.

The Shuffle

As the weather has begun to turn in Stockholm, I really miss the Saturday morning farmers market + brunch tradition.  Roll outta' bed, stroll on over to Urbana's Market at the Square, chum around with the gang, pick up some fine artisan bread and pastries, then whip up some fantastic foods...the perfect Saturday morning.

To combat the longing for the old days, which were made worse by emails telling how awesome the farmers market has been, I decided to make some cinnamon french toast.  The loaf, with hints of honey, was über soft and still warm when I picked it up from the bakery.  Each piece soaked up so much of the batter that I had to first pan fry, and then bake it.  It doesn't beat the farmers market shuffle, but when topped with strawberries, it was pretty damn tasty!

To really give the shuffle a run for its money, later that night I headed out to Villa Videbacken for some homemade sushi.  We made 10 rolls (~60 pieces) filled with carrots, cucumbers, avocado, shrimp, and smoked salmon.  Although a few of them looked a bit neglected, they all tasted great.  Finish it with some nice Swedish brewskis, and you have got yourself a nice Saturday evening.

BBQ By The Sea

A Saturday afternoon barbecue along the Baltic Sea?...don't mind if I do!  After searching for the perfect place to have our BBQ for quite some time, we settled on a concrete pad at the foot of a dock in the Royal National City Park.  It was the closest thing we could have gotten to cooking on the sea without the fear of catching anything on fire.  Was it legal?  Doubt it.  Was it an awkward place to cook?  You bet!  Were the surroundings breathtaking?  Absolutely!

Shafigh and his wife had prepared what seemed to be a few kilos of wonderfully marinated chicken and a large salad of lettuce, carrots, olives, and tomatoes.  Top that off with some freshly grilled pineapple rings whole tomatoes, and you have got yourself a fantastic meal. It was far from your average American BBQ with hotdogs, hamburgers, and sausages...but it was oh-so-delicious!

We received plenty of stares and glares from the average Swedish passerby, but I think they were jealous that they hadn't thought to have a BBQ there.  After chowing down, we made a pitstop at Ulriksadal Slott (Ulriksadal Palace) on our way back.  As we roamed the former country retreat for Swedish Royalty, the sun was shining high in the sky, and the grounds of the palace were lookin' good...real good.

It was nearly time for a fika and everyone was feeling a bit sluggish...and as luck would have it, there happened to be a nice little café right next the palace.  Ulriksadals slottscafé didn't disappoint.  Along with everyone else, I chose to get a café latte, but also slipped a Swedish almond cake in there for good measures.   Forgetting about the monster rainbow marshmallow log that was floating on top, everything was quite good.  Naveed saw them refilling the espresso beans and apparently the bag said everything from eco-friendly and fair-trade to organic and bio-friendly...no wonder it tasted so refreshing!

I almost took the Tunnelbana back home instead of walking along the Baltic coast...but thank god I changed my mind.

Sweden is a land of unpredictability, and you must pay particular attention to the 3 volatile W's:  Weather, Women, and ... ???  We couldn't remember of the last one, can you?