Vecka 42

The majority of this week, except for a few days up until mid-morning, has been overcast and often rainy. It's definitely autumn in Sweden, and the leaves are rapidly turning colour and shedding from the trees.

I've discovered a whole new level of "bizarre candy" sold here in Sweden. They're lollipops that come with sour flavour powder to dip in, but they're in the shape of toilet bowls.

I had to buy one just to try. Penguin was dubious of what to think. I haven't yet tried it, but I will. :P

Went around trying guitars out at the music stores again. At least I didn't pop any strings like the last time.

 

I randomly recall a British couple in a Burger King here (of course, it's always the foreigners who run for the familiar fast food chains, isn't it?) when I was standing there in line out of desperation. By that time, I was starving and didn't care what I ate, and that was unfortunately the closest food place to where I found myself.

The man was squinting at the icons on the value menu and voicing his thoughts aloud to his wife: "'Pimp Your Burger'. Looks like you can put on cheese, bacon, and..." There was a short pause as he struggled to determine what the last ambiguous-looking blob was on the screen. "...Snails, who knew!" he finally concluded, to which his wife corrected him gently.

"I think those are chili peppers," she said.

"Ah," the man nodded. "Makes more sense. But I still think it rather looks like a snail..."

Truthfully, the chili icon did look strikingly like a slug (think snail without a shell) once his wife clarified what it was he was squinting at. But I honestly would have liked to see him try to order a burger with snails on it at the counter. :P

It was the last week of courses before study week (break time for most) and then exam week (also break time for most). So we have another Swedish assignment that I should probably get done within the near future, lest I forget it otherwise.

One of the old subways ran to KTH when I had class, and it was renovated on the inside so that most seating was gone and there was a huge standing space instead.

 

I went up to Kista on Thursday to check out the haircutting places at Kista Galleria, since I'd been in dire need of a haircut- at least, in my opinion. I draw the line once my hair becomes unmanageable on a daily basis, because I can't be bothered to fuss with it for more than a couple of minutes before I quit. Got a haircut that I'm actually happy with, and didn't overpay for it.

I found a store that seemed to sell random goods from Denmark at completely affordable prices. There was everything from kitchenware to stationery, including this nose-shaped pencil sharpener. :P

I bought some battery-powered string lights at Clas Ohlson to decorate my room a bit more. I think they add a nice touch. I also got some camera gear there, as well as flashlights with filters to use up north. Come winter, some friends and I will head up to Kiruna to see if we can spot the northern lights (norrskenet). :)

Since I'm a regular now at the Thai restaurant, they gave me extra sushi this time. They also serve me larger portions of whatever else I order, it seems.

 

A friend and her family were visiting from Finland on Friday, and as such, I'd agreed to give them a tour of Stockholm within the few hours they had before they needed to be back at the ship. The weather wasn't what I'd call beautiful, but it was at least not raining, and good enough for general photo and walking purposes.

We passed by the Photography Museum (Fotografiska museet) to see a sketchy-looking sculpture. As my friend described it, "it looks... suspicious." I had no idea it was even there, as I'd never been to the Photography Museum before.

 

From Södermalm, we pressed onward to Gamla Stan to see some of the old streets and buildings, including the German Church and the big church (Storkyrkan, literally "the big church").

Storkyrkan is actually called Sankt Nikolai kyrka and also known as Stockholms domkyrka. It is a Swedish brick Gothic building and the oldest church in Gamla Stan. We were able to go inside and walk around a bit. There was a tourist booth set up with information brochures in various languages, as well.

 

As we came out of Storkyrkan, the guards seemed to be finishing changing positions outside the palace. They then stood in formation for a long time before doing anything else, and a lot of people began to stand along the sidelines to take photos for a while until they marched off.

We crossed the bridge over to Kungsträdgården next and walked around a bit. The fountain was off, so there wasn't much to see there. In fact, a lot of the usual places were closed, and everywhere it seemed generally a quiet day. I think a lot of the outdoor vendors are starting to shut down because it's the end of high season, and not so many people come to buy sausages and goods on the streets in winter for obvious reasons.

Later in the evening, I met up with a friend to go to a flamenco-style concert in Gamla Stan at the venue where I'd previously gone to a flamenco concert. This time, it was Soranjana Ghosh on the tablas, Erik Rydvall playing nyckelharpa, and Erik Steen playing flamenco guitar. The price at the door was considerably expensive, taking into account that the bars and pubs have free music since they mainly have open mic nights; however, I did think this concert was worth going to. The only problem was that the drums also were amplified, which was unnecessary and all but drowned out the guitar and nearly the nyckelharpa at certain points- especially toward the end of the concert.

 

Once again, I have no idea if this video will work for you guys. But I tried to upload it, anyway, so hopefully at least something will play- even if it's potato quality.

 

Before going our separate ways, we walked around to Riddarholmen for some nighttime scenery. From there, we could see central Stockholm and Södermalm. Unfortunately, neither my camera nor my phone takes low-light photos with particularly great clarity; however, I've decided to upload some anyway so you can see what it looks like at night. Took me a few times to fiddle with the brightness settings.

 

The panoramic shots taken from my phone are actually not bad, except that the waters between Södermalm and Stockholm (Norrmalm?) were too dark to show up, and so the entire piece disappeared from the photos instead :P So here, have a compressed view of Stockholm at night.

 

On Saturday night, a small group of us got together at a friend's place to cook dinner and play card games through the evening. There was more than enough rain and wind, and I misjudged the time it would take to catch the subway, so I ran late.

In fact, it wasn't much of a subway. A lot of the southern stops are above ground, although perhaps not as far above ground as the Kista stop on the blue line.

We made pumpkin lasagna and pudding. I thought I should probably bring something to share, as well, and so I brought kalakukko. My Finnish friend had brought me kalakukko, a traditional Savonian recipe (from Eastern Finland) that is essentially fish bread. Except that I failed to understand that it was fish baked in bread, and so you might imagine everyone's surprise to find an entire small fish sticking out of the side of the bread when I opened it at dinner, from head to tail. :P

In case anyone is wondering, kalakukko is baked at a high enough temperature that it doesn't have to be refrigerated, since the contents are sterilised and well-preserved within the rye bread.
Source (picture of unbaked kalakukko, so don't click if you don't like seeing raw meat): http://yle.fi/uutiset/eu_standards_threaten_finnish_kalakukko/5280505

Overall, it was a late but fun night. We played the card game we learned in Swedish class to the best of our memory, as well as a German card game (that translates to "asshole" in English), and an American card game (Palace).

Luckily, one of the others also lives in the same area as I do, so I didn't have to walk back on my own. I've been a bit worried, since last week a visiting Polish girl went missing from our complex for some reason and now the Polish embassy is searching for her- I haven't heard if she's been found yet. Earlier in the day on Saturday, I was walking to the subway station when I heard a car behind me while I walked on the sidewalk. I turned around to see a car that had parked in the crosswalk, and was simply waiting there. So I turned back around and kept walking, but it pulled up next to me and the guys inside stared at me for a long moment before driving off.

I slept late on Sunday, since we arrived back extremely late, and then took out the garbage and recycling on my way out to the market. I then came back to finish sweeping and mopping the floors since it was my cleaning week. Exciting, huh?

There was snow-slush around Sergels Torg, and so I wondered where it came from. 15 degrees Celsius is definitely not cold enough for any sort of snow, and this was completely isolated in front of the subway stop. I found out from a friend that there was a sort of snow party in Kungsträdgården this weekend, and that's why there was dirty snow lying around- although I still don't know how it got as far as Sergels Torg (or rather, who actually wanted to bring it there).

Halloween decorations are already up in some shop vitrines, as well as other places. Costumes and candy are being sold in the groceries and other stores ("bus eller godis", "trick or treat"). But there is also some Christmas merchandise appearing, although not nearly to the extent that it does in the US this time of year. It's also a good thing there isn't Thanksgiving here to throw into the mix, since it's a confusing disaster when all three holidays have decorations competing with each other on sale in the same store. They then become overwhelmingly commercialised holidays.

I have no idea to what extent Swedes celebrate Halloween here, but they do have such an expression as "trick or treat", as aforementioned. I suppose I'll find out in another week :)

On a side note, I have to remember the time change next Sunday (26 Oct). Usually, Europe changes two weeks before the US does, but it seems to be only a one-week difference this year (2 Nov for Americans). So, don't forget to reset your clocks!

/The Swedish Fish