tak!

I think tak means thank you in Swedish. Not exactly sure. Correction: I just looked it up, and it indeed does mean thank you. Anyway, I thought yesterday wasn’t going to be exciting. I woke up late again (the effects of jet lag I think), and ate a late breakfast with Anika and Narissa. We putzed around the house and got ready to go into the city. Thomas asked if there was anything that I wanted to see specifically, and I had found the Drottningholm Court Theatre in one of my travel books.

It’s one of the oldest theatres in the world, constructed by King Gustav III in the mid 1700’s. It’s still in original condition, and had some of the earliest special effects in theatre. They used a drum with a canvas around it to create the effects of wind, and a big drum with rocks in it to simulate thunder. When we went on the tour, they let us listen to the sound effects in the theatre and they were convincing! We walked around a museum of the theatre and I bought some postcards and a poster. All my opera friends could appreciate that I visited there.

Drottningholm Palace is the official residence of the King and Queen of Sweden and they commute everyday to Stockholm according to Thomas. It’s a very nice Baroque-styled Palace with an attached gardens. They are in the process of restoring the groves of lime trees that ones lined both sides of the gardens. I guess the soil was not correctly cultivated for them to survive the last them they were planted.

After the Palace, we drove into Stockholm and did a little sight-seeing in the old part of the city, called the Gamlan Stan. We walked the very touristy part seeing shops and such. Anika used to have a beauty parlor in one of the building and we walked by and took pictures. The four of us ate dinner at an Italian restaurant in the Gamlan Stan, which was pretty good, on par with most upscale Italian restaurants in the US.

It was time for Thomas to off load me to his sister, Ingrid, who lives in the southern part of Stockholm, called Södermalm. She lives in a very nice apartment with her husband, Patrik and sons Sebastian (13) and Daniel (7). The guys had gone golfing and missed their bus back to the city, so it was just Ingrid and I for dinner. She made me very good waffle-like things with whipped creme and strawberry preserves.

She had told her neighbors (Gil and um...I forgot the woman’s name) who are friends of her and Patrik that I was here, and they apparently wanted to me, so after dinner, we went down to their apartment for a drink, which turned into making dinner for the rest of the family when they got back. Gil and his wife have two small children too, who are 7 and 5. Anyway, so when the guys got home, everyone who hadn’t eaten did so at Gil’s apartment downstairs, and all the adults sat around, drank wine, and had a chat.

They were very fascinated with my experiences as a musician. I had my computer with me, and I played for them some of Chelsea’s recording, and then some of mine. I guess they were impressed! Then again, who wouldn’t be impressed with Chelsea! HA! You’re famous in Sweden now!

Discussion of going out was discussed, and Gil and Patrik decided to take me out since I was only with them one night. The first place we went to was one of the only skyscrapers in Stockholm, a whopping 25 stories! I surmised they aren’t big on skyscrapers in Stockholm! Anyway, on the top floor is a very classy bar called Sky. That was the first stop of our evening. You could see all the sections of Stockholm from it, and a very good sight-seeing tool.

Afterwards, we saw an American musician, Sharon Jones, at a bar called Bash. She is a soul and funk singer. Very James Brown-like. But she was extremely good! After the tail end of her performance, we went to the balcony where they had a DJ and psuedo dance floor. Very good people watching actually. Stockholm has a very eclectic group of people, at least at this bar. And they played a myraid of music too, some American R&B (Kanye West), hits from the early 90’s (bring it back Skateland!), some 80’s Michael Jackson, and even American disco from the 70’s. It was a cool place.

The next place we went is, according to Patrik, the most famous bar in all of Stockholm. Cafe Opera is in the complex that holds the Royal Opera House, and the place where all the American celebrities go to party while they’re in Stockholm. Unfortunately for all of us, it was closed! Patrik and Gil assured me that it was because during the summer, Stockholm night life is less active because a lot of people go on holiday (a European term) and aren’t in the city very much, so a lot of clubs and bars aren’t open as much.

The guys asked about where to go next at Cafe Opera, and they referred us to some place called The Soap Bar. We walked there, and was pretty much like the last place we were, except more people, and lots of lights. We stayed there a while, being able to witness some guy get in a fight on the patio, and be thrown out by the security people.

The Swedish are no different from Americans, wanting food after they’ve been drinking, no matter what time it is. We went to a place called Max Burger, the homegrown equivalent of McDonalds, but Patrik fervently swore that it was much better than McDonalds. It was good, but tasted like fast food. I’m not super fond of of McDonalds, but Max Burger was a little above that in quality, so maybe the American equivalent of Wendys?

They decided I needed a walking tour on the way home, so we walked quite a bit of the way home, not taking a taxi until we were closer. Let me tell you, it’s very odd that the sun rises between 2:30-3am in Sweden. I won’t tell you when exactly we got home, but I will say the sun was starting to come up when I got home. Regardless of that, I had to be up at 6:30 to get ready to catch the train at 8:30 to Karlskoga.

Ingrid had made me a very nice breakfast of cereal with yogurt, coffee (much needed), and toast. One note here that I didn’t mention earlier in my posts. Most Swedes (or maybe Europeans for that matter, I’m not sure) don’t eat cereal with milk. They eat it with a very mild yogurt that is halfway between the consistency of milk and what us Americans think of as yogurt. It’s not sweet like American yogurt is either. But it goes well with the cereal, which usually has dried fruit in it.

We shuffled off to the subway to get to the train station. The Stockholm subway was very clean (compared to when I was in New York) and it was practically dead silent. In NYC, it’s usually quiet on the subway in the morning, but I think the difference in Stockholm is that their subways run extremely quietly too, so it was a very odd feeling not to hear a lot of extraneous noise while riding it.

Waiting for the train made me nervous since I’ve never ridden a train before. Who would take my ticket? Where would I put my luggage? Eek! My train ride so far has been an interesting experience.

First of all, let me say that I have never encountered a more annoying group of people than Indian tourists. They took forever to load their luggage on the train, attempting to be quick, but slowing down everyone else in the process, screaming in Indian at each other the whole time!! Granted, I wasn’t very hungover this morning, but I didn’t get much sleep, so my patience was very thin. And they played musical chairs like 6 years olds on a road trip, swapping seats and moving around all their crap, again practically screaming at each other in Indian the whole time. I could not have been more annoyed.

We’ll see what the next few days hold. Probably not as exciting as my night out in Stockholm, but then again, I’m staying in the countryside with my Great Aunt Jean, so my expectations are low. Thomas has arranged for his brother, Michael, to drive me down to Stockholm Friday morning, so hopefully I’ll have time to explore on my own. We’ll see, Thomas seems to have my whole trip planned for me! It’s alright, I’ve appreciated his generosity immensely. :-)

Place of the Post: Max Burger. Call it what you may, but the Swedes like their fast food as much as any American. :-)

Phrase of the day: God eftermiddag - Good afternoon