Friday, July 07, 2006
 
Ok, Stockholm is beautiful and all that, here are a couple of shots from Gamla Stan, the old town. But I've been here before and everything feels quite familiar. Great nightlife, culture, lovely outside spaces, I should in particular mention all the islands between Stockholm and the open sea; the archipelago...
But never mind all that for now, here's Anne Duedal de Normandie:
 
Stockholm Travel Warning 1: The islands around Stockholm encourage silly behaviour. When play-fencing with fingers as substitute swords, be aware that your reach is much shorter and that you need to be much closer to your opponent to be able to strike. It's therefore a very, very, very bad idea to strike at the same time as the other person.
Stockholm Travel Solution (or how to deal with Stockholm Travel Warning 1): Make sure the person you're engaging in play-fencing with has a skull-density of less than 6.3 on the Zinedine Zidane-scale.
Otherwise the result will be this:
Cut and bruised but still smiling! Ok, ok, it doesn't look all that dramatic in this photo, but I promise you I almost had to call out the air ambulance.
Stockholm Travel Warning 2: Failing to pay heed to Stockholm Travel Warning 1 might end up in you looking like a complete arse trying to make sense of the whole experience by writing silly poems.
Like this one:
(a knowledge of Norwegian, French, the world cup and literature will better enable you to understand some of this...)
Anne Duedal or The Poetic Ponytail
A photo-installation-poem by the light of dawn
by Martin Voll
Anne Duedal
du gjör meg litt gal
Dudu, Nanou
gave me a Zizou
I gave her one too
Nanou, Dudu
over the cuckoo's nest flew
Two shoes, one shoe
And no one knew
but me and you
The prancing ponytail
The dancing summerveil
The magical forest is singing
of you in its lingering song
Your voice in my ears is still ringing
with the sound of a melody long gone
When does an echo end its motion?
When is the ocean no longer an ocean?
Skin akin
a head like a zoo
The red spilt on green
slowly turns blue
The pidgeon in the alley
has flown back to her valley
Anne Duedal
du gjör meg litt gal
Happy birthday, by the way! She looks about 16, but she's actually a month older than me...
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In Stockholm I stayed at the excellent but slightly expensive City Backpackers Hostel. But when you take into consideration that you get free pasta and free internet (!!!), it's actually a very good deal - about 22 euros per night, if I remember correctly.
On my first night out in Stockholm I was lucky enough to bump into and be shown around town by the Swedes Pia, whose business card says "when you want close contact with the Swedish people" :-), singer Sofia, and violinist Hanna, who unfortunately went sailing...
I'm not travelling to see the inside of hostels, but in Stockholm I actually crashed out at City Backpackers for a while. Probably due to some recent events which had made me feel a bit down... The clientelle at the hostel was the typical youthful crowd you'll find at these places, here's a very random selection:
Aussies, Dutchmen, Swiss, Americans, Frenchies, Belgians and many others... Oh and I taught Andrea the Italian how to be a little bit more Italian with the girls... and got him a date!
And I feel very sorry for Les Bleus in the world cup final, by the way. Italy didn't deserve to beat Australia and should never even have been in the final.
Girls from Stockholm? Some people, particularly southern Europeans, claim they are the most beautiful in the world. Two independent sources who both like blondes suggested Tallinn, Estonia. Three independent sources - keen on brunettes - claim it's Mendoza, Argentina. I can't wait! :-) In the meantime, I'll start a completely sexist grading system for the places I've been to so far... at some point soon.
It should be pointed out that I may be biased against them, but some Stockholm girls unfortunately suffer from extreme levels of self-consciousness, image-awareness and group mentality. Being like everyone else isn't trendy, it's just boring.
On Saturday I went to Uppsala, see the next travelogue entry.
On Thursday I left Stockholm with a heavy heart. I originally wanted to follow the coastline to Finland and then travel south through all the lakes, but to make up time I got on a ferry via Åland to Helsinki - a total journey of about 15 hours for just over 40 euros, more if you want a cabin. Viking Line are the cheapest.
I had a surprisingly good time on this super-tacky party boat! Sailing through the archipelago as the sun was beginning to set was an experience in itself...
...then Guillermo insisted on sharing his food with me...
...before I hooked up with the ice hockey-playing Finnish lesbian Laura and danced barefoot into the early hours (sadly not pictured). The seagulls could have massacred me on the deck and I would have known nothing about it - the great thing about travelling like this is that you sleep like a baby wherever you are!
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