July 30, Friday

Today was my last day in Stockholm. It was a great day with nice weather, good food and good company. I began the day by cleaning my room and getting things ready to go. Once I was together enough, I met Helen for lunch and some shopping. We found an awesome bookstore, in which I found a book showing Swedish Architects homes. Two homes I had been to were in the book, so I couldn't refuse it. The place where Peter, our instructor, was staying was one of them, and the other was the apartment Eric Strindberg, where we visited the first day in Tensta! I will show everyone when I get home, the book is really neat.

Then I moved on to visit the National Museum, where they have a show of "At Home" in Scandinavia featuring Carl Larson's paintings. It was quite a collection! I then walked about the city trying to soak in my favorite spots. I will have to do a recap later, after some reflection. I ran into Kate and Fuji and had dinner with them at Muggen before meeting the group for drinks. I was on my way home from the bar when I ran into Jesse and Rob who easily convinced me to go hang out by the campfire down by the lake in honor of our last night! It's pretty late here, but I have an 8 hour bus ride tomorrow to Oslo and I plan to sleep on the bus.

Stockholm has been great, but I'm excited to move on!! I'll be tuning back in to more building talk after this, it's gonna be a crazy week and a half...

July 27-29, Tuesday-Thursday

As soon as Greg left I had to get down to business. Our last project has taken up these past three days, but now I'm done with school work, just drawing and seeing left!!

Kate and I worked on this project together because we were both interested in the subway system. We decided to ride one of the lines all the way to the end, getting off at each stop, and see what we find. The end result was more of an experiential one, meaning we were most moved by how the subway really changes the farther you get from the city and how different the relationship with the ground can be. I was interested in how much it compresses time in the city and how disorienting it can be, but we found that once you get outside the city you are above ground (for the most part) and have a much different experience. None of this is really mind-blowing, but it is different from what we experience in our city, so it was fun to look at!

Here are some of our slides from the presentation:

July 26, Monday

Vaxholm is to the northeast of Stockholm

Today was Greg's last day in Stockholm, which meant it needed to be a great day. I did have to go into to school to meet up and discuss this week's project, but they kept it quick and I was out of there! Greg and I hopped on a bus and went to Vaxholm, an island of the archipelago. We started the day with smiles on our faces.

We walked all over Vaxholm. There is so much to experience as you walk around the island, rocks and water, benches, little beach cottages, small shops and cafes and each thing you encounter adds to the charming nature of the place. Greg and I just walked and talked, and sat and talked, and walked and sat some more. It was a really nice time to have with just him. I miss him now.

I had a hard time choosing pictures for the day, so I went big (lots of pictures). The pictures really show our day, and it was just so beautiful!

Greg on the beach

We ate lunch out on that green area!

Our favorite little dock (with a really cool grill)

Me on the boardwalk: cantilevered from the rocks

Our cafe with the most pleasant eating space we've encountered in a long time

One of the best things about Vaxholm is you can get there quickly by bus, or you can take a ferry to/from Stockholm. I wanted Greg to take the ferry back, so he could see Stockholm as you arrive from the water (I think that's the way everyone should experience it).

A little island with a cabin attached

The cruise ships are pretty daunting when you are a small boat

As we arrive into the city (Gamla Stan)

Of course, for the last meal we had to get one more korv!! We met Katie and Jesse at a bar for drinks, and then hit up the korv stand before going home to pack for Greg. 

That's a guy excited about a korv!

We had a small casualty along the walk. 

We ended the day with smiles too...I almost peed my pants when Greg's sausage (1 of 4 in the bun) came flying out of his bun onto the ground mid-step.

July 24-25, Saturday-Sunday

Saturday, July 24
We began the weekend on a high note of another breakfast at Saturnus, probably one of my favorite places for food on the trip so far. We went with Ji, Kris, Aileen and MK to celebrate a lazy weekend morning and the guys leaving (Ji's boyfriend left Monday). They have a drink there called Cafe Melange, and it's made with real hot chocolate and coffee (put together like nothing I've tasted before)! We got a Tartine, with butter, jam, and nutella spreads, and the french toast...both amazing.

We then made our way (slowly) across town to the Modern Museum. I had already been (and had the Will Ferrell sighting), but thought it was interesting enough to take Greg back to. We spent most of our day there looking at the exhibits. We were pretty tired, and the weather had made a turn towards rain, so if I remember correctly we went home and watched a movie! I think this was the first time I truely was homesick. I'm really enjoying my experience, but I can't wait to be home and cuddled up on our couch watching movies when the weather's bad.

Warhol wallpaper that was used to once cover the whole museum

View looking towards the Vasa Museum from the Modern Museum

Sunday, July 25

Greg's attempt to capture the movie theater

This weekend was also the first time in Stockholm the weather had been bad. Greg and I lived it up on Sunday, and decided to make it a double feature day, true Seattle, Greg and Katey style. We wanted to see How to Train Your Dragon, but it was only playing in Swedish, so we decided to see Sex and the City 2 and Inception. We loved Inception, not so much Sex and the City (although I'm still glad I saw it, and I would have seen it sooner or later...why not in Stockholm?). Dad and Larry, you would like Inception and should see it. For that matter, I think Mom, Alan, MK and Bev would like it too! Well, maybe Bev,  but you never know. The movie experience is fun here, you are assigned seats when you purchase your tickets, and they actually still close the curtains between the previews and the main show and have someone come out and say something in Swedish!


I just saw that blogger added a way to add captions to pictures, so you will get more explanation of pictures from now on!!

July 22-23, Thursday-Friday

July 22, Thursday

Katey had to give her group presentation on Thursday so one of her classmate’s girlfriend and I decided to make dinner for a handful of people while they spent the afternoon in their presentations. Marnie (the girlfriend) and I had a good time making a beer can chicken, corn on the cob, and salad for the group of hard working architecture students.

Katey and her classmates were very thankful and we all had a leisurely dinner in one of the dorm kitchens (they have a long table that could probably accommodate 10).

After dinner we went out for drinks. Katey and I had had a casual drink here and there on the trip but hadn’t “gone out” since I had been in Stockholm. This was a lot of fun.

Our first stop was an outdoor “beer hall” that sits at the top of a ledge on Södermalm (the coolest neighborhood in Stockholm). We had such a good time chatting that we forgot to take pictures, so here are some good ones from Google.

We then made one more stop at a bar that had been written up in our guide book as a great place to sit around with local beer drinkers and toss a few back. There weren’t many people there but you could tell the place had potential.

July 23, Friday (Katey is taking over from here on out)

The class schedule on Friday involved a full day tour of Stockholm’s notable modern architecture accomplishments. But after a long week of "architecture" for Greg, we decided to take the day off!! We started the morning late by going on a walk around the area by the dorms. We happened upon a barn that had bunnies (and pigs, horses and goats)!!!!

 

and of course, we fika-ed for breakfast

We had been wanting to do a tour of parliament, so we went to Gamla Stan next to take the tour. It's a free tour, and it was really interesting. We learned about the different branches of their government and how they worked together. I could go into more, but we'll keep this on the visual side:

We then had our next korv of the trip to round out the day!!!

July 21, Wendesday

Katey had to work on her project sporadically on Wednesday, because it was due on Thursday, but her efficiency allowed us to spend a fair amount of time together on Wednesday. As she worked in the morning, I spent my morning at two cafés reading. 

 

After Katey was done working for the morning, we hurried to one of the lunch spots that we had been excited to try. We had to hurry because the class was going to the Millesgården that afternoon. The lunch spot was being hyped as the best korv stand in Stockholm. What is “korv” you ask? It’s a generic sausage, but at a korv stand you have your choice of some 20 different korv (e.g. Italianisk, Chorizo, grillad korv…), and they are served inside of a fresh French baguette with some light sauce poured inside the baguette. We were both very impressed and are hoping to head back before the trip is over.

The Millesgården was a nice afternoon activity. Carl Milles is a famous Swedish sculptor who built a beautiful home with his wife in the early 20^th century and then willed it to Sweden before he died. The sculpture museum is open aired and it feels very Italian, because Italian art was a big influence on Milles. We strolled through the museum and enjoyed being outside with such beautiful scenery both of the sculptures and the view.

And of course we had to fika...

We had our best dinner yet that night in Ostermalm, a fancier part of the city. It was an expensive place but the waiter was quick to steer us toward two items on the more affordable side of the menu. Katey got one of the best club sandwiches I have ever had (freshly roasted chicken breasts all the club sandwich fixings) and I had my second korv order of the day – sausage with white beans and parmesan cheese. The waiter also made great wine pairing recommendations and we were happy campers. 

July 20, Tuesday

Tuesday was a bit of a loner day for me. Katey was working with her group and after seeing a good portion of the neighborhood on Monday, I wasn’t too inclined to follow her and her group around for another day of exploring and analyzing. So as Katey worked, I went and took a tour of City Hall. I didn’t have the camera with me but here are a few pics of my most memorable images: 

Katey got done with her group around 4:00 and met me for a drink at the top of the Kultur House. The drink was exactly what we both needed, and the view from the top wasn’t bad either (I highlighted where we sat, below):

July 19, Monday

Hi everyone,

This is going to be a Greg series of updates. Katey is at school with her group finishing her second project. They will present this afternoon and then we will have a 3-day weekend starting with a trip to a beer garden of some sorts tonight after the presentations are over. The class does have a modern architecture of Stockholm tour scheduled on Friday but Katey was able to get the Rickers out of that one, so we are in the clear and very excited about it.

Katey got her second assignment on Monday. It was very similar to the first week’s assignment, which was to walk a neighborhood that the teachers assign each group and create a cohesive narrative that connects buildings, parks, or other urban objects. To prep for this, we spent most of Monday walking/researching her neighborhood, which was not an especially cool neighborhood in either of our opinions.

Here are some pictures from the neighborhood:

Maybe the most noteworthy thing from Monday is that it was our 4 dessert day. Ice cream is big in Sweden. It’s hard to go anywhere without seeing a sign for “glass”. Sooooo, we couldn’t resist getting a couple ice cream bars on our walk. Then we stopped at a candy shop because “we thought there would be good coffee there”. We were disappointed to find that the store was closing for 2 weeks due to holidays and that everything in the store was 50% off. We couldn’t resist picking up a few candies at a bargain like that. Did I mention that Katey also got a little dessert at lunch? Ah well, that was her least favorite of the 4!

Our favorite dessert of the day was after a great dinner in Södermalm, of Stieg Larsson fame. Dinner was at one of Katey’s favorite cafés, Muggen. We split a pasta and cheeseburger. The cheeseburger came on an open faced baguette, which was twice the length of the burgers diameter. The chefs were very generous with the feta cheese, placing a good ¾ inch slab of feta atop the burger. Neither of us feta lovers had a problem with this. The other cool part about Muggen is that they offer a number of water choices. You can pour yourself a glass of water from a jug with lemon, orange, cucumber, or cucumber & watermelon slices. Not bad!

After a FULL dinner, we were talked into trying a crepe place nearby by one of Katey’s classmates who saw us dining at Muggen. Let’s just say I am singing a different tune on crepes going forward. I haven’t been a big fan in the past, but this sliced pear, chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream crepe was extraordinary.