For as much of a homebody as I can be, I've got this terrible itch to move. It flairs every 3 weeks, coinciding with my week break here in Spain during Semana Santa (Holy Week...which means a week of KKK like dressed people doing processions around the city with huge Virgin Mary statues, vendors lining the streets selling candy and baked potatoes, and endless crowds mingling the main drag and spitting sunflower seeds at your feet). So I escaped the religious revival for Sweden and Germany.
My 'bosom buddy' from college, Leise had recently moved to Stockholm, Sweden to live with her boyfriend for a bit while she figured out her next move after teaching English for a year in Thailand. I decided to repay the favor of her visit to Malaga with a visit to Stockholm and I couldn't be more glad that I did. There's nothing like exploring a new city with a friendly local who just happens to also be your best friend. She knew exactly what I'd enjoy and so she backed in everything we could in the best 48 hours I've had since I arrived in Europe.
Arriving on the first sunny day Stockholm has seen in a while, I engulf Leise in a hug and we head off to her apartment to drop off my back pack. We then march out into the city, abandoning our coats for the brave spring warmth that joined us for our adventures. She took me to her favorite spot (and mine as well), the Culture House of Sweden, a 5 story building of artistic playfulness and intellectual daring. We wandered the collections, lounged in Dr.Seuss like libraries,
and sipped espresso in their hip to the max cafe overlooking the main square with brilliant windows that spanned the lenght of the wall so you had a clear view of everything. Our next stop was the Vasa Museum. A hilarious exhibition of the Vasa, a great Swedish vessel that sank after a 30 minute career.
It speaks to the Swedish sense of humor...honoring the greatest engineering failing of their day. Then...we high tailed it to the most amazing restaurant I've ever been to..Hermans.
It doesn't amaze you by name, but one step inside and you're in love. It's a vegetarian buffet. It had HUMMUS. I almost died. And Leise and David even reserved a table for us just to make sure I could eat a vegetarian meal with them.
Dave, the 'local' if you will, took us to a hot young hipster hangout, "Skybar" Yes, it sounds cheesy, but the view was worth the 8euro beer bought to get ritzy window seats.
Exhausted, we wandered back to their apartment and watched American History X with Swedish subtitles on TV. As silly as this sounds, I've missed just hanging out with friends. Sinking into the couch, I couldn't help but slip in a secret smile, I'd found that "I'm home" feeling again.
Day 2 in Sweden was just as busy...off to the Palace to see the nonchalant changing of the guards, wandering the old city,
sitting in cafes, peeking in old churches,
wandering through a dog park to an Ethnography Museum (another reason why I love Leise, she humors my nerdy side and happily goes with me to Ethnography musuems. a true friend).
And then, Leise took the cake. She, Dave and I went to the circus she had bought tickets for. If you ever get the chance, GO. It was breathtaking. The whole time I was on the edge of my seat, gasping, "Oh MY GOD!!" when my jaw wasn't hitting the floor. It was such a simple set up. 3 men, one pole, countless yoga balls, one floor, 1 trampoline and 2 small trampolines and countless odd props, like a palm tree, Elvis costumes, pieces of wood and tires. They were true comedic acrobats who choreographed their a routine to music that looked and felt so natural, as if they were simply bouncing around and creating the performance organically. For your youtube-ing pleasure, look up "Race Horse Company" the show is called "petit Mal". Be stunned.
After the show, breathless and eager to play, we went to the popular burger joint in Stockholm that on the menu lets you know how many carbon points you earn for eating a cow burger versus a veggie burger. And then I did something that I had never done before in all my teen years. I ate a (veggie) burger and fries and hung out with Leise and Dave. Maybe this seems like a moment I should just skim over, but it was envlivening to do something that so many of my friends had done during highschool and college, but I rarely/never did...eat burgers and hang out...it was fun..and weird...and I liked it. Not that anyone is normal or we had a normal night, but, it felt so right to do something so relaxing and unpresumptiously enjoyable. Later we met up with some of Dave's Swedish friends and listened to some Swedish punk at a local bar and they affirmed an inkling that'd been growing stronger...Sweden is cool.
Needless to say, I was bummed to leave the next morning. But, to call upon my favorite poet, "That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet."
- Emily Dickinson
And so, with shaky breaths and tears I didn't want to fall I got on the bus to the airport, I sunk into the loving solitude of waving goodbye. It's so hard to move on and go on, to other places and other people, when the ones who mean so much only come with you in memory.
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