Stockholm Is Where My Heart Is (Part 2)

Continuing on from the last post (like I had promised), here is a recount of some of my favourite places I had the pleasure to visit whilst staying in the lovely Stockholm.

SHOPPING, SHOPPING, SHOPPING

As I had previously mentioned, one of the best shopping streets (in my opinion) is Götgaten, but this is purely for a fix of high street clothing.
Yes, definitely check out the high street, but Stockholm has some amazing vintage stores which I highly recommend anyone who is a vintage lover to rummage through them.

Emmaus: This is more akin to Salvation Army or Save the Children stores whereby all the clothes, entertainment, household stuff, etc, are donated by the public and the money profit goes to helping the children and struggling communities in Africa. There are two stores next to each other, one is just called Emmaus and is more like an op shop (for those back in Australia think similarly to Good Sammies), and the other store is called Emmaus Vintage – and here it is more clothes that are of a better quality, and most of them are designer brands (but for a seriously good cheaper price). Emmaus is found in a street just off the main Götgaten, and it’s not easy to miss as it is a big yellow building with EMMAUS written in giant black letters. It’s a place worth checking out, both stores are good, but go to Emmaus Vintage to score yourself an original designer coat/jumper/dress for a ridiculously cheap price – most of them are in that good quality shape that they look as if they may have only ever been worn once.

Grandpa: Now this place is not cheap…. However it is a really interesting store to just have a browse through (and dream about one day owning all that you desire). There are two parts to this store – upstairs it displays clothing and accessories, and little knick knacks or quirky books; whereas downstairs it is called Grandpa Vintage, but it’s not clothes, actually it is a range of old school furniture such as chairs, desks, wardrobes, old desk globes, and lots and lots of old maps. It’s sort of fun in a way to just come here and look at this tea-coloured maps from long ago which show the world or parts of the world different to what they are now. I absolutely adore old maps, especially for their sepia colour, but also I feel there is more character and love about them – I think it’s similar to my love of old towns, it’s the history of it that makes me smile. I just find the maps today all in bright colours are so boring and there is no magic to them, whereas you can look at an old map and immediately think of the first explorers who were discovering all these new foreign places around the world, and they dared to travel the unknown.
Back to Grandpa though – even though the clothes are not vintage, they are very good designer brands, so as I said, it is nice just to float around the store occasionally putting on a coat and thinking maybe one day you will have this exact one… or something similar to it for half the price.
Have a look through yourself, here’s the website link: http://www.grandpa.se/en

POP Stockholm: This is just around the corner from Grandpa. My friend and I didn’t plan on visiting here (unlike the other shops which we had previously read about) but we just stumbled across it as we were passing by. Although stumble is the incorrect word, you basically bump into it as the sign outside grabs your attention through its big orange writing against a purple background (those colours definitely work so well contrasting against each other to make an eye-catching design). It feels like quite a small shop, but that’s only because there is so much stuff inside! You are surrounded by clothes, but in a good way – not in any way overbearing as you can just get lost flicking through the different racks. I’d say the store is more retro than vintage, most of it’s inspiration comes from the 60s and 70s – this was not only reflected in the clothing and accessories but also by the music the store owner was playing and through the decorations (my eyes scoped across the walls and found a poster of The Who which made me a very happy chappy, and I felt very at home in the store). I could of spent more time in the store, but sadly time was against me – although the good news is that there is a website to help console me, and for you to have a peek through too: http://www.popstockholm.com/

NOT CARPE DIEM, BUT CARPE NOCTEM

Unfortunately, my friend and I didn’t get to experience too much of what Stockholm’s nightlife had to offer, but we did get to have a little exposure to it on our Saturday night there.

We chose to go to Marie Laveau – after discovering the club we were originally looking for was only opened on Thursday and Friday nights – however it was a blessing, because Marie Laveau was a very cool/chic/intriguing/lively/classy/grungy/rocking bar and club; and it definitely made a great start to our few days in the city.

What I liked most about Marie Laveau was the fact there was a different atmosphere in each of the different rooms – there was something for everybody, and there were different crowds of people occupying each of the rooms. On the first floor, as you walk in there is a white room with chairs and tables on either side, and hanging on the wall some different photographs or artwork – there was no bar, although you could still drink in here. The people that occupied this room looked like your stereotypical indie/hipster/student type who were enjoying their conversations to each other in a more quieter and intimate space. The next room was a diner/café (I think during the day one can eat here possibly?), it was a darker room, but again more intimate and there was one bar – there were few people here, mainly couples who probably wanted a little more privacy to converse and ‘get to know each more’ if they previously hadn’t. The room next to this was bustling and the busiest on the first floor – it was the main bar, and actually a cocktail bar (you could order any drink you wanted but most – the females at least – were all ordering cocktails); everyone here was dressed a lot more classy, they all seemed smart and sophisticated and were older than the group from the first room. As far as cocktail bars go, is was maybe a tad small, but very stylish, and this trendy vibe made up for the size of cocktail menu list.
Downstairs (which was underground) was the club, COMPLETELY DIFFERENT atmosphere to what I had experienced on the first floor – it was as if we had walked into a completely new place and we were no longer in the sophisticated Marie Laveau. As you walk into the club downstairs, all the walls are covered in graffiti paint, there are retro pinball machines, a bar where most of the orders were for beers, and the floors were much more stickier and the people were much more sweatier. It was very enjoyable though – my friend and I danced a lot to the DJ set, which on this particular night they were playing mostly older tunes, majority of the songs were from the new romantics and new wave era, and it was great! So nice to have a change, especially back in Perth were most of the clubs will play pop/dance/dj music which is all good and fun, but a little variation never hurt anybody.

In conclusion, I’ll never forget Marie Laveau. 

FIKA!

Before I went to Stockholm I had read that it is often described as coffee capital of Scandinavia, and I was hoping I wouldn’t be let down in my expectations.

I wasn’t.

There were cafes EVERYWHERE! I loved it, I felt like I was in café heaven. Every corner I turned, every street I walked down there would always be at least one café, maybe an independent café, otherwise it would have been Expresso House (which I think must be the Starbucks for Sweden).

I soon discovered that the café culture is in the Swedes’ blood as they have this ‘tradition’ called “fika”. Fika basically means to meet up for a friend for coffee and a piece of cake or pastry. Well, well, this was my kind of place. There is nothing more I love than having a coffee with a cheeky slice of cake on the side – I mean you seriously can’t just have coffee on it’s own, it will be lonely, it needs a friend, an accompaniment. I never let my coffee down, and I never will, I choose to always provide it with a companion!

Getting back to the “fika”… generally it is taken in the afternoon, around 14.00 or thereabouts – but I think most Swedes break this ‘guideline’ and take it any time during the day. My friend and I, however, we mostly took our ‘fika’ in the afternoon – it was always brunch in the midday, then fika in the afternoon, then drinking in the evening (but sometimes we also had our fika in the evening after dinner too, we just couldn’t resist!).
As a result, we drank a lot of coffee and ate a lot of cake/sweets and visited many cafes (mostly Expresso House because it was right by our hostel) – but my favourite café we visited was Café String. It’s like walking into a retro 50s diner when you see the red walls and black and white checkered linen floors – yet it’s so much more interesting and alluring than that. Once you enter the doors and look around, you begin to notice that all the furniture is not the same – there are many different sofas, chairs, coffee tables; and some are arranged in peculiar ways – for example they had chairs sitting right by the window, literally on top of the windowsill, so to even get up to sit on these particular chairs you had to climb onto the chairs or sofas which were situated right by the windowsill. It was an adventure in a sense, and I was completely in awe and excited about it.
Whilst we were sitting in there, as I looked around I noticed nearly all the people sitting and enjoying their fika were either groups students having meetings or study sessions, students on their own catching up with readings, middle aged men writing or working away on their laptops – I was in love with it all, and I decided there and then that when I arrive back home I will find my own unique café which will become my new additional study/work space (and place for fika of course!).

So now I’m back in Bergen, and while I was incredibly sad sitting at the airport in Stockholm, contemplating whether I should miss my flight and stay forever in Sweden, I knew I had to come back to Bergen and I have accepted that even though I’m not staying in Stockholm anymore (nor am I going back there before heading home – due to money and time), I’ll always have these amazing memories from this short but sweet trip; and I will continue to reminisce about them whenever I am enjoying a coffee and cake, or I’m visiting a new vintage store I’ve read about, or I see someone wearing a Monki/Weekday design piece of clothing, or I see a Helmut Newton photograph. I loved everything about Stockholm, and hopefully one day soon I can revisit again – whether it’s in another year or when I’m old and grey – but for now at least, I know that there is a part of my heart that’s been left in Stockholm and will always be there for Stockholm to keep...