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...

Stockholm Is Where My Heart Is (Part 1)

Before I left for my exchange, one of my aims was to visit different parts of Scandinavia because I didn’t last time I was in Europe and was pretty devastated that I had missed out on seeing these beautiful countries. So after starting my course and realising I had in fact a vast amount of free time (studying hasn’t really gotten too hectic as yet, so I am curious as to when it will hit me, but for now I’ve managed to keep my head well above the water that is my university work), I decided to book tickets to the countries I really wanted to see so as to make sure I WOULD NOT miss out on seeing them again. I booked Sweden, Denmark and Finland; with also plans to see a little more of Norway too of course.
The weekend just passed was my trip to Sweden, with myself staying in Stockholm for four days. I had originally booked the trip on my own, but a friend I had met whilst on exchange really wanted to come and of course I was more than happy to have the company, so she booked her ticket last minute and joined me on the new voyage.

I have so much to share about the trip, and so I have decided to divide it into two parts (which you will notice in the title) - the first part is about the different districts, and the second part (which I will upload soon) includes more about the different shops to see, the 'coffee culture' and nightlife. This is still quite a long post though, so I have included photos to make it a bit more enjoyable, or at the very least bearable!

THE CITY CENTRE DISTRICTS

Stockholm is quite a big city – in fact it is dubbed “the capital of Scandinavia” - and like any big city it has many areas/districts within the city centre (as well as the greater city outskirts, but I stayed within the city centre whilst visiting). My favourite areas I visited were the following: Norrmalm, Gamla Stan, Djurgärden (but more specifically Skansen), and Södermalm. They each offered something different and were unique in their own way, which made them all the more alluring for me. Here’s a bit of a ‘rundown’ of each of them – what they offered and why I loved them.

Norrmalm: This was ‘central Stockholm’, the central station is located in this area and majority of the hotels and hostels. The hostel we stayed at was also located here which made it extremely convenient for walking around the town (free transport is always the best). In this area one can find the Kulturhuset and Gallerian – Kulturhuset is a cool place to sit around and wait to see what will happen, because within moments SOMETHING will be happening there whether it’s a lecture, dancers or musicians – the first time I was there I got to see a band play, then when I visited on another day with my friend we saw a small group of people dancing. Gallerian, which is right next to Kulturhuset, is the main shopping centre. It is huge, and offers everything you desire, therefore one could easily spend a whole day in there just shopping and looking around in awe at all the different stores.
Not far from the shopping streets is a beautiful park, Kungsträd garden, it has artificial grass which makes it a little less authentic but in the middle there is a cool fountain and on the sides the pathways are lined with trees which is something I absolutely love (sadly because it hasn’t hit peak autumn yet the leaves hadn’t started to completely brown and fall, but it was still pretty nonetheless)

HOWEVER, not far from this area is an even better park. It is much more beautiful and I loved it much more for it’s historical value (plus it wasn’t as dodgy as the other park – at one point during the day, my friend and I were followed by some youths that had nothing better to do with their day but hassle us). It’s called Strömparterren, and it is Stockholm’s first public park. Back in the day it was one of the only places where there was no class divide, it wasn’t specifically for the rich or the poor, but everyone who was anyone was welcome to enjoy their days in the park. It is very beautiful and there is a naked man called the “Sun Singer” who looks above everyone in the park. The Sun Singer is a monument to Esaias Tegnér, who is a much-loved Swedish poet, writer, bishop and professor of Greek language (although I think he was mainly loved for his writings and poetry). I liked this park more than the others because you could sit on the steps by the water and look over the city; plus if you turned around in a full 360 degrees you would be able to see the National museum, the Opera, and the many Royal buildings including the Royal Palace and the Royal Apartments.

 Above: That statue overlooking the water is the Sun Singer ^

Gamla Stan: Or the “Old Town” as it is referred to in English. This place got a little bit crowded due to the many visitors, but you don’t really care about how busy it is because its prettiness will evaporate anything that annoys you. Every place I go, if there is an ‘old town’ it is always one of my favourite places. I think the reason is that it always has such beautiful architecture, and many different laneways that act as a fun labyrinth to discover, and moreover it’s more historic. Who say’s history is dull eh? In fact one of my favourite places in Perth is Fremantle because it is the oldest city in Western Australia and it still has the original buildings and architecture, which yes may be old, but are beautiful and full of character. I feel you can relate the beauty of history with red wine – as the saying goes, the more you let red wine age, the better it will taste – and this, in my opinion, is also true for the buildings and streets in old towns that are well preserved. While there were the usual stores that reel in tourists, there were also some unique stores too such as record shops, clothing, and even comic book stores. There was even a store completely devoted to everything science fiction which I thought was very cute for it’s quirkiness.
It’s nice just to wander around this area and get lost in the different laneways, furthermore a visit to Stockholm would definitely not be complete until you had visited Gamla Stan.

Djurgärden (main area inside is Skansen): When I read about this place prior to visiting it was described as “Sweden in miniature” as it has majority of Sweden’s culture and history showcased in the museums here. For example, there is the open air (the world’s first open air museum), the Nordiska museet (which includes loads of Nordic history), the Nordic zoo (including animals like reindeer, musk ox, artic fox, etc), the Vasamuseet (which the Swedes are really proud of, the museum displays the Vasa, a Swedish warship that sank on it’s maiden voyage, however the ship is almost fully intact and is the only 17^th century ship that has ever been saved and preserved), Junibacken (a play park for children, has all the great Swedish children stories and you can dress up as Pippi Longstocking), and lastly but by far not the least the ABBA museum. Even if you’re not an ABBA fan, it is really a fun place to go, the museum is completely interactive meaning you can get up and dance on stage, record yourself singing the songs, and many other things although those two were among the best. Yet it isn’t solely ABBA, there are other exhibitions on the Swedish music industry and it’s “Hall of Fame” with many of its famous Swedish exports from the 1920s right up until present day.

Södermalm: The hostel had a map of the town glued to the reception desk which had different note markings – this area was noted as “the hipster area”. It’s actually very bohemian, but you know what it’s like these days, everyone uses terms like ‘hipster’ to stereotype/label things. However I think back in the day, maybe not that long ago, but a decade perhaps, this would have been labelled the ‘bohemian’/’’student’ district. It’s actually one of the bigger districts of central city Stockholm – so I just that just goes to show that ‘hipsters’ rule the town ;) Anyways, getting off the subject of hipsters, and more into what the place really has to offer. Majority of the clubs/bars and shopping outlets are found in this area – Götgaten is the best street to walk down if you fancy a lot of shopping, it’s like the high street of Stockholm. My favourite shops that I got my fix from were Monki and Weekday, which offered very cool clothes for mid-range price (plus in Weekday they had a whole section dedicated to Cheap Monday which was awesome, but not good for my budget), but there was also one store that I loved for its edginess; it was called The T-Shirt Store and had loads of different t-shirts with artwork designs printed on them, and what I liked was majority of the artwork was designed by Swedish artists. I was tempted to buy some but I thought I’d save my kroner and just hope for the possibility of going back one day (or there is always online shipping!)
I stumbled across this t-shirt which reminded me of a friend back home who absolutely loves puns, and this would of given her a giggle:

(link: http://www.tshirtstoreonline.com/us/product/category-t_shirts/taco-bout-it)

I admit it is a little dorky, but hey that’s what puns are for.

NB: I will talk about more about shopping later – more so in relation to the vintage stores which are found all around this area, but most around the streets Södermannagatan, Bondeg and Nytorgsgatan.

Another impressive place to check while in this district is the Fotografiska, which is located along the riverside. It is a photography exhibition museum, and the exhibitions are temporary so there is always something new showcased all year round (although there are a few permanent photographs displayed on the walls as you walk up the stairs). While my friend and I were in Stockholm, the exhibition they were currently displaying was Helmut Newton. They had displayed the exhibition so well – there was little lighting except directly above the individual photographs making them stand out in the spotlight even more. It was an awesome effect because your attention would get lost in the photographs, not in the crowds.

There is also a café inside which offers panoramic views over the waterfront and the city…

… yet if you are wanting to fill your stomach with delicious goods, the best place to go nearby is Herman’s. You literally have to cross the road and walk up the stairs from Fotografiska and you’re on the doorstep. Herman’s is a vegetarian restaurant that offers an all you can eat buffet costing around $25 – and believe me you get your money’s worth. Plus the best thing is that because it is vegetarian you don’t feel the “bloated full” you get from all you can buffets which include meat. Now if you’re a bit anti vegetables, you’re probably thinking that it just included salads – BUT YOU ARE WRONG. Yes there were a range of different salads, but there were rice dishes, lasagne, vegetable curries, vegetable stews, anything you can think of really but made with only vegetables. The restaurant also had many cakes and fruit smoothies which were all organic, but sadly they aren’t included in the buffet so you have to pay extra. (I paid extra to get a fruit smoothie and I didn’t regret the decision, it was delicious! And also very good for my health!!)

Above: And as you can see, you’re not compromising the views you would have had at the café in Fotografiska, you can still get them here. ^

So there you have just some of the districts/areas of the central city that Stockholm has to offer. I could talk about more of the others, but these ones were by far my favourite and in my opinion they are the most worthy to spend your time and money when/if you visit Stockholm.

REMEMBER! "Stockholm Is Where My Heart Is (Part 2)" will be up hopefully not too long after this post, so check that one out too if you're interested in Stockholm :)