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Stockholm Day 10 - 21-June

Summer in the city
It is summer, the longest day of the year! And still it is dark quite early in Stockholm, though I am spoiled by the light up-north, I wonder how it would be above the polarcirkel where the sun never goes down at all, because in Trondheim and Sundsvall the sun did set, but it doesn't sink below the horizon enough to darken the sky. Most people will think today is midsummernight but that's not true. Midsummernight is always the friday after the 21st of June. That means that the 25th will be midsummernight. The temperature on this first day of summer is nice, upon my arrival in Stockholm it was raining but ever since the sun has been shining and temperatures reach the 20 degrees easily. The temperature is just on the threshold of walking with/without jacket, in the sun it's nice warm, but with a cloud in the way it can get a bit chilly.


Gamla Stan, the houses are in warm yellow colors, and the church towers are heavily decorated.

Gathering-up
I have my breakfast in the communal kitchen which is quite crowded with people preparing breakfast (the kitchen is obviously a bit small). I am used to eating sandwiches in the morning but many other nationalities treat breakfast like a dinner and are busy with cooking. After my breakfast I meet 2 of the people I met the evening before at the billiard. A boy from the USA who is learning Swedish as well and juggles, and a girl from Scotland who speaks one Dutch sentence. Together we are going to visit the city. Like every day in town that must include a walk through the old city centre. After the basic sightseeing it is time for a lunch, after a long time looking for a supermarket and asking people for directions, somewhere in a subway station we find a supermarket. In the park we have a picknick and just like parks in other Scandinavian cities these grass fields are filled with people. In the netherlands you don't need to put a "keep of the grass" sign because nobody would think about stepping on the grass (unless you can use it as a shortcut to cross the park in a quicker way) but here everybody uses it for playing games, picnicking and sitting. There is also a skate ramp in the park where we meet my roommate who is filming basically everything that is moving in the city. And unsurprisingly I need to be on the film as well. In the meantime my Duracell batteries are empty again and I can't find a good store where I can buy batteries. I do manage to find the office of the Silja Line and I buy a ticket for the boat to Turku a few days later. The lady at desks asks if I want to pay in cash or with credit card, I pay cash and end-up paying nothing for the boat trip. The scanrail card should give me a 50% discount but ah well, a free ride is even better of course.


Just like they did at the main square (see the picture of 20-june) this fountain is situated in the middle of a big roundabout as well. Nevertheless this place looks more enjoyable.

After the lunch we walk down an avenue where quite some supermarkets are located (above ground), but those are no longer necessary. In the djurgården we walk through the park, this park doesn't consist of grass fields and paths but forests and wild nature. You can walk for quite some time through the park without seeing houses or hearing anything from the city life. Quite strange if you imagine that the isle is quite central located, the only noise you hear here are birds and sometimes the horn of a big ship. There are also several rocks which are quite fun to climb. And in the evening we decide to walk back through the coastal rocks instead of the normal path. This is definitely a more interesting way of exploring the island. And the locals, who enjoy the seaside view, look quite dazzled when 3 people appear out of nothing walking over the rocks. In the meantime evening has started, the sun is slowly setting and the silence has returned in the city, only tourists are walking around and a few cars are on the road. After the silence in Djurgården the silence in the rest of the city is very pleasant and relaxed.


Djurgården on the right, the territory of the ducks. The boats need to berth on the other side.


2 Obelisks in the city show the quality of air and water. This obelisk is showing the quality of the air pollution which is quite low. The pollution in the Stockholm Archipelago reaches hardly 2 lights on the obelisk.

We are back late in the hostel for dinner, but even at 22:00 you have to wait until people are finished cooking. Nevertheless it is nice to eat some spaghetti again because most food I have had was pizza slices, hotdogs or plain simple sandwiches with cheese and bacon (I deliberately try to limit Mc Donalds visits).

Back in the room I see some film footage my roommate made, he filmed the stranges things, from a little kid falling down the half pipe, to a people doing their shopping in the supermarket. And then I walk by saying something in Swedish to the camera. The story about the ant invasion has widely spread in a meanwhile. The 2 new roommates from the USA and Denmark find it quite funny, and I start wondering why I didn't take any pictures of it (I probably wasn't in the mood of taking pictures of such moments). At 1:00AM it is almost completely dark, 3:00AM the first rays of light wake me up for a few seconds. It is said that it is difficult to sleep with so much light but I find it harder to stay awake and look at how the sun is shining so early. And so I fall in a deep sleep again.



Sunset in Stockholm.