Stockholm Syndrome

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Hi everyone,

I'm in Bergen, on the west coast of Norway at the moment. The weather is in the mild low 20s here and slightly overcast. This is in contrast to the last 2 weeks I've had in scandinavia where it's been sunny and high 20s. The midnight sun also means that not much sleep is to be had, as the sun sets at around 11, and is back up at around 3am 😊

Like a postcard that you've just received in the mail, my email is about things that happened a week ago in Stockholm. Enjoy 😊


Conversation I had with a fellow traveller in front of a fast food caravan:

Amy: You know you're eating bits of Rudolph there?

Me: Yeah, but who knew he'd be so tender and succulent....

Poor Amy is vegetarian, yet I still insisted on trying smoked reindeer despite her having to watch me eat it. I apologised to her for this, but it's true, smoked reindeer is just so delicious. It's tender and oh so tasty. It came with boiled potatoes (which is not that interesting), salad (which is such a novelty in europe), crispbread (Ryvita), and blackcurrant jelly, which was not so good with reindeer, but pretty good on its own because it tastes like ribena jelly.

If Rudolph was this good, can you imagine Blitzen, Prancer, Dancer, Dave and all those other Reindeer that one day may no longer pull Santa's sleigh?? 😊

At least Sweden had something interesting to try. Perhaps I didn't go to the right places, but Denmark didn't have a lot to offer in gastronomic terms, unless sausages and meatballs are the national dish (and my palette isn't good enough to discern major taste differences in sausages and meatballs).

But like Denmark thankfully, Sweden is also graced with beautiful people. Whereas I hazard a guess that Danish ladies go for a more natural and relaxed look, the Swedish ladies are always immaculately presented and always look classy and ready to walk into a hip nightclub. For the beneift of my female audience (after being chastised for not commenting on Danish men in the last email), Swedish men are also quite beautiful. They too look like they have just stepped out of a salon with their perfectly coiffed hair, and many dress like they've just stepped out of a country road catalogue 😊

Sweden also has a lovely coastline that I had the fortune to visit with one of the ferries that cruised through Stockholm's archipelago. I travelled to Waxholm and Findham (?? I can't remember what it's called) and they have pretty little villages, but no sandy beaches. Actually, there is generally no beach, and you will find most Swedes sunning themselves on the large stones that adorn their coastline 😊

Another place I had a chance to visit was the Vasa museum on one of the large islands just off the coast. The museum is home to the 17th century sailing ship 'The Vasa', which travelled all of one nautical mile on its maiden voyage before she capsized and sank. Before you jump to any conclusions, let me clear a few thoughts that may have entered your mind:
- No, the Vasa was not made from one of those DIY kits you get from Ikea where you're generally missing 3 screws but have 4 allen keys
- No it was not designed by Saab OR Volvo.

The Vasa was actually designed by the Dutch (hmmm...), and what happened was they designed her hull too flat and too narrow in comparison to her height, which made her susceptible to lateral movement. As she sailed on her maiden voyage, a slight gust of wind caught her sails and sent her keeling 90 degrees on her port side, where she took water in and promptly sank. She is however, perfectly preserved since she sat in mud for the past 300 years. I guess mud packs do work....

Despite all the museums and cruises, there is a nightlife in Stockholm. I was at an outdoor bar named Debaser, hanging out with a Canadian named Mike, who is a retired drug harvester and now travels the world in his retirement. I have no idea whether his story is credible, but apparently he has made his fortune growing cannabis in the British Columbian countryside on the west coast of Canada, and is now trying to achieve his goal of visiting every single country on this planet. What's not to believe??

My final night in Stockholm was really nice. I spent the last night just at the hostel chilling out and playing guitar in the lounge to relax. What started as an audience of one, eventually grew to a really intimate audience of 8-10, and I haven't played in front of an audience for a while. It was a reasonably long set, and we covered everything from Radiohead, U2, Coldplay Mars Volta, to even Neil Diamond, Lisa Loeb and Jewel 😊 There was a Canadian girl there that was actually singing 2nds with me which was really really nice (though it reminded me of an unfortunate episode of the British sitcom 'the office'. Damn you Nick!).

Anyway, that's enough from me, I'll speak to you guys again soon.

cheers,
Ben

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