First Visitor...

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This weekend I had my first visitor! But before I met Sarah at T-Centralen on Friday night I had a social life to nurture... Hence I found myself at "Boule & Berså" with a Daniel Craig lookalike. Let me start at the beginning. When I knew I was going to be working out here, I realised that I wouldn't necessarily be able to socialise too much with my colleagues (and actually they don't seem to do that much themselves so another reason to look elsewhere). Plus I feel bad that everyone has to speak English with me all the time. So I searched the net for a Stockholm expat group that I could join. Which is how I found the Stockholm Expat Meetup Group. They seem to have events every couple of weeks and last Friday was the first one I was able to go to.

I didn't realise that boule is actually quite a popular pastime in Sweden (they don't call it that of course - it's bocce ball here). There were a bunch of old men who used to play in the old playground near the Clarion Hotel but I didn't properly appreciate that they weren't just French and/or eccentrics but part of a wider following of the game. Anyway, come 5pm on Friday I took a wander down from the office, through Gamla Stan to Slussen where I got thoroughly lost in the bus station, finally getting myself on the Saltsjöbanan train. Only one stop to Henriksdal and then more confused wanderings to get to the place which is hidden alongside a canal underneath a drawbridge (yes, really!). Which is where I met Daniel Craig. Sadly his very nice Polish wife/girlfriend was also there 😞 But overall a nice bunch of people and I now have an open invitation to the Oxford Aviation Academy to fly an A320! Well, the simulator version anyway 😊 I was obviously having a good time because before I knew it I had a text from Sarah to say she'd landed and I had to run. Literally. Sprinting along the road trying to catch the bus with Navin (Mr OAA) in tow I surprised myself at how fit I must still be! Navin couldn't keep up and I wasn't even puffing when I got on the bus!! Either that or the beer was secretly rocket fuel.

Anyway, I got myself to T-Centralen where Sarah was there waiting for me, complete with care package (thanks Sarah 😊) including Oxo cubes and toffee popcorn! Now my bolognaise and chili will taste more normal and I have finally got over the craving for sweet popcorn which started at the cinema in Whistler and continued simply because I couldn't have any (it doesn't appear to be sold either in Canada or Sweden).

Saturday morning we were up and about relatively early and headed through Gamla Stan en route to the harbour where we intended to take a boat over to Vaxholm. This was my chance to impress my first visitor with my new-found knowledge of Stockholm... and I failed miserably! We went to the wrong bit of harbour so missed the 11am boat we'd planned to take. Never mind. We had a nice wander in the blazing sunshine and caught the midday boat instead. Sarah got to see a bit more than I'd planned, and we both got some unplanned additional exercise 😊 It was about an hour's ride to Vaxholm, a fortress town founded by Gustav Vasa in the 1540s after winning the war against Denmark, and the gateway to the rest of the archipelago. It's a tiny little place - the island's only 3.5km long - but not short on action! We managed to witness a dog fight whilst eating our lunch at a pavement restaurant (big dog trying to be friendly to small yappy dog who didn't take kindly to it), saw the police arrive to take statements from both dogs' owners, found ourselves in the middle of a local biker gathering (which really really made me want to get on mine - it was perfect weather for riding - cool, dry and sunny) and sat by the harbour eating ice creams and watching the huge amount of boat traffic in the area. We got the steamer back to Stockholm in late afternoon and headed over to Djurgårdsbron where we sat watching more boats and hot air balloons with a beer and a very nice burger. Shame it's still a bit chilly to be sitting outdoors - lots of blankets needed! The day was rounded off with a stroll back to the flat whilst watching another incredible sunset - hope you like the photos 😊

Now I've written all that down, I realise why we were so tired - that was a lot of walking! And lots more was to come on Sunday as we got the little pushmepullyou ferry from Slussen to Djurgården and spent most of the day walking around the island. A very pleasant late lunch at a restaurant overlooking the canal, a walk back to the ferry and another ice cream (this time in Gamla Stan - well, we were on holiday!) rounded off a very relaxing weekend. Sarah and I have scouted some of the best spots so I'll be a bit slicker on the tour guiding for my next visitors - thanks for being the guinea pig Sarah 😊 it was great to see you!

Right, must go... got a plane to catch! Today is Ascension so a bank holiday in Sweden. The office is closed tomorrow and it's a bank holiday in the UK on Monday so I thought I'd take full advantage and get in a long weekend visit home. So I'll see some of you in a few hours 😊

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