A little Slice of Sweden

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Originally uploaded by di_juice.

Tommy boy and I took a lil trip to Stockholm last weekend and all you get are these stupid photographs... ;)

It wasn't actually as cold as it looks, the temperature hovered around freezing but god love us, it was dry the entire time and unlike Ireland, the buildings were all lovely and warm inside. With hats and gloves and scarves, we were more than happy to spend most of the days outside wandering Stockholm's archipelego...

Sweden may be kinda cold and a bit dark but what a happy place. Gorgeous food, gorgeous architecture, gorgeous interior design, gorgeous people, gorgeous parks, gorgeous waterways and lots of happy healthy looking children running around looking red-cheeked and well, happy. Kind of like the world of the stepford wives if they had better taste (and weren't robots...)

We stayed in a sweet hotel with (of course) super-modern ultra-hipster swedish interior design, lots of Marimeko style textiles, light coloured wood and clean minimalist lines not to mention, big windows, modern art installations and a breakfast to knock you on your ass. I ate homemade waffles with cream and jam, softboiled eggs, Swedish bread, Swedish cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, pickles and a mug of cafe au lait every morning (no, not on the same plate!) kinda like a gourmet version of the college dining hall. Thank god I don't have access to that kind of grub everyday or I would be the size of a house...haha.

Tommy and I walked the city from top to bottom everyday, highlights included touring a 17th century Swedish warship that was perfectly preserved, walking the medieval city (gamla stan) with it's narrow laneways and beautiful squares (very similar to the look of Cadiz in Spain or the old town in Nice, France...) and eating chocolate cake and beer in the middle of the day while looking over the most beautiful view of several of Stockholms major islands.

We started our days visiting our fancy-pants hotel gym and ended them kicking it in the fancy-pants hotel sauna. There were several delicious meals had with equally delicious (and expensive-yikes) bottles of wine. There was much fish to be had and much of it to be had raw. (Had amazing sushi and kick ass tuna carpacio.) There was shopping in ridiculously tasteful "malls" and neighborhoods and there was coffee in a hipster dive of a coffee-shop on a Sunday morning. All Good stuff.

If I could speak Swedish, I might have to relocate... although I just might miss the toothless bartenders and dive bars and dirty streets of Dublin too much. ;)

The Hell of a Thousand Sports

My ex-boyfriend's father used to call my girlfriends and I, "The Hell of a Thousand Mouths" when we got together... but this my friends is something altogether more horrendous and sinister: "The Hell of a Thousand Sports." It's what happens when 2 premiership "football" matches, 1 Six Nations Rugby game, and The Superbowl all happen on the same day. I'm lucky to be here I tell ya.

I managed to avoid active spectatorship of the Manchester United and Celtic games (although I was forced to listen to a bit of Glasgow Celtic on the radio.) I watched the Rugby with Tom and Family in Belfast which was mostly more painful for the players than it was for me since I was comfortably ensconsed on the couch in Tom's parents house and able to periodically doze off when I got bored. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for The Superbowl. My first mistake was going out at all when I already had the beginnings of a cold and two previous nights of partying under my belt. My second mistake was letting Tommy boy talk me into wearing my seriously high-heeled boots out of the house. We started out at a bar on one side of the city centre and after realising that we couldn't reasonably be expected to listen to the faux-American DJ guy marketing various sponsors, we split across town to another bar that we thought *wrongly* would be less crowded and less of a wank-fest.

By the time we arrived at Bar No. 2, my feet were falling off me and the place was absolutely packed. We soon realised that this was because all the Rugby and Soccer fans had been sitting in the place all day long. The first soccer game kicked off at around noon and we arrived at around 11pm so you can imagine the messiness and chaos that ensued. we had to wade into a corner to try and get a square of space near a TV and were surrounded by a charming mix of Extremely Drunk Irish Rugby fans singing and yelling "Chug, Chug, Chug" at the top of their lungs while spilling pints on anyone in the general vicinity and Rowdy Testosterone filled Yanks yelling "U-S-A, U-S-A" and jockeying for any kind of TV Space while messily eating 1 euro Hot Dogs. To add insult to injury, there was a hard-core meat-market vibe to the place and I can't count the number of $hitfaced guys who decided to grace me with their presence by asking inane questions and spilling beer on my shoes. Oh, the joy.

Who would've thought that the Superbowl could actually be worse outside of states. Football + Rugby + Soccer + Drunks + Crowds + Uncomfortable Shoes - Guacamole and comfortable seating arrangements and chicken wings = Hell.

I'm only just recovering now and it's Wednesday. If I see a football I might curl up in the fetal position and start rocking back and forth and drooling.