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. ;)