04:36 Urg. Can anyone say ‘body clock’ ?
09:20 ee that’s better. Today is djurg�rden (the royal hunting ground, which is on an island all its own), buy Lotta a CD and look into hiring bikes that will do long distances. I know in my heart I will not end up cycling anywhere much.
Interesting fact about Sweden: the Prismas English-Swedish dictionary has the Swedish for “funk-hole”.
12:29 on the train to stockholm central. Spot my first Ulrika. Countryside and architecture are gorgeous.
12:54 than God they all speak English in Stockholm. The names for things are not at all easy. I figured tonfisk = tuna and kypling = chicken, but osk, lax, and myriad other things remain a mystery. I’ve made the job a little harder by tryinf to find sthg healthy while avoiding shellfish/prawns, which they seem pretty keen on here.
15:13 made it to djurgarden . I’m going out for a meal again tonight so holding off the cycle hire for today. En route took some wonderful waterfront pictures and made two unsuccessful attempts to use a public loo. Needing to avoid spending cash is not so compatible with needing small change all the time for the john…
As I pass Nybroplan (new bridge place I think) I was distracted by an exhibition of huge photographic prints, entitle Earth From Above, by a french photographer Tann Arthus-Bertrand. Subjects ranged from volcanoes to power stations but nearly every caption gave an ecological perspective. I came away from there with a few extra details in my BIG LIST.
17:39 vegging out in Djurgarden after two hours in the excellent Vasa museum. I’m only a half-hour’s walk from central station but there are canoeists, power boats, joggers, people walking dogs and prams, and people skinny-dipping in the brackish water of the archipelago. The skyline is 60% trees - the Stockholm guide claims the city is 1/3 water 1/3 greenery and 1/3 buildings and I can believe it.
Spent the evening at a meal with Lotta and her diving buddies. Food was good and I now know the swedish for full-face mask and octopus.
SCORE TALLY, DAY 1
volvos: 21
meatballs: 3 (but turkish)
m��se: 0
royal buildings: 7
fierce kings: 1
alcoholics: 3
rune stones: 4 (on TV)
skinny dippers: 3
01:30 finally get to bed after chasing straggling partygoers out of my home and having on last panicked double-check of the packing.
05:20 make it to the station a matter of seconds late for the train and have one hour to wait for the next one. That arrives with 1:30 to go before the train so I hope they don’t leave without me. Use this opportunity to begin my journal. Too scared I will miss my train to grab any kip. Realised I have entered the extortion zone as the only opportunity to pick up batteries or water will be the train or the airport.
Began to fine-tune itinerary on the train then made fsck up #2 bydrawing out my whole budget at the bureau de change so my wallet won’t even fold. Ho hum at least I won’t have to stress about finding banks :-) transferred the bulk to my moneybelt, and left 1 day’s budget in wallet plus another day’s budget to cover ’start up’ costs.
09:20 woo hoo! beat the last call to the plane - just! I have a habit of hanging around land-side of passport and security, so by the time the gate number is published on the screens I’ve only just got enough time to get to the gate. To cap it off nicely, I tried to get Lotta a bottle of booze in the duty free but had to put it back and queue again having not yet figured out the whole pink/green colour coding thing yet.
10:00 hee hee, the cabin crew announcement sounds like pingu!
12:55 (forren time) spotted 8 volvos while on the shuttle bus between the plane and the terminal.
The language is surprisingly easy to read - kind of like dutch with the German taken out (and spelt differently… well I only said *kinda*) for instance, “do you speak english” in Dutch is “spreek je engels?” and in swedish is “talar du engelska” - the german sprechen < -> spreek whereas the dutch for languages is “talen”. Of course listening is much tougher. I have yet to pick out any word besides “wellkom” and “hej”
Caught the airport express for 80% of day 0’s budget, urk. Spotted first strapping Swedish lass. Not blonde but definitely counts.
14:49 the weather is HOT! I have only 5 tshirts and will be handwashing in a hostel somewhere so to try to avoid getting too sweaty I took off my shirt and wandered in my white t-shirt into mcburger’s where I promptly dropped a ketchuppy chip down my front. I guess this is as much as can be expected given the 4am start…
18:09 afternoon went better, except my sketched plan for the first 5 days was blown out of the water: though my guidebook says different, the G�ta Kanal is already shut for the winter and in any case it would cost double my entire budget for the trip! On my way to meet Lotta now, at least I managed *that*
22:28 had a great evening with Lotta. She’s quite incredible: successful in her job, good looking, well dressed, scuba dives, runs 10-16 km every other day, sings in a band, has a fiendish talent for planning and on top of it all is sincere. To consummate my inferiority complex I realise I have run out of cash as I pay for our drinks - 2 small bottles of pear cider served over ice: UKP5.50 - and I leave it to her to cover the meal. I have been told that in theory I can choose anything but in practice I must have ribs. We munch and exchange musings on our love lives as the cruise boats splish past or honk in the harbour and the fresh & warm sea air lends a mediterranean ambience.
SCORE TALLY, DAY 0
volvos: 28
pigtails: 37 (19 plaited)
nokia ringtones: 41
ice hockey players: 3
meatballs: 0
m��se: 0
vikings: 1 sans helm, 4 helms in lotta’s lounge
Pack in the morning, realise I haven’t yet contacted Lotta. Send an SMS. Read that the bikes you can hire are not good enough for touring and have a last check through SAS’s website to see about taking my own bike. Horror stories appear showing that the fee varies from 0 to 300 US dollars to take a bike on a plane. Resign myself to fate and realisethat should the holiday turn into a hiking holiday I have no decent shoes either!
16:30 our street throws a party. much fun is had by all. Miark and Tim visit and we amaze the residents with our juggling prowess. Paul from up the street sets off a couple of fireworks so we whip out the torches and drop them all over the tarmac (sorry Tim)
BIG LIST ++
More stuff to do before I die
Visit venice & lake garda
xmans/new year at the ice hotel in (finland?)
Skip this, this is just for my own therapy..
Got a text and a visit from my ex on Sunday while I was in the bath. She wanted her CD back. I was forced to admit that I had thrown it away. When we split I was absolutely gutted, having been really keen to see her back from holiday, and having played this CD over and over while thinking of her and where (and how) I’d like to take her.
So she dumped me and while my heart was doing its customary smashing around at the inside of my ribcage and I was doing my best not to drive my car over her prized motorbike, she says ”oh and I’ll need to get my CD back” which some may say is reasonable but it wasn’t the best time to say it. I got home and there it is and it really was painful to look at it so I asked her to come and get it or I would bin it. So she phoned and reasoned that she couldn’t come and get it because she had had a drink and I said Ok I wouldn’t throw it away. But then I got pissed and came home and saw it again and thought ”I think I just fell for one of your power games” and didn’t want to see the CD anymore so I chucked it.
Now she wants me to replace it, which is fair I guess, after all it is £9.99’s worth of property whereas someone’s emotions are worthless aren’t they? I dunno. Anyhow. I texted her to say that I had regrettably thrown it away and she replied saying she had had a bad day and had had her motorbike nicked.
She wants SYMPATHY TOO?!?!?!?
Jee-sus. There are no limits to this woman’s gall! It’s going to take me a while before I can just buy her a CD and send it to her without being forced to make some grand (stupid) defiant (childish) gesture. Still at least I won’t be tempted to run over her bike, that could be costly.