Stockholm

Greetings from Stockholm! Well not exactly… I forgot my blogger password so had to wait until today to post this.

It's been a lovely trip to Sweden. I haven't met anybody who isn't nice or been anywhere that isn't pleasant. Our office is spread over a combination of lovely old manor house buildings and funky new barn conversions - all decorated in gorgeous subtle shades of blue and grey and lime washed wood. All the offices in the old part had huge tile stoves in the corner of each room - no longer functional - but I've never seen the like. It's a running joke in Sweden that it's freezing in the UK and nobody has central heating. Heating is obviously much more of an established priority in Sweden.

They have got a lot of things right over there I reckon. Illy coffee on tap. Free fruit. Alfalfa on the salad bar. Heaven! My colleagues looked after me very well. We had a great night out on Tuesday, sampling some fine raspberry mojitos before moving on to Stockholm's Icebar in the hotel where I was staying. It's a bit of a novelty tourist-trap type place, but good fun. I enjoyed an Absolut Wolf Paw which my colleagues informed me was a very Swedish choice - featuring frozen lingon berries. Mind you, everything was frozen. Including my feet by the time we left.

On the previous night, it was up to me to look after myself. My hotel room was ok but rather tiny and uninspiring - Ikea meets travel lodge - so I layered-up and headed for the old town. I got completely lost of course but tried not to let it worry me and pretty soon found my way to a bridge and some old looking stately buildings. Over the bridge and into Gamla Stan the streets became very narrow. Little shops, bars and restaurants everywhere but nobody in sight. Monday night in Stockholm is obviously not party night. I eventually found a restaurant that looked like it might serve Swedish food. No prices on the menu unfortunately, but I went in anyway. I'm so glad I did. The interior was lovely. Candles everywhere. Plenty of space for a table for one and I was very well looked after by the rather charming waiters. I had reindeer fillet with lingonberries and a nice glass of house red. The meal came garnished with something I can only describe as stringy watercress, but it tasted like fresh raw peas. Mum has since informed me it was probably snow peas. Lovely. The whole thing was fabulous.

After my hearty dinner I walked around the old town and found the royal palace. There was nobody about at all except me and some very cold looking guards on patrol. I tried to take some photos but I started to feel a bit conspicuous. They didn't come out very well anyway. This one of the view from one of the bridges is the best of a very poor bunch. I took the long way back to the hotel. Well. I took a wrong turn somewhere on one of the main shopping streets - probably distracted by the fact that they have a Debenahms there with a whole department devoted to Pilgrim jewellery! It was closed but I lusted through the window.

I made it back eventually. I know it's never completely safe anywhere in a city after dark, but I felt very safe in Stockholm. I didn't see anybody dodgy or anyone living rough. I'm sure they're there, but perhaps sheltering away from the wind chill. I hope so anyway because it was freezing. My thighs were numb after the walk back.

I watched a subtitled episode of West Wing on the first night in an attempt to improve my Swedish but I couldn't remember anything by the morning. My favourite swedish language observations were little signs above fire extinguishers saying 'Skum' and a chocolate bar called 'Plopp'. I bought one for G to make up for two nights on his own, but it was quite late by the time I got back so he decided to save his Plopp for later.