2012.09.30 - Day 10 (Stockholm, Sweden)

After having been out the night before, I ended up having brunch with the local Swede, Viktor, who I had met the night before. He was kind enough to show me a more traditional Swedish place that wasn’t touristy.



Traditional Swedish Food - lots of fish



Of course I had to throw in some traditional Swedish savory as well :-)


After brunch, Viktor continued his hospitality and we walked around the city a bit to help me get some of my bearings. With Stockholm being built on 14 different islands, it takes a little bit of getting used to J.

After heading back to the apartment that I had rented, I was going to meet up with the 3 Denver guys (Jon, Mike and Aaron) that I had met in Norway on the Bergen leg of the trip who were now also in Stockholm. We were going to meet at a touristy place called the “Ice Bar.” As the name implies, it is a bar made of ice – the seats, actual bar, and even the glasses in which the drinks were served were all ice. Unfortunately, my international phone package still wasn’t working very well and I was only able to communicate with the Denver guys when we were both on WiFi. With that said, I arrived at the Ice Bar at the prescribed time.  To get in, you have to pay an entrance fee which at least included the first drink. After putting on a parka type outfit with attached gloves to keep warm, I entered through a chamber of doors until I was actually in the bar itself. Inside, I found that the Denver guys still had not arrived. I had my one “free” drink and waited for a bit while I made some small talk with another American who was there on business and his Swedish guides. Realizing that the Denver guys were not coming any time soon, coupled with the fact that most people had one drink and then left anyway, I decided to leave.

Contrary to belief, they don't make the ice, they bring it from a river in northern Sweden in the Arctic circle



My ice glass awaits



My ice seat awaits

Ahh...I can finally enjoy

Fish was actually captured in the ice this way when they brought it

From there, I made my way back to my apartment. Trying to be mindful of costs, I went to the local grocery store and bought items for the week.  With everything else being a bit pricey in Sweden, I was surprised that the grocery bill was more in line with a more typical American grocer. Back at the apartment and on WiFi again, I was finally able to communicate with the Denver guys. They had “accidentally” J given me the wrong time for the Ice Bar meet up. I was two hours too early. They proceeded to tell me their bar plans for the night and invited me to join. After cooking dinner and getting on the phone with AT&T for almost an hour to try to get my international phone package in order, I finally made my way to the bar that they were at.

The bar was called Patricia and it was on an anchored boat. While it was normally a straight bar, on Sunday, it was gay. Finally having met back up with Aaron, Jon and Mike (the Denver guys), we mostly took to sitting outside on the upper deck under some heat lamps just talking and taking in the countless ABBA songs J. With liquor so expensive in Sweden (~$15-20 for a vodka/soda), I changed my drink to cider which was still expensive compared to US rates, but still a bargain compared to the liquor. It is worth noting that in Stockholm, they charged by the centiliter of alcohol in the drink. Generally, you were either charged for 4cl or 6cl of liquor. While this isn’t that different from a single or double shot in the US, something like a Long Island iced tea was really going to set you back.

As the night wore on, we went back and forth between the more relaxed upper deck of the boat and the inside dance area. While in the dance area bar, we talked to some friendly kilt-wearing Scots (one of whom showed us that they don’t in fact wear underwear under there), watched or participated in blackjack (yes, in Stockholm gambling is legal and occurs in regular bars), made fun of the droopy, baggy pants look that many Swedish men have apparently taken to, or just talked, drank and just generally enjoyed ourselves. Before you knew it, it was 5 am and closing time. We proceeded to the McDonalds across the street for some preventative hangover food and went on our separate ways home which for me was unfortunately a 30-40 min walk L (and yes, I could have taken a cab, but they were also pretty expensive).