Work on new features or post about the trip... You have no idea how difficult a decision this is for me... Alright, I'll write about the trip. I went through the photos from Stockholm yesterday and posted an all new set. Feel free to peruse, but the interesting notes will be housed herein.
I believe I posted about my hotel room at the Nordic Sea hotel already, but I thought it might be useful to point a few things out. First of all, "space is at a premium." I get it. I'm just not used to "small" on such a tiny scale. The shower was a simple standup shower stall that lacked anywhere to put your shower accessories. There were no windows (but I knew this going in) and in terms of floor space, about enough room to turn around if your own stuff was in order. Now all that said, I didn't mind at all. I don't need much space just for myself and I was happy to save money that I would need to save in order to spend it elsewhere on the trip. I simply bring it up to indicate my surprise at the size of the room compared to what I would be used to in a "cheap" room in the States.
These sorts of shops were everywhere, whether it was Stockholm, Seville, or Amsterdam. Of course, the character of each location was distinct. In Stockholm it was the odd knick-knacks like the creepy dolls in this picture or Betty Boop or troll figurines. In Seville it was generally related to matadors and bulls. In Amsterdam there were foam clogs and headshops.
This is one of the first impressive sights I was confronted with as we strolled through a darkening Stockholm on my first day there. An ice covered river stretching out to my right and an arch leading to the unknown ahead. Well, to me anyway. I'm trying to read the Google Map on this now and it looks like this bit is called the Helgeandsholmen and no, I can't pronounce that. These bridges lead to Tre Kronor, a castle and now the Stockholm Palace where the Swedish monarchy resides. I guess. It doesn't seem all that pretty and I pretty much just snapped the picture and moved on.
Stockholm was brimming with coffee shops. Yes, there were Starbucks and in case I recall, they were within a block of each other. However, the independent (as far as I could tell) coffee shops were by far more numerous and much much MUCH cooler. The establishment captured in these photos was easily my favorite (of the ones we visited). First of all, it was underground. From street level you had to take a flight of stairs down into the belly of the block. The ceilings were low and arched with a sort of medieval wine cellar feel (I thought). Tables, chairs, and couches were completely unmatched. There were small bookshelves here and there. There were coffee tables (natch) and end tables where you could find things like decks of cards or an old globe. The lighting was low (hence the high ISO and grainy pictures) and atmospheric. Also, there were tasteful photos of nude women adorning the walls, seen best (and still poorly) in the third picture. Seriously, I want to hug this place and hide it in my bag and bring it back with me to the States. The hot chocolate was very good although, differently. Instead of using sweet whipped cream as I am used to, they used unsweetened, which was good as well. They serve hot chocolate in tall glasses that you would normally serve something like orange juice in. If nothing else, it made holding it a tad difficult... but I didn't really care. I was too overwhelmed by awesomeness to care.
Hmmm... It looks like this is going to be a tad lengthy and the hour grows late. I think I shall have to break this up into parts... So look for the next part to be posted within the next day or two.