Catch up

Yesterday we shopped. To a woman, shopping does not mean buying. So, we did lots of shopping and not so much buying. The range of choice on one street in Stockholm is mind boggling to me!

Later we went to see Robert Mapplethorpe's exhibition at the Photographic Museum. He trained as a sculptor, but became famous photographing New York's S and M scene in the 70s. He died with AIDS in 1989.

He said he simply photographed what he wished he could sculpt, nothing less and nothing more. He did not understand why his photos of flowers and fruit should be seen in one way and his less conservative photos in another. He said he did not like the word shocking.

I can't say I quite agree. The view of Stockholm at dusk as we left the museum was breath taking. While a picture of a dead animal maybe be beautiful too, I don't think it can be viewed in the same way as a picture of a beautiful city!

We then went for supper at a Vietnamese restaurant. A Vietnamese menu in Swedish is rather challenging for an English speaker. It was also challenging for a Swede trying to translate it into English!

Later some of Anna's friends met us and we had drinks at Stockholm's sky bar, which meant more amazing views.

Today we drove to the island of Vätö where Anna and her brother own a little cottage in the woods.

When you arrive, the most striking thing is the quiet. We had a big lunch on the porch and then all I wanted to do was fall asleep in the sun. But Anna is like an Energizer bunny. While I lazed around, she prepared the pickling for the herring which we plan to eat tomorrow. She also made us espressos and warmed up some cinammon and blue berry buns she had baked.

After coffee, the couch in the lounge looked very inviting to me, the most activity I felt capable of was typing. But Anna was outside calling: Amanda, come outside and enjoy the beautiful weather!

I was thinking: I'll have plenty beautiful weather when I get back to SA!

Eventually I got my butt off the couch and came to sit outside on the porch. I thought it would be alright to watch Anna, she had decided to rake leaves.

She then began to tell me that raking leaves was good for the soul. I remember being made to rake leaves as part of my chores as a child. I don't remember it doing anything for my soul. I told Anna that I thought that the cheap labour we have in South Africa is good enough for my soul.

She decided to try a different tactic and said it was good physical activity, good exercise for the arms. Eventually I agreed to try it.

She had me raking leaves and even pushing wheel barrows!!! I think it may have been part of her plan all along, getting me to fly out in autumn when they have the most leaves to rake up!

And here I thought I had a good deal with my accommodation: an apartment within walking distance of central Stockholm, with a weekend away in the countryside included in the package!

After all that I have to say my initial judgement was correct. Blogging does more for my soul than raking leaves!

Later Anna's friends will join us at the cottage, I hope they're impressed by how few leaves are on the lawn.

Tomorrow we're having a crayfish party, which is a big Swedish tradition, with lots of snaps (pronounced schnapps) to drink. At a crayfish party you also have to wear party hats and bibs. I cannot wait! Will try to take pictures before drinking too much snaps.

Museum Day

As mentioned, yesterday (Wednesday) was a grey day, aka Museum Day. Anna and I both felt that we didn't want to bite off more than we could chew, so we settled on doing only the Modern Museum (where we'd had lunch the day I arrived) so as not to cause exhaustion from information overload.

Now, while I appreciate art as much as the next person, some of it is just plain ridiculous in my opinion. I understand that artists are intense, but to make a lot of drama out of nothing actually turns you into a joke. Can you take this seriously?

There are variations of the display, the version in the Modern Museum was seven hollow boxes of galvanized iron attached to a wall by. It's called Untitled, by Donald Judd. I do agree with him that not all art has to be on canvas or paper, but I have to laugh if I'm told that he's exploring the direct influence of galvanized iron on the soul!

Das Arbeitbild by Kurt Schwitters was described like this: Imagine an artist who sniffs around in the rubbish like a dog and discovers a whole new world...

While I appreciate that he used what is considered junk to create his picture, I don't think he literally sniffed around in the dirt like a dog, and describing the process in that way to me is melodramatic and makes me want to laugh!

The most striking painting was Salvador Dali's The Enigma of William Tell. It was large in size and somewhat disturbing. Salvador is considered one of the greatest surrealist painters. (I think he considered himself the greatest!) Apparently he was attempting to photograph the unconscious. In an interview on Swedish television he said (regarding the painting) that he hoped that everything was perfectly clear and that if it wasn't, please call him so that he could make it more obscure...

Besides the museum shop, my favourite place in the Modern Museum, was a little room with only Pablo Picasso on the walls.

We left the Modern Museum and went to the National Museum for lunch in the beautiful atrium. I didn't feel that I could handle Rembrandt and Cezanne after lunch, so it's enough to say I've been into the National Museum in Stockholm, even if I haven't actually seen any of the exhibited art.

We decided to leave high culture behind and headed to another institution of Swedish culture: IKEA! The biggest Ikea in the world is just 15 minutes drive from Anna's place. Think Mr Price Home on injectable steroids, pumping iron all day long. You can literally walk out of there with an entire house, except for the bricks. And since many homes in Sweden are built with wood, a Swede may be able to walk out of there with an ENTIRE house!

By the time we left Ikea (it's not possible to go in and out quickly) we were running late for our fancy dinner out.

We had decided to eat at Småk, which means taste. The tables are mini boxes of spices with a glass covering over the top. You choose a flavour and they serve you a dish with that particular flavour. Since the dishes are so small, it's more like a taste, you have to choose 3, 5 or 7 flavours.

The experience was certainly interesting and there were a few dishes that were absolutely extraordinary, but it reminded me a little of an experience I'd had at a place called Ginger in Cape Town... I think the thing is, that I'm the kind of person who, if I enjoy something, I like to have a bit more of it. And if I can only have a very small bite of it, I feel somewhat dissatisfied.

However, I have to admit, that despite my mental block to restaurants like this, I did leave feeling full and didn't need to stop at Mc Donald's on the way home.

Smart Cyclists

As promised, some pictures of smartly dressed Swedes on bikes. I managed to snap a few riding home from work yesterday afternoon. If you look closely the woman above is wearing wedge shoes. I imagine it takes some practice being able to ride a bike in those.

The guy on the bike above is dressed quite averagely: grey suit pants, black trench coat, black smart shoes.

These two ladies may not have actually been ON their bikes, but they were by far the most impressively dressed cyclist I saw yesterday. Unfortunately they realized I was trying to take their picture and weren't too happy with me. Ooooppss!!

Technological Meltdown!

I've had to resort to using a PC! (horror of horrors!!) While Sweden is a very forward thinking country, the people seem to keep their wireless internet networks locked. Since Anna uses a portable modem for her internet access, I searched for and found one wireless network which was not locked. I used it easily for the first few days, but I think the owner is on to me and has now banned me. So my Mac sits uselessly on the kitchen counter.

Now once you go Mac you can never go back, but desperate times call for desperate measures. So of course I chose PC over nothing. However, communicating with a PC is not very easy, especially a Swedish one like Anna's. And throwing it against a wall would not help matters at all! So last night I sat for hours trying to get it right, but unfortunately I still ended up with a blog post full of grammatical errors.

So in short I'm saying: if my previous post is not up to scratch, it's not actually my fault. This PC won't allow me to edit a post once it's published. In fact, and I know this is probably useless info to you, it won't even allow me to publish a post directly! I first have to save the post as a draft, then go to "saved drafts" and select "publish this post" !!

I'm also quite aware that the previous post is not too funny, so if you're looking for a laugh, try translating the page to Swedish.

Today I have my first day of grey skies in Stockholm, I think it's a museum day.

The Stockholm Archipelago

Today we took an early boat out of Stockholm city, to Stockholm Archipelago. Since Anna is the kind of person who plans a holiday without checking when her passport expires and gets stuck in Eastern Europe with an expired passport, of course we were running through town from the bus stop to the ferry stop and jumped on the ferry just before it took off.

Since the morning air was quite cold, running was not a bad thing to get us warmed up. But we still needed plenty of insulation to protect us from the wind, especially on the boat ride, don't let the perfectly blue sky and bright sun fool you into thinking it was warm!

We jumped off the ferry on the island of Grinda, which used to be used mainly for farming before it was bought by the Stockholm Archipelago Foundation as a recreational island for the people of Stockholm. It still has a feeling of a farm.

We were meant to go to the sauna, but as you can see from the above picture, that wasn't possible. Apparently the sauna burnt down last week! No injuries. Saunas are a big part of Swedish culture, you toast yourself in the sauna and then jump into cold water to cool down before getting back into the sauna. Maybe we'll find one that's still standing before the week's up.

So instead we decided to do a little hike around the island. It's quite a small island, so the hike was not too long. There are lots of helpful signposts, but I think it'd be quite difficult to get lost.

The trees in this area seemed to be quite green for this time of year. There are so many different types of mushrooms in the forest. One particular type of mushroom which is known to be poisonous and cause renal failure and hallucinations, was apparently eaten by the Vikings before they went into battle. It made them go "crazy" and become more aggressive and they thought it made them fight better.

At this time of year, these islands are almost uninhabited. Any cafes or restaurants which may be on the island are usually closed. We were lucky enough that the hotel on the island had a conference taking place there. So the kitchen was open and they had made lunch for the conferencees. Feeding two more was not a problem, luckily for us. Since we were hungry after our hike and we had eaten our sandwiches which we'd carried with, and the ferry back to the mainland was only coming by after 16h00 and would take 2 hours to arrive in the city. After lunch we fell asleep on these couches/beds in the hotel reception in front of the fireplace. Swedes are very polite. The hotel staff may have liked to have kicked us out of their reception area, but they didn't say a word. Rather, they pretended it was an everyday occurrence that people snored on the couches in the reception area.

After the nap we had a little bit more energy and walked down to the docks where people usually park their boats in the summer. They were empty today. After enjoying the sun and imagining that we were actually the only two people on the island (it was so quiet down at the docks) we had just enough time to walk back to the south side of the island where the ferry would pick us up.

We made it back into Stockholm just as the sun was setting and headed home on the subway.

Stockholm, day 1

Of course I'm making the most of things! Thank goodness Anna has lots of energy and is as enthusiastic to show me around as I am to see things.

For today, we both agreed not to set an alarm and woke up around 8. Anna made me a very Swedish breakfast, but since Swedish food is nothing like anything I've ever eaten before, I think I will save a post just to tell you about the food later on.

I've been most fortunate to have amazing weather for this time of year in Sweden. This morning was beautiful, so we decided to cycle into town. Anna has two bikes: a street bike which you see above, and a mountain bike. We took the scenic route of course, and cycled past the lake and area where Alfred Nobel did his work inventing nitroglycerin. The area is fairly secluded, so he had enough space to cause multiple explosions.

As we rode into Stockholm, the city hall was directly across from us, which is the building with the golden spire in the picture above. This is where the ceremony of the Nobel Prize takes place every year.

We crossed the first bridge and into the area called Gamla Stan, which is the old traditional part of town, with very old buildings and very narrow little alleys. We parked our bikes outside the palace and as we walked toward the centre of Gamla Stan, we were lucky enough to be passing by as the changing of the guard happens outside the palace. This involves a lot of pomp and ceremony and is a little amusing to watch.

Then we went walking through the little alleys of Gamla Stan (which literally means Old Town) and is exactly how I imagine old towns in Europe to look, with cobblestone underfoot, wooden windows with shutters and a few steep stairways.

Walking through the old town we heard piano playing coming from one of the shops, so of course we went in without even looking at what sort of shop it was. We found it to be an a little antique shop, exactly like you'd expect to find in an old town. What I liked best were the maps. The one above is of the Swedish seaboard, drawn in the 1600s. It's interesting to see the inaccuracies in old maps. The world was LITERALLY seen in a different way back then.

The shop owner was such a friendly guy and showed me a map he has of Southern Africa drawn in 1887, which shows Kaffirland and back then the Republic of South Africa only included the area later known as the Transvaal.

For lunch we went to Chokladkoppen (Chocolate Cup) a little cafe on the square in Gamla Stan, which serves huge cups of hot chocolate, as the name suggests. They claim that the building of the cafe dates back to medieval times. It's quite believable, because the inside of the cafe is quite small and dim, as you would imagine medieval rooms to have been.

After lunch we headed back to the palace to get our bikes. Across the water from the palace is the National Museum of Stockholm, which contains works by the likes of Rembrandt. We didn't go in there today, but decided to cycle just a little further on from the National Museum to see an exhibition of Inca gold, which happens to be on display in Stockholm at present, on loan from various museums in Peru. I have to say it was not as impressive as I had expected, but it was still interesting. It's likely that the most impressive stuff was all looted by the Spanish and melted down, sadly.

We ended off the day with a little bit of shopping in Soddermalm, the area I mentioned yesterday, which is known to be quite trendy. I can't afford to shop anywhere too trendy though, so we tried to stick to the more reasonably priced stores. Clothing in Sweden is really expensive, like most other things.

At the moment Converse All Stars in the Chuck Taylor style are huge in Stockholm!! Anna tells me that it's cheaper to order them online and have them posted to you from America than to buy them in Sweden, and Levis cost around 1000SEK! We went into H&M, which I found out is actually a Swedish brand, as well as Gina Trickot. I found the wide range of textures very interesting. Faux fur, corduroy, pleather, silk, chiffon.

I have to say, the Swedes are very stylish. And just because so many people cycle everywhere, as you can see from the bike stand above, doesn't mean they don't look good. People cycle to work, so the men are in their suits and ladies in smart jackets and shoes, with their work bags strapped onto the back of the bikes or in the basket, motoring through the streets on their bicycles. (But I think this is not unique to Sweden, rather a European way of life.) I'll try to get a picture of a smartly dressed woman on her bike, but they whizz by so fast, I'll have to be quick.

It can get quite tricky for a first timer, navigating cars and busses, and adhering to cycling etiquette in a crowd of cyclists at rush hour in Stockholm. I was quite proud of myself for managing it.

We ended off with supper at a little pub in So-fo (trendy of course) where we ate a typical Swedish meal, before cycling home in the dark.

We covered a lot for day one. I'm very glad that I have my own personal Swedish tour guide, because I know from experience that getting lost can take up a lot of time, which is precious when you've only got one week in a city.

Tomorrow we're setting an alarm, and catching an early boat...

Second time lucky & How to put your foot in your mouth

So as mentioned, I ended up in Doha with Qatar Airways. Right at the start of the flight, I managed to effortlessly put my foot in my mouth while trying to be helpful to the lady next to me. She had been asking the air hostess about what medication they had available on board for pain. I was of course, eavesdropping. When the airhostess walked away, I turned to her and asked: So how far is your pregnancy?

She replied: I'm not pregnant, I'm just big.

I still had to sit next to her for the next 7 hours... I have to say, she was not at all phased, I was the one who wanted the ground to swallow me!

Having left Jo'burg in layers (Jhb was quite cold when I left, I was preparing for Stockholm in autumn, and my bag was somewhat overweight) the heat of Doha hitting me as I walked down the stairs from the plane, wasn't too pleasant.

Doha airport transfer section is busy, connecting people to every corner of the world.

The Qatar Airways fleet is quite sizable, and there were also quite a significant number of shiny white private jets I spotted at the airport.

The Doha skyline is interesting. A large colorful "ball-on-stick" or reservoir-type structure reads "Welcome to Doha" next to glass-front high rise buildings. Alongside lots of low-rise flat roofed minaret and dome, bright white structures dotted here and there.

I was quite disappointed with the duty free shopping, the camera I've been looking at, was more expensive at Doha than in SA. (I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself on my return trip when I have 7 hours to kill in Doha...)

For some reason, the flight from Doha to Stockholm felt longer that the Jo'burg-Doha flight. Suppose I just couldn't wait to arrive.

By the time I walked out of the airport doors, Anna had been standing waiting for me for an hour already.

One of the first things I noticed about Stockholm - it's EXPENSIVE! The parking ticket for one hour's parking was 160SEK. SEK to ZAR is about 1 : 1.2. While that may be a favourable exchange rate, the price of stuff is just crazy!

Anna decided to drive me through the town. Stockholm is made up of 14 islands, connected by 57 bridges. Often you don't even notice when you've crossed from one island to the other.

The Eastern Island (Ostermalm) is where you find the likes of Louis Vuitton and other high end stores, I doubt I'll be spending much time there.

The Southern Island (Soddermalm) is the hip and happening district, with a little area named "So-fo" which has a range of bars and cool hang outs. I might spend some time there.

The names of the others can't pronounce, or remember how to spell.

I was fortunate enough to be greeted by a warm and sunny autumn day, so Anna and I headed to the Modern Museum (Moderna Museet) to have lunch at the little restaurant up on the top floor which has the view of the picture you see above. We'll have to go back another day to actually see what art the museum has on display.

I'm so exhausted after all the drama it took to actually get me here, we're staying in with popcorn and a movie tonight. It's a Danish movie, but the main actor's a Swede. I'm soaking up the culture.

Close, but no cigar

So, I arrived at OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg, with a few hours to spare, went straight to the British Airways counter and checked in all the way to Arlanda airport, Stockholm, via Heathrow. My suitcase was of course, slightly overweight, 24.4kg instead of 23kg, but nothing was said. Feeling relieved, with both boarding passes safely in my bag, I went off to browse the airport shops looking for last minute gifts.

Delon came along and we had time to have pizza before I went through to passport check, just in time. I missed a numeral on my boarding pass, and ended up at gate A8 instead of A18, but a little run through the airport got me to the right gate in time.

I got to the front of the line and happily handed over my boarding pass and passport. At which point I was told I couldn't board the plane, because I didn't have a visa for the UK. I laughed at the dim guy and told him I wasn't leaving the airport in Heathrow, I was getting on a connecting flight within two hours of landing.

"Sorry ma'am, please wait on this side, someone will come and speak to you just now."

I didn't start panicking yet, because surely he was wrong. In any case, no one had informed me that I needed a visa, so they'd let me off this one time and I'd promise to make sure it didn't happen again.

Not quite, I watched all the other passengers get on the plane, one other poor girl was sent to sit in the corner with me and I was glad for the company. We were then led down a passage where our luggage was waiting for us and escorted back through to the front of the airport and dumped at the British Airways ticket sales desk, where we were informed that no one could help us in any way until Monday morning when the customer care centre opened.

By this time I had already had a good cry and was walking around with a very red face. I've never felt so powerless. Throwing a hissy fit would've been completely useless.

I lugged my overweight suitcase around looking for another open ticket sales counter. And happened upon Swissport, where an angel of a woman searched through every possible flight to find me something.

I am now scheduled to leave at 21h50 tonight (Saturday 24 September) on Qatar airlines, via Doha. And land in Stockholm at 14h00 on Sunday, 27 hours and a few thousand rands later than I had expected.

Basically I'm saying: DON'T use British Airways, DON'T fly through Heathrow, unless you have a passport other than South African, or are willing to pay for a UK transit visa. Even a Zambian passport is alright, just South Africans have a problem for some reason. Maybe Jay-Zed did something wrong while he was over there... However, there is an exception: If you're going on to the USA or Canada via Heathrow, then no UK transit visa is necessary. It just does not make sense to me.

What an absolute nightmare. It felt surreal! But now I get to go through the UAE. And I'll tell you all what Qatar is like... IF I get there....

Good Timing!!

My travel guides arrived, bout 3 hours before my flight. JUST in time! Woohoo!

Forex

Lots of rands give you very little euros, unfortunately. But at least I have a bit of spare change to buy myself a coffee and sandwich, maybe use a pay phone if I need...

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to the North I go

Most people kinda raise an eyebrow when I say I'm going on holiday to Sweden and Belgium - a strange combination, I know. But I have good friends in both countries. And since they're relatively close to each other, I figured I might as well do both while I'm in the vicinity.

So this Saturday (24th) I land in Stockholm, where I stay for just over a week. And then I fly to Brussels on Monday 3 October, and stay in Leuven until I leave on 7 October to come back to SA.

My holiday is somewhat different this time round. I've ordered my Lonely Planet travel guides, but I ordered too late and they haven't arrived. Last year I had my guides about a month beforehand.

I'm already packed, and I'm packing quite light. Last year I packed so much stuff I didn't even wear.

I haven't yet gotten my forex, last year I had budgeted and bought it way in advance.

It isn't that I'm not excited this time round, I think it's that I'm sure I will have a good time with my friends, regardless of whether I get to tick off all the tourist destinations or not.

Anyway, Anna has already told me everything she has planned for the day I land in Stockholm, recovering from the journey is obviously not a priority! And Valerie has listed all the spots she feels are important in Belgium, we will see if there is time to see anything else I might be interested in, maybe a trip to Amsterdam or Paris. And Koen has already spoken to me about the 6 course meal he feels is necessary for me to experience while visiting him in Belgium.

Not sure if I'll have time to read any travel guides, and I'm not complaining!