An evening with me

Written in a pub last night:

(I walked past this place on the way back to the hotel.  Apparently it has an impressive selection of beers - especially local - so I've ordered a Landsort on the advice of the waitress.)

My hotel is owned by a one of the ABBA members and used to be a movie theatre.  It now has shows and concerts in theatre (sadly, the next show doesn't start till February) and has a cafe, bar and a restaurant.  I popped down to the restaurant for a quick bite to eat on my first night.  You know those moments when you sit down at a restaurant and then look at the very pricey menu?  This was one of those.  So I threw caution to the wind and ordered a $15 pear cider and a $47 venison dish (living on the edge....)  There was some to-die-for nutty brown bread to start, and then my venison came out - complete with explanation of everything on the dish: thinly sliced potato cake topped with a strong, parmesan-like cheese from the north of Sweden, some vegetables including mushrooms, a cabbage like thing that I forget the name of and possibly carrots?  The venison was medium rare (I was told that was how it was served, not asked how I'd like it.  Fortunately, I like it medium rare).  It was very nice, if a tad chewy.

The hotel has run with the movie theme.  On my second night, I had a light dinner in the cafe and the walls are full of pictures of what I think are famous Swedish people.  One of them looks like a young ummm you know, that Swedish guy that is in all the movies?  The one from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  The hotel room has a nice big television and a selection of DVDs that you can borrow for free.  A very good thing too.  I felt like shit with a head cold (similar to man flu, but worse) so I saw the pharmacy, the supermarket and two movies yesterday.

I'm still feeling quite sick, so I had a slow start today and didn't head out until about midday.  My feet are my primary means of transport again, but it's more a a slow amble between stops rather than pounding the pavement like Amsterdam.

(The beer is quite nice - not much of a 'beer' aftertaste.)

I was headed for Gamla Stan (the old town) but ended up walking around the outside of the island as I had the National Museum in my sights.  Which is closed for renovations.  The route to the temporary exhibit took me past a bird feeding pontoon - a first for me - surrounded by ducks, swans and some black bird with a white forehead.  I then got distracted by the parliament buildings and wandering the streets of Gamla Stan - very touristy, but quite pretty.

(I like this pub, it has little hooks under the tables for your coat.  Where I'm sitting sandwiched between two other groups of people while I wait for a table in the restaurant to be free.)

One of my 'rest stops' along the way was a German church which had that quiet calmness that churches often do.  [I've just googled and the church is dedicated to St Gertrude, a patron saint of travellers.]  Then I stumbled across the Nobel museum.  I'd seen it on the map, but didn't click as to what it was about - Nobel Prize winners.  Duh.  It looks good from the outside, but is actually only one floor of the building.  I stopped for hot chocolate in the cafe where the chairs are all signed by Nobel Prize winners.  I spent several hours in the museum including watching short clips about various winners and a guided tour and it was pitch dark when I left (at 4.15pm!!!!!)

(I've changed seats for better people watching and have just noticed a very large collection of whisky.  Tempting.)

I'd heard that the Fotografiska museum had great views of the city so I headed there on my way back to the hotel.  The gallery itself had some interesting exhibits:
- a photo documentary of the 'Arab spring'.  It was all in Swedish but I got the gist of it and a number of the photos were also on the walls.
- a series of nudes by Paolo Roversi.  The subjects were clearly models, but they hadn't been photo-shopped like they are in magazines so you could see their occasional flaws.  They were stunning.
- photos by Edward Erwitt who likes dogs and children so there are lots of photos of those.  Along with some iconic photos such as Jackie O crying at JFK's funeral, a series of photos at nudist weddings, and some great photos in Paris.

Then I ended up here.  At Akkurat where my beer is empty and my table is free so I'm off to eat some mussels and chips.