“He is truly wise
who’s travelled far
and knows the ways of the world.
He who has travelled
can tell what spirit governs the men he meets”
Or at least, that is what the vikings used to say. This quote is from a book called the Hávamál, an old nordic text, used by the vikings, to govern the ways of their living. As I read this passage this morning I thought. Isn’t this fitting to start my Stockholm post? After all I went there on a mission, much different than my regular trips. It was not only getting to know the land and sights, but also the man, the women, their work and their daily chores…
…Alright, I’m starting to sound like one of the vikings of yore… damn, I did it again. I promise (kinda) this was the last time.
So, going back to the original intent. This was no ordinary trip. Sure, I was going to a place I’ve never explored and I wanted, as usual, to absorb everything. But there was an underlying main reason: get to know the Stockholm branch of the agency I work for in Milan. Not only the office, but the people and their work.
It was all part of the Together Works Better initiative created by the group I work for (MSLGroup). Every year, young people from around the world are invited to form groups and submit projects that answer to a certain brief. The winners are given a budget and can visit for a week, at their choice, any of the group 90 offices spread around the globe.
This year there were over 56 projects submitted globally. Mine was one of the winning projects, so me and my two group mates spent hours looking at the big map in our meeting room and finally came up with Stockholm as our destination (ok, that is a romanticized version of the events, but let’s pretend it was like that).
When we boarded our Ryanair flight (hey, you gotta cut costs somewhere, right?) we were not ready for the experience we were about to have. It was full on Swedish immersion. From our first fight with a Taxi driver, which we learned are the only untrustworthy people in Sweden (them and the Social Democrats, but I’m just repeating what I’ve been told), to our last night sharing Mariestads beer at a very shady pub after an agency event, we were Swedes. Well Swedes that only spoke English and had no Krona in their pocket.
To start we were staying at a house rented thorough Airbnb, which meant our great rooms, huge kitchen and balcony also came with a side of William (the owner) and two lovely super blond kids. That in itself was the start of our immersion. Our host was super nice. As soon as we arrived, he opened up a map and circled all the nice areas where we could drink and eat (Yay) and then, very patiently, answered all my questions about local food, rotten fish, alcohol and sightseeing. I’m a pain in the ass with my questions, bordering the intolerable, but William kept calm even though the questions kept coming during the week at 8 am, when he was getting ready to go to work (or fixing the mess I made with his espresso machine. Sorry William!)
I also gave myself a free license to kill eat, during our 9-day stay in the city. It all started with a Tunnbrödsrulle, an innocent wrap of wurst, mashed potatoes, shrimp and dill mayonnaise and salad. But started going downhill the second night when I visited a Swedish supermarket for the very first time. Caviar for 3 euros? I checked the price tag many times before putting that jar in the basket. I felt so rebellious. Included in the basket was also some sill, a form of pickled herring. The texture was horrible, but it tasted very sweet and mustard like. Paired well with the Lingonberry bread. Sorry for the name dropping, but I just wanna show off.
Of course, now all the stories I’ll tell my grand kids will start with “When I was eating caviar out of the jar with a spoon…”.
What succeeded in the following days was a copious amount o kanelbullar (cinnamon rolls), carrot cakes with cream cheese frosting, cookies with raspberries, smoked salmon with dill, many varieties of herrings (pickled, sweet, sour, fried, on bread or with mashed potatoes), meatballs with lingonberry jam, dark bread, sea food pastes (tastes better than it sounds), venison steak, elk salame, reindeer meat, warm cloud berries, pulled pork, khalix, smoked salmon with dill, salmon pudding (that was really good, like a potato lasagna with salmon) and the crown’s jewel: reindeer heart! Oh, man. that made me feel like a true Viking.
Now I feel embarrassed because it should be a post about the great people of Sweden and their daily life in Stockholm and I spent the last 3 paragraphs talking about food.
But when you think about it, people have got to eat, right? So let’s count it under Swedish routine habits.
So, yeah, let’s try to focus on that for a while (before I start talking about drinking, another crucial routine habit).
We were there during an election week. We arrived on the 6th of September and the election closed on the 14th, the Sunday after. Some quick facts: They don’t elect people, a fact I was fascinated with, coming from a country where politicians tend to amass bigger attention than their own parties. In Sweden it is the opposite, they elect parties for the parliament, a model, explained very well by one of the agency guys, that makes a lot of sense and seems to be very balanced. I was also very surprised with the fact that voting is a 2-week process, and you choose when and where to vote. Now, that seems smart.
But I don’t wish to go further into this. Just wanted to point out that all of the people that I met had a really strong political conscience. They were also very private. When asked which party they would be voting for they’d just avoid confrontation with others around and kindly mention that it was better not to say.
And although they seem very private in their ways, they are very welcoming. In all we spent 5 days working in the agency and from day one it was easy to bond. People were open for questions, willing to share their expertise, answer silly questions, help and most important of all, to keep company. In three days they arranged for us two dinners and one after work drinking session in-house. By then I had really bonded with some of the folks and was secretly wishing that I could stay a bit longer to be able to get to know them better.
We were also extremely lucky to be sharing that week with a winning team from one of the agencies in Brazil. Being Brazilian myself it was great to speak some Portuguese (I’m starting to forget words) and get a nice insight on how people are working over seas. They were a truly creative team and some of the things they do in their agency are worth adapting over here in Italy.
During my free time I was indulging in more than just eating- I was actively practicing 2 of my favorite hobbies: people watching and photographing And through that I learned a whole lot more about Swedes.
Swedes eat early (we were more then once kicked out of a restaurant even before 10 pm, because they were closing) and although the breakfast table was always full of dark bread, cheeses, ham, vegetables (yes, vegetables) and juice, the majority of them ate milk and cereal or fruit and yogurt. They were also pretty international when it came to food brands, with Burger Kings and TGIF spread around town, but more local when it came to clothing and design, which is totally justifiable. I saw no Starbucks, but the number of Espresso House coffee shops was abundant. Man, do they drink copious amounts of coffee. I mean, I thought no one could drink more coffee than Italians, but I guess I was wrong.
They are also extremely digital, with even old people using Facebook on a daily basis.
Public transportation runs until wee hours in the morning, if not 24 hours a day. An they are always packed. Plus, subway stations are incredible, with one more different than the other. It was so worth it getting an unlimited ticket and just hop on and off subway stations to check their architecture.
Swedes are also very cultural. The amount of museums and galleries available in Stockholm is incredible. And they are frequented not only by tourists, but also by a huge amount of locals. When I visited the Fotografiska to see both Anders Petersen and Sebastiao Salgado exhibition the rooms were filled with families, with parents trying to introduce kids of all ages to the world of photography. That is really cool, if you ask me.
I, for instance, am not a museum lover, but I found myself going to 3 of them during my stay (4, if you count the open air museum/zoo of Skansen) and returning home wishing that I could have gone to more of them.
The Vasa is amazing. I was mesmerized by the grandeur of the ship and more then once I felt the need to sit down on the floor and just observe the thing, letting my imagination run wild thinking of the people, their lives and all that happened during the short existence of the ship voyage.
Another amazing exhibition is the Viking one at the Historiska museum, with tons of viking artifacts, re imagined scenarios and some pretty cool engraved stones. It sheds some light on the farmer side of vikings instead of focusing on the oversee warriors. I definitely learned a lot.
The Fotografiska is just a breath taking photo gallery. Nothing like I’ve ever seen. I had heard about it but had made my mind on not going. But then I found it by accident during one of my random walks around Sodermalm and I fell in love, first with the building and then with the gift shop. Buying the 120 Kr ticket to enter was a no brainer.
But aside being cultural, there is also a drunken side to them, judging by the girl in the subway who threw her phone at her friend in discontent. But alcohol is not something easy to find (or cheap). To start you can only buy alcohol at a store owned by the state (Systembolaget), which closes at 15pm Saturday only to open again on Monday. I wonder how they do impromptu house parties (I heard they stock it at home). In case you decide to go out for a drink, be ready to have some dough on you. Sweden is an expensive country, but paying 14 euros for one drink seems a little bit too much even for the huge alcohol lover that I am.
And be ready to be unpleasantly surprised by the beers you buy ins the many street food stalls. They are only 2.2%. You’d be better off with a coke.
All in all, Stockholm is a great place. It is a beautiful city, were modern life meets old style, where sea meets lake, where every rock counts as an Island in their Archipelago and where people are so nice, but so genuinely nice, that you start wondering if you are the only human born with the gift of being unpleasant.
But I guess I wasn’t all that bad myself. After a week telling everyone how badly I wanted to try every food and drink possible made in Sweden (and failing to find Lingonberry juice in every single place we went for breakfast), one of the guys from work presented me with the best gift ever. A 1o-bottle collection of Snaps. Of course I got carried away and drank about 4 of them in a short space of 3 hours, what proved not to be the smartest of choices. But I only realized that when it was 2 am and I was sitting at a hotel bar with someone I’ve just met on Tinder… Well, maybe it was the smartest of choices.
Neverthelss, one thing is certain, you always come back home with more things in your bag than you arrived with. And what did I bring back? Aside from the rest of the Snaps bottles and the Viking scripture, I brought back a huge appreciation for all things Swedish (Skagenröra, anyone?),.
I return with enormous respect and admiration for the work these guys do at MSL and JKL in Stockholm and also at Espalhe in Brasil, a mind bubbling with new ideas and projects, a lot of open doors and new people I came to like and want to keep in touch with. I also learned a lot more italian (go figure) living with my two team mates. Some of it I’m afraid it wont be that useful.
Plus, hidden inside socks and stashed inside my leather jacket, you’d also find some Caviar and a can of Surströmming (you do not want to know what it is!).
Tack så mycket.
Now, back to work.
TIPS
To eat:
– Aifur: Amazing restaurant that will make you feel like a viking. The atmosphere is amazing, the unfermented, unfiltered beer even better and they even serve mead (which I discovered to be a very sweet wine and not a type of beer). The food is also really good, prepared with ingredients usually found in Scandinavia back when the vikings dominated it. Ask for the cold cuts as entree, with elk salame and reindeer heart. The venison with black currant was also really good.
– Café Sten Sture: The food is not the main point here, although their dame cake was really good. What really counts is the environment, a 12th century underground prison where Gustav III was held captive before being decapitated. if that doesn’t set the mood for a nice lunch, I don’t really know what will.
– Tradition: A very, very swedish place, just in case you didn’t get a hint from the name. . We had the full course menu and tried everything from herring to salmon, caviar and reindeer meat. The ambiance is also very typical, as if IKEA furnished the whole thing.
– Hötorgshallen: A great underground food market serving everything from shrimp salad to salmon pudding. You can also find great salami made from elk or reindeer and some very fresh ready-to eat stuff.
– Nystekt Stroming: One of my favorites! Too bad I only found it on my last day there. It’s just a street food truck right in front of the Slussen subway station, but they sell the most amazing fried herring with lingonberry jam I’ve ever eaten. Very cheap. Good for lunch time.
– Nosh & Chow: Be ready to empty your bank account at this place. It is a lot of things, but cheap is not one of them (but then again, this is Sweden). It’s contemporary cuisine, with lots of great reinvented dishes, including some with Swedish roots. I had khalix, pulled pork and pork belly with home made mustard. For dessert, warm cloud berries and ice cream.
– Street food stalls: You will find them everywhere around town, serving take-away food that is fresh and delicious. Go for the Tunnbrödsrulle, you sure won’t regret it!
To drink:
– Marie Leveau: A great pub right in Sodermalm. Drinks are very creative and original. Mine was a mix of Port Wine and Rum and was adequately called Drunken Sailor on Lake Zombie.
– The Ice Bar: Super touristic, but if you’ve never been to an ice bar, it’s the place to go
To visit:
– The Archipelago: Because it was out of season and there was only one outbound and return boat, we chose not to go to a specific island and isntead took the Stromma boat tour. It took around 3 hours and it was really complete. The day was very sunny and the scenery was amazing. Worth it!
– Fotografiska: Never have I seen a gallery like this one, set inside a very old building right at the port area of Sodermalm. A visit to the giftshop is already a treat!
– Vasa Museum: Great for people who like old stuff and to let their imagination run wild.
– Historiska: Hosts a great Viking exhibition.
– Skansen: It’s an open air museum, with buildings and shops build in the style of old Sweden. But the best part is the Zoo, full of Nordic animals like reindeer, elks, wolves, owls, bears, bisons and wild porks.
– Gamla Stan: Just because it is great to walk around those streets.
– Fjallgatan: A nice panoramic view from Soderlmalm.
– Subway Stations: Specially the ones on the blue line. Decorated and built in very different ways. Get an unlimited ticket and go hop on and off from station to station 🙂
Minion Joshie was holding his breath of excitment for the entire flight. He loved flying Emirates.
He did feel the hotel for the first night was a bit crippy and couldn’t sleep much.
He was so excited with the Empire State. Look at his face.
He ate a lot during the trip! Mostly burgers.
But to be fair, he did burn some of it by Power Walking at Central Park.
Selfie time!
But not all of it was vacation, as he helped me in some note taking activity during the conference.
He also partied hard. Here’s him returning from a club in Brooklyn at 4am. Sleepy head.
And to make sure he was safe, a quick visit to the NYPD Bomb Squad HQ.
Here’s both of us in front of the FRIENDS building. He was clearly embarassed by my fan-girling.
A fun meet up with his pal from Bohol under the Brooklyn Bridge. What a coincidence!
He might be tiny, but he’s not one to refuse a tall glass of Blue Moon.
We had to exchange seats at the theater. The guy in front of him was too tall and Minion Joshie missed all of Chicago’s fist act amazing dance moves.
At least he secured a great view at the Top of the Rock.
Minion Joshie still haven’t got the hang of this selfie thing, and focus is a hit-or-miss type of thing. But hey, Lady Liberty looks great in the shot.
Just like me he enjoys some alcohol and gossip during flights. Soulmates.
Minion Joshie was so destroyed after the return flight that he couldn’t wait to get out of the taxi and crash into my bed. 
Searching for Kim 