Took me a whole day to get from Lon to ARN even via plane and 1 hour train then 30 minute local train.
Unpacked, showered, researched my possibly new work neighborhood, toured a few places, rested and slept.
Real day 1: Woke up at 7ish am. Did full yoga. Didn’t do sit-ups or abs, I got lazy and was excited. Showered, cooked breakfast, packed, and left the apartment. Not very many people in the neighborhood where I was staying. The air outside was as fresh as it could get, and the morning sky was absolutely lovely. Took local bann-central to the place of my new possible work-area. It was around 11am, and Stockholm felt empty, well there weren’t that many people. While that is mostly true, it might be truer that I was alone and it isn’t exactly easy or cultural to have conversation with anybody, and besides not knowing Swedish on my part did not make it any easier.
I passed lots of good quality shops. Fewer eating places in comparison to the shops, and have seen only a few Bars. They have very good architecture, some very cool old and some positively modern architecture as well.
The streets were clean. However, London and vicinity such as Notting hill road was cleaner. Vienna being the cleanest city I have ever been to in Europe, or anywhere. All whipping aside, I wonder how clean Singapore is?
Coffee was very good in Stockholm, even though I only was having decafe lattes or cafe Americanos. People are friendly and will try to help you out if you need directions, aside from that I still haven’t been able to have a single conversation with a “stranger” since landing here in Stockholm.
People are super fashion fixated here. They were super nice fitted jeans, nice matching shirt, with a contrasting light or dark sweater, and very fashionable jacket. Nice shoes or cool looking sneakers. They treasure their Nikes, and puts the Sneaker fad in the 1980s I grew up in NYC to shame. They are obsessed with Nikes, Yankee Baseball Caps, and lots of fashion, and the colour Black. Clean cut, as in sharply cut and line hairstyle. A good many are blonde. A good many both Men, and Women are tall. There are also some stunning brunets. Many have amazing marble colored eyes or ocean blue or sea blue eyes.
With all this human bodies being beautiful, Stockholm is boring, and people socially cold. They are helpful if in need of directions. Okay, I don’t want to go there, still, I am going there. I loved Oslo Airport, and the warmth of human-ness, and they were either Norwegians or Finns. Between Copenhagen and Stockholm, I would take Copenhagen. Much more to do in Copenhagen, and people less rigid than the Swedes. Interestingly, when you meet Swedes outside of their homeland, say in southern Europe they are very friendly. I met a wonderful Mother and Son on the Plane to Stockholm, and they said to me in Stockholm people don’t talk and have no sense of humor. In addition, they went to look for a new house (not a flat, specially a house) in London/Outskirts of London. I also found out the mother that she lived in Minnesota (pronounced their style: Meen-a-so-ta) for about 20 years. For interesting history look up the famine of Sweden and how many swedes moved to the US, especially Meen-a-so-ta. How they many families moved back to Sweden after years, and how they started constructing houses in Sweden that had much US (Mid-West) style architecture, lawns, etc..
The few Swedes I met outside of Sweden or during a flight were of an entirely different nature and almost all did not come from Stockholm. Maybe, it’s just Stockholm. Still, the young American women that were superficial, loud, and speaking nothing intelligent were the most annoying and rude. I had a very friendly experience in Malmo, even the many Danes in Malmo were friendly, and so were the Swedish Blondes.
I was supposed to possibly work and live in Sweden. Stockholm was so unfriendly I cut my trip short, and instead of going to my next adventure I went back to NYC via Oslo, Norway. I rested for a few weeks, and then, headed out to Roma via Milano.