Stockholm, Week 3

Hej!

I have now been in Stockholm three weeks. Time is flying by. Tomorrow, June 25th, is the Midsummer's Eve holiday, and the office is closed! This week also marks the longest, and lightest days of the year.

On Friday, our marine friends hosted a geeks and gangsters party at their house. While I didn't dress up, my lovely friends Amanda and Cecilia were inspired by Revenge of the Nerds. Oh, the days of theme parties makes me miss college!


We then went to a club called Berns, popular with our local Swedish friends. Berns is a hotel, restaurant, lounge, club, and is huge! The chandeliers hanging in the lounge/ asian restaurant over the grand hall are fabulous (pictured here).





On Saturday, I shopped around and at sushi at the Hotoret market "Hay Market", a new favorite! Sushi, miso soup, and green tea hit the spot.

Saturday night, we ventured out to try a restaurant in Gamla Stan (Old Town) owned by a family from Paris, Texas! Called Grill Ruby, this restaurant bottles their own homemade barbeque sauce, and is popular with locals and Texans alike. I ordered a chicken quesadilla, and a margarita. While it may have been the most expensive tex mex ever purchased, it was worth it! I'm hoping to have a mexican fiesta at my house where I can introduce texmex food and margaritas done right for my Swedish friends.

I am trying to get caught up on my posts, so more to come soon. Ciao for now!

K Fitz

The Royal Wedding

On Saturday, June 19, the royal wedding in Stockholm commenced. The Swedish Crown Princess Victoria married Daniel Westling.


The wedding totalled more than $2.5 million, half of which was paid for personally by the King. More than 1,000 distinguished guests attended the wedding ceremony, including Royals from all over world. See the guest list here.

An estimated 500,000 people crowded the streets surrounding the Royal Palace to see the Princess address the crowd. The crown Princess started out by saying “I would first like to thank the Swedish people for having given me my prince." How cute! The Princes seems humble and happy!

We went to watch the royal procession following the ceremony on Standvagen by the embassy. The happy couple paraded by in a royal carriage before getting on a boat rowed by 18 naval officers back to the palace. There was a royal flyover My friend Susan had us over to her apartment after the procession to watch the rest of the wedding coverage, and we toasted the royal couple with champagne.

Wondering what happens to Daniel's last name? Does he take her last name, or maybe keep his own? Actually, reporters announced that he no longer has a last name... He will from now on just be Prince Daniel, Duke of Vaestergoetland. This is a title not bestowed to a "commoner" since the middle ages. I also learned that Daniel was the owner of a popular gym chain in Sweden, and was required to sell his business before becoming royal. In fact, he was the Victoria's personal trainer.

To all the single ladies... feast your eyes on Prince Carl Philip (31), Princess Victoria's hot eligible brother.

Royals were rumored to be staying at the famous Grand Hotel across the water from the Royal Palace. The Grand Hotel is also the official hotel of Nobel Prize winners each year.

Spotted: Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart were seen at the Grand, in town for their upcoming twilight event in Stockholm.

K Fitz

Lunch with Norman Lear

On Tuesday the Ambassador invited me to have lunch with Norman Lear and his family. For those of you who may not know him, Mr. Lear is an accomplished producer that produced All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Maude, Fried Green Tomatoes, and the Princess Bride, amongst others. He and his family were very friendly, and interesting to talk to.

Mr. Lear is also a social activist and philanthropist, and started the Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, a multidisciplinary research and public policy center dedicated to exploring the convergence of entertainment, commerce and society. Read more about him here.

You may also recognize Dr. Lapook in the photo, CBS medical correspondent.

K Fitz

Stockholm, Week 2

Hej,

Life in Stockholm is good! I have now been here for nearly two weeks, and I am finally starting to learn my way around.

The metro stop that I take to work is called Hoglandstorget. For all you Harry Potter fans, I like to think of it as Hogwarts instead.

As you may know, I am a self proclaimed baker of delicious cookies, otherwise known as Rathersweets. The problem is, chocolate chips don't seem to exist in Sweden. So, I am now forced to go with Plan B. I will now focus my efforts on Swedish treats with local ingredients. My first attempt will be to make choklad bolls, basically chocolate with butter, cocoa, coffee, and rolled in coconut. Hopefully I will master them here, and I'll bake them for everyone when I return.

On Tuesday, I went to dinner with Frances, a mutual friend that my sister and her friend set me up with. We went to t.v.a., a great local restaurant in the St. Eriksplan area. During the week, they have meal specials to encourage people to eat out. We ordered the tuna steak, and it was delicious. After dinner, we grabbed a cocktail at Storstad in Odenplan, a local favorite.

Wednesday, Amanda and I went running around djurgarten with the marines at post, which seemed like our own personal body guards. Afterwards, we ate dinner at Vapiano, a new italian restaurant with fresh herbs on the table. They have great salads and pizzas.

Thursday night, Frances took us to a club that was created for Love Stockholm, the events leading up to the Royal Wedding this weekend. Europeans are really into clubs and techno music, which is culture shock for me!

This weekend, I explored Hotorgshallen, an underground market that reminded of the Mercato Centrale in Florence. They sell meats, cheeses, homemade pastas, spices, wine, and fresh produce. Someone here told me that Stockholm makes it hard for foodies and winos to eat good food and drink good wine at home because the stores are only open until 6 during the week, and 3 on Saturdays. I ate at a cute little sushi place in the market, and then set out to find the one recommended place in Stockholm that sells ground turkey meat, kalkon in Swedish.

Amanda and I then explored the Moderna Museet, Stockholm's modern museum of art.

Amanda and I ate dinner at Koh Phangan in Sodermalm, a really fun and corky thai restaurant. There are lanterns and christmas lights strung throughout the restaurant, and the restaurant feels like a tropical forest with fake lizards and snakes hanging from the trees. The pad thai and spring rolls were delicious.


After dinner, we headed to the British Embassy to watch the U.S. take on Great Britain in the World Cup. Lucky for us, it was a diplomatic ending where we tied. We went out in Gamla Stan to a bar called Akkurat, a pub that boasts more than 200 beers on tap. Lucky for me, they have Sierra Nevada Pale ale, and for a mere $10 I was able to savor this IPA.

On Sunday, we visited the newly opened Fotografiska Museet (photography museum) to see the travelling Annie Leibovitz exhibit.


Ciao!
K Fitz

Stockholm, Week 1

Hej (Heyyy) from Stockholm!

I've been in Sweden for five days now, and I'm loving it! The weather is beautiful.. It has been sunny, and hasn't rained yet (which I hear is amazing). The temperature is in the 50s in the morning, and can get as high as 70 in the afternoon. Much better than the Texas heat, but definitely chilly.

My house has an incredible view of a lake, and my room connects to the second floor balcony (see view in pic). There is also a great deck in the backyard.

This past week was the Taste of Stockholm, a food fair with a beer garden feel and live music. We ended up going twice the food was so good.


This weekend I went out with some friends from the Embassy. I explored Soderholm (like South Congress or SoHo) and enjoyed Fika, which is a coffee break in Swedish. Sunday was the National Day of Sweden, and I went to Skensen to see the King of Sweden speak (Stensen pictured below). The photo here is from the Royal Parade. It was my cultural event of the weekend, and very patriotic. Different musicians performed, and then Amanda, a fellow colleague, and I went to eat at a little place on the water by the Embassy.

Also on Sunday, I ventured out to pick up some home items from the largest IKEA in the world. It took about an hour to get there on the metro, but very worth it. I bought some new bedding, and some essential kitchen items such as a cookie sheet and spatula. I only made it to one of the three floors (very overwhelming)!

Top 10 Things I'm learning about Sweden:

1. It only gets dark here a few hours a day, and Swedes live by the sunlight. So, people eat dinner and go out when it is light, and leave when it is light... This makes for late nights
2. I need to learn the metric system because I do not think in Celsius and centiliters
3. I'm enjoying the European lifestyle, and getting used to walking about five miles a day
4. Men in Sweden wear really tight pants
5. Wine can only be purchased at package stores, and the stores are open so rarely I am inadvertently detoxing
6. IKEA and H&M are based in Stockholm, and readily available
7. Only purchase as much as you can carry, and be prepared to carry it at least a mile
8. There are some fellow Austinintes here, and I'm determined to find a decent texmex place
9. My corner market sells Stubb's BBQ Sauce, but no basic food items I'm looking for
10. Not many Swedes eat traditional Swedish food, and it is perfectly acceptable to eat Thai and Italian food here

Well, I think that is all for now!

Adjo,

K Fitz