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