On the way to the Globen.
There it is.
You ride up the side of the building in these giant transparent balls.
First a short video on how it was made.
And events that have happened here.
Up we go.
The other one going down.
Looking down.
There's a crack near the bottom of the door that a camera or wallet could fall through; better stay away from that.
Downtown.
To the south.
West.
North.
Downtown again.
Everybody trying to get good pictures.
Some of the kids weren't too interested, though.
Headed down.
Some neatly-lighted trees down there.
The hole the ball goes into looks like a toilet, heh.
Some neat chairs at the Globen.
A big fluffy dog on the subway.
One annoying thing about the subways here is that the trains don't wait for each other. In most cities, if two trains reach a stop at about the same time, they'll wait a few extra seconds to let passengers transfer between the two. Not here, though, which is pretty sad to see when people rush out of one as soon as the doors open and the doors on the other one before they can get there.
People making food for a pot-luck dinner at Jägargatan.
Everybody eating.
There was tons of good food.
More here.
Quite a variety.
Brownies and more for dessert.
Grab some before they're gone!
More dessert.
Still eating.
A bit more food.
And pretty much done.
That's a good idea.
Although not followed very well.
I like how the Södersjukhuset (South Hospital) has the acronym SÖS.
This stain on the way up the escalators in the Västra skogen T-bana stop looks just like the balrog in LOTR to me.
We got lots of coupons at the welcome day, but I realized most just say that you get a student discount, so you don't really need the coupon itself.
Almost nobody comes over to these elevators and there's a nice little couch I could nap on, but it's still a little too in the open for me. I have to find a nice deserted room in the basement with a couch or something.
This doll freaks me out.
"Whopper is god." Swedish "god" = English "good," although it's funnier without knowing that.
Oh, come on, how hard is it to make an even sandwich?
A "US out of Iraq" rally. Perhaps a nice gesture, but I don't think most Americans will change their minds over 50 Swedes gathering for a few hours.
A tram from near Central Station to near the Vasa museum. It's one of the few trams I've taken here.
It looks like there's some problem with the doors.
I could never be the ticket checker on these things. I'm horrible at remembering people, so I'd either ask people multiple times or not ask people at all.
A view by the Vasa museum.
One of the entrances to Djurgården.
The Nordic museum.
The lockers at the Vasa museum require you to put in 5 SEK.
Although you get it back at the end, so I'm not sure what good it really does. Why would you ever lock something in a locker and then leave it? And if you were really intent on it, I don't think 5 SEK is going to deter you.
If you tried leaving out coats like this in the US, I'm pretty sure they'd all be gone in a fair percentage of cities.
The Nordic museum again.
Straight on.
A little square.
I had to buy another lock for Jenny for when we went ice swimming. I hate blister packaging, though, especially when all I have to open it is a key.
I just knew I was going to cut myself on the dumb packaging.
Quick, we have to run to make the bus! And it was a long ways, too; all the way around the pillar and back.
Lots of cranes.
The ski slopes in the city.
This guy got on and then got off at the next stop. Which wouldn't have been so bad except it couldn't have been more than 100 feet away.
Out like a light. We can't both fall asleep or we'll miss our stop, though.
Walking to Hellasgården, the ice swimming sauna, we had to walk on the road because the sidewalk was under a foot of snow.
Thankfully we avoided getting smooshed.
When Monica arrived Friday evening, we were all hungry, so we went to this Mongolian Barbeque buffet place by Central Station. I really like it.
And plenty of dessert there, too.
We got all dressed up to go out and ran over to Pax to meet the other party-goers. We were going to Strand because we heard it was no cover.
We waited in line for about half an hour in the cold, although it was actually a lot of fun; better than being in an actual club.
Yeah, that looks cold.
When we got to the front, they said the cover was 100 SEK per person, and since they were playing really old Eminem, we decided to just go home instead, especially since we were all pretty tired anyway.
That's an, uh, interesting band name.
Hey, I remember that guy playing on the subway last weekend, too! Although this time he has some friends to form an entire band.
Purple jeans, nice.
So Dilon pointed out that this lights up to indicate the next train at the subway stop near our dorms.
Whereas the one on the other side is unlit. Yep, I've been here almost two months and hadn't yet noticed that.
A neat building.
A view from near City Hall.
In front of City Hall.
Walking to Gamla Stan.
Lots of ducks who let you get really close to them.
Huddling together for warmth.
Under a bridge.
Coming up to Gamla Stan.
Getting closer.
Vågen och Vindarna (Libra and Winds), a little statue.
Ducks out on some ice.
The Swedish Parliament.
A weird beggar-fox statue.
Walking across a bridge to Parliament.
Looking east.
Some neat arches.
A view to the north from the Royal Palace.
To the notheast.
Lots and lots of ducks.
Not sure what exactly was going on here, but it looked like a guy in a costume sneaking up on a big tour group.
Den Gyldene Freden, the oldest restaurant in the world to have the same surroundings, according to the Guinness Book of Records.
Not cheap, but not insanely expensive; about $50 per person for an entree.
Although I think it was worth it; it was the best food I've had in Stockholm. I had duck and boar sausage; Jenny had Swedish meatballs. The mashed potatoes were amazing.
As was the chocolate mousse. And the rose hip soup, a Swedish specialty, was also good.
Jenny and Evert Taube.