I must have looked the part today. I wore the Russian silver fox hat with my red puffy coat and big snö boots. Everyone I spoke to expected me to speak in Swedish. Two ladies even stopped me in the street to ask for directions. Unfortunately for them, while I understood them perfectly, all I could muster in reply was "Viktoriagatan..." and a point in the right direction. I wanted to tell them it was 3 blocks on, but I couldn't find the vocab in my head.
The sun did come out, and so did the wind. Glad for the hat. Al and I had a good wander around town. We stopped into Indiska on Kungsgatan, my favourite store. It's my favourite partly because of the stuff they sell (think Anthropologie at a lower price tag), but mostly because of the interior space. It's a 2 story shop, with clothing on the main floor and the housewares up top. Up top is a balcony that rings the walls, overlooking the sales floor below. Looking at the store from the street, you would never know that it opens up like that, until you're inside. After lunch at Cafe Garbo (still the same, reliable lunch place - isn't that nice), Al had to go pick up her boys from school, and I set off on a bigger wander in search of ljuskatter, starting at Saluhallen.
Saluhallen is the indoor market. It's an old building. I would guess it dates from the late 1800s based on the one small corner of it they haven't renovated. The renovations had started when we were still here 18 months ago, so I was interested to see what was new. Not much. The same vendors are there, but the signage has been fancied up. I found my ljuskatter med saffron and a very nice Lucia pepparkakor, and continued on my way.
I used to walk a lot when I lived here. Today I retraced many of those steps to find favourite boutiques to browse through. Many are still there, but not all. My favourite cafes are still there in Haga. I haven't done the shops in Haga yet, but there's still a few afternoons left before we travel home again, to tittar på to my heart's content.
Dinner tonight was with my swedish teacher, Margareta, and my french lady friends, Laurence, Florence, and Michele. This group was a mainstay of my time when we lived here. Together, the 5 of us navigated the grammar and vocab of the swedish language twice a week. We'd have class in swedish for 2 hours, then go off for lunch in french for 2 more. For a few days after a holiday, I always found it really tiring having to think in all those languages, until I got used to it again. The language of choice for tonight's dinner was swedish, and I did a really good job of keeping up. Jag förstår (I understand) but on a time delay. I need a few extra seconds to process the words before I can find the response in my head. It's not a terribly useful language to know, swedish, because it's only spoken in one country in the world. I like to think of it as an odd talent I would like to continue to cultivate.
Tomorrow is more wandering with Al, followed by julbord at the very swanky Långedrags Vårdhuset. I've only been there once, for lunch during our pre-visit in April 2010, but I've been aching to go back for more.
The sun did come out, and so did the wind. Glad for the hat. Al and I had a good wander around town. We stopped into Indiska on Kungsgatan, my favourite store. It's my favourite partly because of the stuff they sell (think Anthropologie at a lower price tag), but mostly because of the interior space. It's a 2 story shop, with clothing on the main floor and the housewares up top. Up top is a balcony that rings the walls, overlooking the sales floor below. Looking at the store from the street, you would never know that it opens up like that, until you're inside. After lunch at Cafe Garbo (still the same, reliable lunch place - isn't that nice), Al had to go pick up her boys from school, and I set off on a bigger wander in search of ljuskatter, starting at Saluhallen.
Saluhallen is the indoor market. It's an old building. I would guess it dates from the late 1800s based on the one small corner of it they haven't renovated. The renovations had started when we were still here 18 months ago, so I was interested to see what was new. Not much. The same vendors are there, but the signage has been fancied up. I found my ljuskatter med saffron and a very nice Lucia pepparkakor, and continued on my way.
I used to walk a lot when I lived here. Today I retraced many of those steps to find favourite boutiques to browse through. Many are still there, but not all. My favourite cafes are still there in Haga. I haven't done the shops in Haga yet, but there's still a few afternoons left before we travel home again, to tittar på to my heart's content.
Dinner tonight was with my swedish teacher, Margareta, and my french lady friends, Laurence, Florence, and Michele. This group was a mainstay of my time when we lived here. Together, the 5 of us navigated the grammar and vocab of the swedish language twice a week. We'd have class in swedish for 2 hours, then go off for lunch in french for 2 more. For a few days after a holiday, I always found it really tiring having to think in all those languages, until I got used to it again. The language of choice for tonight's dinner was swedish, and I did a really good job of keeping up. Jag förstår (I understand) but on a time delay. I need a few extra seconds to process the words before I can find the response in my head. It's not a terribly useful language to know, swedish, because it's only spoken in one country in the world. I like to think of it as an odd talent I would like to continue to cultivate.
Tomorrow is more wandering with Al, followed by julbord at the very swanky Långedrags Vårdhuset. I've only been there once, for lunch during our pre-visit in April 2010, but I've been aching to go back for more.
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