Archive for the 'Stockholm' Category

11
Jun
09

Me, myself and the jogger

By Paul 6 Comments
Categories: Stockholm
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Jogging

I’m such a lame jogger. I’m actually not a jogger, but a permanent wannabe jogger. My running sessions are so seldom, that the shoes I got two years ago for this, they still look new. They are, actually.

But now I have a personal trainer (in the image below), that I met on my route yesterday, from Hornsberg strand to Norbyvägen and back.

Wonderland

He suggested that I track my laps, so I can keep a history of my pace, speed, distance and even location. A friend told me some time ago about MapMyRun so I set up an account and added yesterday’s data. However, you need a big enough screen to actually see some information in between all the ads they put on.

And here is my lap from yesterday.

01
Jun
09

The Stockholm marathon syndrome

By Paul 3 Comments
Categories: Events and Stockholm
Tags: , , , , , ,

I don’t hear people saying that they compete in a marathon. It’s usually that they participate in one. Fair enough, given that it’s so damn hard to finish one. For a normal person, just getting to the end of the 42.195 km run is a great achievement by itself, hence the more usual participate term.

However, this is good enough if you’re not from Kenya. If this is the case, everything changes. You have to win, or if you don’t, you have to finish in under 2:30h. And win the next one.

13,718 people finished the 31st Stockholm marathon this Saturday, out of which 13,717 came after a Kenyan.

As a nerd that I am, I turned to Google for an answer to the question “why do the Kenyans run so fast?” and Google showed me this article, which I think summarizes the answer in an articulate way:
“…the answer is really kind of simple. Just live with them for awhile. You’ll quickly understand.“

Please follow this link for more photos I took during the race.

Empty cups

28
May
09

Camera testing in Hundudden

By Paul 2 Comments
Categories: Stockholm
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Summer is approaching and the days get longer here in Stockholm. You can really feel the difference in the day length from one week to another.

Now at the end of May, by the time I get off work at around 6PM, there are still 3-4 hours of daylight to enjoy any outdoor activity that requires light. Enough time for a short cycle trip to try out my new D300.

Yesterday it was a sunny day and I was looking on Google maps for a place with something interesting to photograph toward the east, where the warm light of the setting sun was falling. I settled on a spot in Gärdet’s easternmost tip.

After some research today I found out that the place is called Hundudden (dog peninsula).The Swedish Wikipedia states that the name has a connection with “one hundred men”, which was the meaning of the word hund (dog) in medieval Swedish and had something to do with the defense force in the event of a war.

The same page states that there was a kruthus (gunpowder house) in that place around 1700. Now there is a cafe called Kafe Kruthuset. Gunpowder house coffee … it has to taste good. Here are some other funky product names.

Getting back to the Hundudden area, it is great place for an evening picnic. You get a nice view toward Lidingö, bathed in the sunset light and you can watch the boats, including the big Silja line cruise ferries going to Riga, Tallinn and Helsinki. The place is a bit remote from the populated areas, being a cozy retreat for birds.

After playing with the too-smart-for-me AF system in the D300 and taking the photos shown below, I cycled north, following a path through the Kaknäs forest along the beach.

I also found out that the place hosts Kaknäs Djurkyrkogård, which is an animal cemetery, which I plan to look for the next time.

.

.

...

07
May
09

Valborg on Riddarholmen

By Paul 3 Comments
Categories: Events and Stockholm
Tags: , , , , , ,

April 30th is the day the Swedes celebrate the end of winter. Apparently, Uppsala is the place to be on this day. The students are starting the celebration early in the morning, with alcohol, and try to keep the party up until late night.
.
In the morning of this year’s April 30th, I was cycling to work, when I noticed a group of people with questionable faces, queuing in front of Systembolaget, waiting for the opening to buy booze. One usually sees these queues Friday evening, which is basically a Swedish ritual, but in that morning’s context it looked a bit unusual.

Getting back to Valborg, in the evening large fires are lit in various areas of Sweden, as a sign of celebration. There are a couple of locations in Stockholm for these fires, and that evening I went together with two friends to Riddarholmen.

The day was perfect, with a beautiful sunset happening behind the City Hall, a bit chilly, but very warm nearby the fire, if you managed to make your way there through the crowd. There were about 500 people gathered to watch that particular fire on Riddarholmen, from families with kids sitting on top of their parents’ shoulders and covering their faces from the heat, to drunken Russian tourists posing for photos taken with mobile phones in front of the fire.

After watching the fire for half an hour, we cooled down with beers in Akkurat. For a couple of hours.

Valborg on Riddarholmen

18
Mar
09

Grubbenparken

By Paul 3 Comments
Categories: Stockholm
Tags: , , ,

During a night walk on Kungsholmen in February I found a place called Grubbenparken, pretty close to where I live.

As I mentioned before, the place it’s a circular area with a diameter of about 100m, with a small chapel called S:t Eriks kapell placed between a couple of trees. The buildings that surround the small park are painted with nice vibrant colors, which I thought will look good in a day with clear sky.

That day was today. During lunch I went there and took a couple of photos, taking advantage of one of the first complete sunny days of this year so far.

Bench in Grubbenparken

10
Feb
09

Moderna Museet and the airblade

By Paul Leave a Comment
Categories: Stockholm and Stockholm restaurants
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Saturday, I found myself wandering through the thickest fog ever toward Skeppsholmen, in search for something with potatoes and probably a coffee next to it.

The weather man

I found it, in the form of a delicious lamb sausage in the restaurant inside the Moderna Museet.

Shamefully, I have to admit I’ve never been to an exhibition in the museum, but I have eaten in the restaurant a couple of times. And it’s something that attracts me every time to it, besides the yummy food, the nice view or the clever decorations. It’s the airblade from the toilet.

This is the only place where I’ve seen such a thing and I think it obsoletes all other similar devices for drying your hands. The feel of the powerful blast on your hands, literally scraping away the water, is enticingly intense. Besides, the device is more environmental friendly than regular warm air dryers. The only flaw I found is that it can only be used for hands. Well … theoretically.

The mist was waiting for me when I left, casting a spooky feeling over the water and making the street lights glow in that special way.

The mist

07
Feb
09

Night walk on Kungsholmen

By Paul 1 Comment
Categories: Stockholm
Tags: , , , , , ,

It was warm outside last night, maybe 1-2 degrees, and the thin layer of snow seemed to be melting.

I went out for a photo walk around 22:30, going toward the city hall on Norr Mälarstrand, hoping to get some nice glittering lights from Västerbron. Unfortunately the warmness of the air was accompanied by fog, transforming my photo adventure on the shore in a lame drag with the tripod on my back.
Ducks sleeping

After disturbing a little bit the ducks pictured above, I rushed myself toward the city hall, to get some lights in the frame.

I set up the tripod across the street and soon after, a drunk gentleman appeared in front of the camera in the middle of a long exposure and said something imperceivable, probably even by a Swede. I smiled, made the international gesture of “move away from my frame, please” and pursued with the image below.
The observers

On my way back on Kungsholms Strand, I saw a fox rushing from the top of the hill near the building on the left, toward the frozen water behind me. The channel wasn’t fully frozen and I thought the ice will crack under it, but the fox knew better.
Twin peaks

I went up the stairs and discovered an interesting place called Grubbenparken. It’s a circular area of about 100m diameter, with trees and a small church delimited by colored buildings. I’m waiting for the next sunny day, which will probably arrive in a couple of months, to get there again for some vibrant colors.
Glitter
I got home 3 hours after I left, drastically hungry and tired.

26
Jan
09

Soldaten Svejk

By Paul 2 Comments
Categories: Stockholm and Stockholm restaurants
Tags: , , , , ,

Soldaten Svejk is a pub I was considering visiting for quite some time.

Today I met a friend in front of this pub for a drink, to discover to my surprise that I’ve been here 3 times so far. Each time I missed the name at the entrance and also on the menus and I couldn’t read it upon exit from obvious reasons related to well done Czech beer.

The place is not that big, basically 2 rooms, one built around a bar, with tall tables and another one made like a restaurant. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a table near the corridor between the two rooms, thus having the privilege to mix the scent from the bathroom nearby with the delicious Schnitzel Feldkurat Katz. But this doesn’t matter that much after a couple of Bernard dark beers on top a few Skalaks.

Soldaten Svejk it’s the kind of place you wouldn’t take your new girlfriend to if you want to impress her, even though it’s quite cool for the guys’ night out.

A directory of not so nice places is being built under the name Syltor, meaning Joints. It’s a collection of restaurants with cheap beer and tasteless environment, rated by a so called joint barometer. One of the conditions for a pub to get into this directory is to offer beers for less than 30 SEK, which I didn’t even think it’s possible in Stockholm.

Not related in any way with the above, here is a photo from last Saturday, taken in Saltsjöbaden, during the last day with sunshine in Stockholm that I remember of.
Ice arena

11
Dec
08

Wiretapping Sweden

By Paul 3 Comments
Categories: Stockholm
Tags: ,

Starting with January 2009, the Swedish authorities will wiretap all Internet traffic and telephone connections in and out of Sweden. Here is a web documentary about this.

There is a lot of ranting regarding this surveillance law, but I’m seeing the positive aspect: more visitors on this blog. :)

Here is an image of two misled by color tourists, trying to get one of the crowns from Skeppsholmsbron:
Fetching the crown
I took it in July 2007, in a day with 18 hours of light, and posted now, during the 18 hours of darkness.

08
Dec
08

One hour in the daylight

By Paul 2 Comments
Categories: Stockholm
Tags: , ,

During winter days in Stockholm, it’s a good thing to go out and get some daylight before diving into the darkness around noon. I did so today, walking around Stadshagen for one hour. A couple of geese were loudly laughing at me from above as they crossed Kungsholmen toward Solna.

Haiku

On Kungsholms Strand I was reminded that you can have fun with the birds. A couple of folks were eating some snacks on a dock and throwing bits in the water. In a few seconds a few ducks appeared, followed shortly by two swans, coming from nowhere.

Wet

This is how it looks like when having fun with birds during summer time.

« Previous Entries
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.