Stockholm Sojourn

Stockholm is the most spectacular of the Scandinavian cities. The old buildings are imposing. The City Hall is grand. This is where the Nobel winners come for a party after they get their Nobel Prize. There is a fancy restaurant as a part of it. The pavements and the bridge across the river/ sea is used for fitness coaching. Children have to jump on the poles which support the bridge and balance themselves to jump back on the pavement. The kids and adults are doing all this with so much ease. The 14 islands of Stockholm are well connected in the Baltic Sea archipelago. People cannot swim there as there is huge amount of water traffic. There are cycle tracks along the roads. In the evenings, there is huge traffic in the cycle lanes. People in office clothes cycling back home, a never seen before sight. And then cars, buses and trams apart from the trains. The public transport is very cheap and best is to buy the Travel Pass depending on the days you are staying as you can use all modes of transportation with it. Gamla Staan is nothing but my Jharia with its bylanes. Narrow lanes with shops and cafes down and houses above. It has a church and a Museum n the Nobel Museum and a village square. There is a change of guards ceremony which we were there for. It is no big deal for us but people enjoy watching it. Actually on a vacation, tourists will enjoy everything especially if it is free. The entry tickets for all the museums is steep like eighty or hundred Euros per person and Stockholm is full of museums. The palace is under renovation for the next 25 years as if they are forming a new kingdom. But once abroad,we praise everything they do.  I felt a  feeling of the war leftover in the city. The Russian influence is there in the architecture. There are statues of guards made in iron above all the monuments. Vasa Museum is another ship museum where they have got an old ship which had sunk in the 17th century. We saw a similar museum in Oslo.

There is an island called Djurgarden which is a part of the city.I kept calling it Durga Staan like Gamla Staan. Gamda n Gujarati means a village. Durga is the Devi Goddess.  Go by boat. Take a tram ride from there into town and Viola! You have completed your Stockholm sightseeing. Tram ticket collector was a jolly good fellow. There was a lady ticket collector too. Some tree had fallen on the tram track, so we had to switch to a bus. The local people were guiding us on which bus to take and where to get off. The ticket collector asked us where we were from. The moment the children said Mumbai, he chirped he is from Delhi. We were thrilled to bits. Then he laughed and said he is from Eritrea. He looked so Indian. He had moved to Stockholm six years ago His sister worked in the Swedish consulate and was posted in Delhi. She kept inviting him but he could not go to Delhi from Eritrea. The husband told me Eritrea was in Africa and enlightened with it, I did not ask the kind ticket collector, from which town. He remembered his school teacher Mrs. Chopra. She had taught him from Kindergarten. He talked of her so fondly. His sole connection to India was Mrs. Chopra. He loved studies because of her. She contributed to his life in a big way. He loved India and desired to visit someday because of her.

The Indian restaurant near the Indian Embassy had good Indian food. One of the chefs was from Kallol in Gujarat. He came there to study or work in I.T. but got laid off. Thus he was working as a chef till he got another job more suited to his education. I admired him for his switch. I could see the chefs were Indian and the cashier were local girls. All were polite. It seemed like a popular restaurant as lot of foreigners were eating Naan n Kaali Daal plate. The plates were made in black grey stone. They were round and deep like a cake tin or rather a Pressure Cooker vessel we use in India. The food was sumptuous . The walk from there was Drottninggatan, the shopping street. It was a no traffic street like the one in Oslo. Loved the H&M store there. It is a Swedish brand and the stock there was so vibrant and colourful. I wonder why H&M in India in sell clothes in only three colours, black , white and that funny light pink. Gatan means 'Galli' or street. The Oslo classiness was lacking in the Stockholm shops and cafes. 

We went to Sodermalm which is more a residential area. It was quiet, well laid out buildings.  One semi circular office building with a huge park in the centre. Found a guy selling fresh strawberries much better than the packaged supermarket variety. There was a huge stall of Indian clothes  on the street , like an exhibition. I saw locals buying stoles and skirts. Lot of Cafes around the other parks. There were sculptures of crocodiles with a water fountain. The dust bins in the park get emptied on their own once they are filled to a certain level . The garbage gets sucked in through some pipes. I saw this with wonderment. Evenings the place wakes up to food and music as it is summer time. We saw musicians setting up their equipment in various lanes as it was late afternoon. 

There is a Thai restaurant at the gas station at the Oslo Central Station. Thai restaurants have vegetarian option in food is what we found in Paris and Oslo too. This looked like a family run place. You go to a Thai place because you cannot have another morsel of pizza or pasta.  The Thai women refused to make food as it was close to their closing time. I requested for 2 plates of veg rice which was served with much grudges. Soon a white family came, she made Sushi for them and all the food and then the closing time was changed. Colour  bias shows up in all parts of the Western world. But Asians having it against other Asians is also a reality.