Last stop: this town

The title has little to do with me wanting to stay forever in Stockholm. Maybe I will but I’d be a silly claim to make after only a week in the country. I thought about it the other day; I haven’t been to Sweden very often in my life, apart from the occasional trip to Gothenburg’s Liseberg or border shopping in Svinesund. It’s easy to feel at home here. People are very friendly and helpful and take great pleasure in apologising for absolutely everything. Try stepping on someone’s foot – they’ll probably apologise to you.

Rather, the title has more to do with Farsta Strand, the area of Stockholm where I live. It is still Stockholm but it’s the last metro stop from the city centre. On the positive side it’s also the first stop when going into town so there’s always a free seat.

Also, the title is a famous (?) Eels’ song. At least three people I know are nodding their heads right now. The Eels are playing in Södra Teatern tomorrow evening so I though I’d catch that. I didn’t realise they had a new album out. But they do. And on Wednesday there’s the football match, a friendly, Sweden-Norway at Råsunda Stadium. I wonder if there’ll be a unionsflagga for sale?

As I write this I’ve been in Stockholm for a week. It’s been a somewhat lonely week but not a boring one. There’s been lots to do here in my new flat and there are still little things that have to be done before I can even think of posting a picture of the place here on this page.

The place itself is quite spacious for one person but since my landlord, who’s about my age, left all his furniture here, it’s perfect. It could be from a 3-year-old IKEA catalogue if you disregard the sofa. The building is actually an old school building, it is indeed surprising that the social democratic Swedish state allows turning schools into housing. Sadly they’ve taken out the blackboard, it would've been a very practical thing to have. I could write “buy milk” a hundred times...

The weather has been absolutely horrible this last week. Not one single day without heavy rain or showers. And the precipitation peaked on Saturday, my birthday, so I only went as far as Farsta shopping precinct but only because I had to.

I also met a nice employee of the Skatteverket in Södermalm who wished me “välkommen till det svenska byråkratiet”. He turned out to be right, as well as friendly. You need a social security number for absolutely everything in this country! That will take two weeks and only then may I think of getting the social security itself, Swedish plates on my Volvo, opening a bank account etc.

And tomorrow I have my first half-day at work. The summer looked bleak for a moment when I was told my services weren’t needed over the summer because of the holidays but I was relieved to hear that I’ll be officially hired from July 1^st but working part time in June and July. That should allow me to enjoy the Scandinavian summer once it arrives.

A quick note on Södermalm too. Although Vasastan is closing up it's the hippest place to live in all of Stockholm, "bohemian" they call it. I don't know what qualifies as bohemian these days but there's definitely a lot going on here. To a much greater extent than in central Stockholm (Norrmalm), the way you dress says everything about you here. That's probably why you'll find people wearing only black leather (almost like being back in Mannheim) or young males who wear an awful lot of velvet. And you wouldn't be a cool young Swede unless you have sunglasses the size of Arlanda airport and a (blonde) mullet getting stuck under your shoulder bag.
Perhaps this came out a bit sarcastic but it really is an interesting place to sit and watch from one of the hundreds of cafés. Also there was a petanque competition on today. Not bad. And the competitors' kids had fun in the adjacent skate park, all wearing helmets of course.

Finally, today is Sweden’s national holiday, a national holiday “forced upon” the Swedes by their parliament. There seems to be mixed feelings about this. A young Swede I spoke to in a coffee house in Gamla Stan today felt Sweden didn’t need any more nationalism than they already have. I also overheard an elderly man saying “Norway has a national holiday so why shouldn’t we?” That's Scandinavia for you my friends.