Swedish Parker!

New Year’s Eve in Stockholm…

Apparently Firecrackers AREN’T illegal in Sweden.

We were shopping for our New Year’s Eve feast – mixers for Vodka, mainly – when we came across a random stall in the shopping centre selling FIRECRACKERS.

Brilliant…

Amanda couldn’t resist. So we grabbed a “Pyromax” box and headed home…

What ensued was, quite simply, “pushing it”.

1. We were drunk.

2. It was snowing and bloody cold/slipper/icy outside.

3. The instructions of the firecrackers were in Swedish…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH4Bq1mZskQ[/youtube]
“That’s Bullshit”

We didn’t get off to a good start on my balcony… after that we decided to let them off on the ground instead.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-3ffh4ywEU[/youtube]
“That Was Fucking Massive”

Apparently… this was the highlight. Though I’d say the one that Amanda threw into the water (not entirely sure how…), which hence made “glugging” noises until it burned out, was by far the best…

The Mighty Panzer! – a classic WWII German fighter recreated in ALL it’s glory by a random Chinese fireworks factory:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDUye-Q5yHQ[/youtube]

Without a doubt the greatest firework contained in our little “Pyromax” pack!

—

After our little pyro efforts were done, we headed into town to see some real fireworks….

Welcome to 2008.

(wtf happened to 2007?)

One of my favourite parts of Greater Stockholm.

Less than half an hour from Stockholm city by train, yet in a world-of-it’s-own…

But today it decided to be FUCKING FREEZING:

Pet Sounds Bar, Stockholm.

Absolutely brilliant.

Amanda had planned to meet some friends from back home in London for dinner while she was visiting me in Stockholm.

Seeing I was the Stockholm “local”, I was entrusted with choosing the restaurant. I’d just bought a xmas present for a friend entitled “Classy: Restaurants and Cafes in Stockholm”. But considering she hadn’t come to collect it yet, I figured I’d make good use of it.

So I flicked through trying to find a place that combined both “classy” and “reasonably-priced-for-a-bargain-hunting-Aussie”.

One of the few places that matched both was PetSounds Bar.

Initially this place appealed to me because the review suggested Ryan Adams was a fan.

That’s all the reason I needed to book a table…

Fortunately for the four us, uber-cool-indie-rockstars apparently have good taste, because Pet Sound Bar is bloody awesome.

It’s across the street from the Pet Sounds record store – something of an institution in the indie-music-loving Södermalm (“South area”) of Stockholm.

I drank three double vodkas and a glass of Scotch at Gerard & Mark’s hotel room before we went out (so I was in a generally good mood regardless), but as soon as we arrived at Pet Sounds I knew it was going to be a good night.

Pet Sounds Bar is a bar/restaurant. It’s best described as a “cosy/Buddy-Holly-esque” venue <– according to Amanda.

I’d say its “classy AND retro at the same time”. (Think pics of old-school musicians and gigs all over the walls).

All four of us opted for the Five Course Set Menu.

Gold. I can’t even remember having a “five” course meal before.

The food and service seems far classier than the exterior (/interior) of the restaurant suggests. In the book (“Classy”) it suggests Pet Sounds Bar offers the same quality of a Stureplan restaurant at almost half the price.

I’d have to agree. Our five course meal was a mere 450 krona per person (about $80 Aussie dollars) <– pretty good for Stockholm. Plus the food was absolutely brilliant…

But hey, considering I’d had the aforementioned vodka/scotch plus my more-than-fair share of two bottles of South African red wine at the table, I wasn’t exactly in a fantastic position to judge the quality of the food.

However Gerard & Mark were. And they told Amanda & I it was their best meal in Stockholm so far – and they’d already dined at the uber-wanky “Pontus!” as well as inside the exclusive “Grand Hotel”.

So that alone should be enough of a testimonial…

My umpteenth time at East: the second-least-snobbiest bar in Stureplan (behind Utecompagniet - which is unfortunately closed for Winter…).

Apparently it has the best Sushi in the city. Never tried though, can’t get past it’s fun little outside bar (stocked with $15 glasses of wine, which unfortunately I can’t get past either).

East, on the luxurious(/snobby) Stureplan actually has three different bars.

The back room is a restaurant by evening, DJ-spinning-bar by night. One time the DJ agreed to play “NY Excuse” by Soulwax for me – so I’ll forever be thinking it’s brilliant.

The front bar is either dead-quiet by evening or ridiculously-crowded by night. I try to avoid it.

But the outside bar is gold, assuming you arrive early enough to get a table (or at least some sort of I’ve-got-bleached-blonde-hair-and-I’m-barging-my-way-through-no-matter-what Free space, that is).

It has it’s own (far-less-crowded-than-inside) bar and offers a view of the epicenter of Stureplan.

Plus if you arrive by 11pm or so on Friday/Saturday nights, you can hang around and watch the “Line Game” play out. That’s where people stand in a chaotic, completely unorganised line and hope the bouncers or managers pick them out of the crowd and let them in. It’s probably more entertaining to play this game at the far-more-snobbier Sturecompagniet or White Room venues, but even at East it can be a lot of fun

East, late December ’07 with Amanda:

I accidentally made 10 dozen Pepper Cookies… (Christmas in Stockholm part III)

We were trying to make traditional Swedish “Pepparkakor” – apparently a festive staple over here.

But I didn’t pay attention to the recipe, and in the end I had a very, very large ball of dough.

I’d gotten through half of said dough and there were already four tubs full of cookies. Annoying… So now there’s half a kilo of cookie dough sitting in the fridge.

Next up were Swedish Meatballs. We found the recipe in a book of Swedish Clichés… bloody nice though.

Last was some local delicacy involving minging-little-fish (that looked like fat anchoives), potato, and a whole lot of cream. Janssons Frestelse (aka Janssons Temptation). Turned out brilliant just quietly, pretty sure this is my new favourite Swedish meal.

Three hours in the Stockholm archipelago (flickr)

Feast aboard the mighty Waxholm III. My Christmas present to Amanda, a traditional Swedish “Julbord” (Christmas Smorgasbord).

Toured around the islands as we ate every traditional Swedish dish we could. It was the lunchtime cruise but we still arrived back at Stockholm in darkness – today was the Winter Solstice and the sun went down just after 2:40pm…

We hopped off the boat and walked up to the ice rink at King’s Garden, then right on cue we had the first snow in two weeks.

Amanda’s first time seeing snow:

The friendly reindeer even came out to say hello in the snow:

But my in laws;
oh baby my in laws
Well they’re trying to tie a young man down

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=D-0yc-kF_Rw[/youtube]
The Thrills – One Horse Town (live @ Kulturbolaget)
Malmö, Sweden, 16/12

24 Hours in Malmö (more pics @ flickr)

The Thrills – my soundtrack across West Coast America back in April and May – played in Stockholm last week and somehow I completely missed it.

So when my friend told me on Friday that they’d be making one last stop in Malmö a couple of days later, I had no choice but to book a train down there.

Absolutely brilliant show. I’m fairly confident Conor Deasy is the coolest lead singer in the world.

Then missing the last night train back to Stockholm I thought I might as well make a proper trip out of it and stay the entire next day in the city.

Turning Torso
One of the coolest looking buildings. Half apartments, half offices and staring out over the water towards Denmark.

And Malmö’s Western Harbour with the Öresund Bridge
(connecting Sweden and Denmark) in the background.

Christmas Markets and Lucia Cats (flickr)

Still another week until the Winter Solstice. The sun’s setting at 2:40pm… boggled.

So with what sunlight I can find I’ve been discovering the festive spirit of Stockholm. All over the place are quaint little Julmarknad – Christmas Markets,

Open-air ice rinks,

and Lussekatter (aka Lucia Cats aka Saffron Buns).

Been seeing them around so much I figured they couldn’t be too hard to make.

My first festive Swedish creation, these buns are made to celebrate Saint Lucy (an Italian, but apparently the Scandis celebrate her bigger than anyone…).

$5 for the ONE GRAM of Saffron that’s included in this recipe… crazy.

Next I might give Glögg a shot – wine with sugar, spice, raisins and almonds (served hot).

Reprising my role of Sven the Swedish Tour Guide (all the pics @ flickr)

The staple of Sven’s guided tours through Stockholm is, of course, Iron Boy.

But this tour had the odd occurence of the guest having a better grasp of the local language than the Tour Guide. Unlike Sven, Yvonne was actually born in Scandinavia. This meant she could talk to the locals, whereas I Sven has to rely on basic phrases, hand gestures, and the fact that all Swedes speak perfect English anyway…

Apart from the surf and the AFL, the only thing I miss about Australia right now is the people. But catching up with old friends as much as I have the past couple of months really kills the homesickness.

A friend of mine, who lived in Sweden for nine years, once told me that you haven’t experienced Stockholm as an expat unless you’ve lived in six different places in your first twelve months.

It’s coming up to six months for me, and I’ve just moved into my eighth…

Fortunately this one is a little more permanent, I’m here in The Mansion until at least mid next year.

I call it The Mansion simply because it comes with ELEVEN bedrooms.

And with four weeks still left until the winter solstice, it’s now getting dark just after 3pm… Crazy.