Behind a heavy iron door ‘på söder’ (on the south) and down in a warmly lit basement, is a colourful little nook. This is where people with eccentric personas share tables with strangers. Rebar and hot water pipes frame a loft with fake red leather benches. This is where things like equality and feminism are passionately talked about by people wearing second-hand overalls. The walls are draped in politically charged artwork. The floorboards squeak. The menu is vegan, cheap and delicious. This is a place where peace activists hold their secret meetings about revolution and apparently lip-sync to Justin Bieber, ironically I assume. A family walks in to take a break from the big city and sits down to play Uno and eat pancakes. The stairs leading up to the loft are steep are definitely un-safe, but well worth the climb to get the prime spot for people-watching. This is Kafé 44, the anarchist bookstore on Södermalm.
The best cinnamon-buns in town are found at ‘Vete-katten’ on Normalm. This is where the real fur-coats buy their bread for the day. From the ceiling hangs crystal chandeliers and the furniture is made of mahogany and velvet. The place is dreadful at rush hour, busy at best and always worth the wait. The smell of freshly baked bread and batch brew coffee allows the rattle, chatter, and clinking of cups to fade into ambiance for lazy days when you let other people be busy instead of you. Once you have paid for your cup of coffee you can help yourself to a ‘påtår’ (re-fill) as many times as you please, so why not stay a while. If you are feeling brave and want to have a go at ordering your cinnamon-bun in the native tongue be careful not to order the ‘camel-bun’ as the sounds of the two words for cinnamon (kanel) and camel (kamel) are deceptively similar. Fortunately, there are no camel-buns on the menu so the worst you can order is cold-served embarrassment. If you manage the tongue-twister, great pleasure awaits you in the form of a fresh, aromatic patisserie scroll.
Outside the city lies the real beauty of the ‘Venice of the north’. Stockholm is built mainly on 14 islands but the archipelago is made up of almost 30,000 islands. You can easily find your own to conquer for the day. It is a kingdom of forgetfulness and imagination. This is where poets, authors, and lyricists find inspiration to their craft, get stuck in their head, go mad and where bare feet run across the rocks. This is where you breathe, scream and laugh. It is vast, melancholic and innocent like childhood itself. This is where the fairies dance on the surface of the brackish water, inviting you for midnight skinny dipping. It will break your heart and mend it at the same time. It doesn’t matter what you eat here. Anything will taste amazing in the salty and sweet breeze. Pack your picnic basket before you head off, or, get your ‘fika’ (coffee with something sweet) at an island shop or café. They are open mainly in summer, on the more populated islands and/or whenever the owner is around. The shift between the inner city punctuality to the relaxed island time is like pulling your boots off after a long hike or taking your bra off at the end of the day. The bright Scandinavian summer is a deep breath to the worn out soul that has gasped through the oppressing winter months of darkness. When you go, you too will be under the spell of ‘Mother Svea’, and just like that, she will make you feel like a local.
Share
About the Author
