Thanksgiving Weekend in Stockholm

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I don't care for the shopping, or even so much for watching the Lions being demolished on TV, but I think about Thanksgiving dinner all the time. So when Thanksgiving rolled around in Scandinavia, it was quite a weird feeling to see it pass by just like any other day.

To make up for missing my first Thanksgiving ever, I decided to skip town and head to Stockholm for the weekend with my good friend from Yale, Roberto, who lives in The Hague. Upon arrival in Stockholm, the string of bad luck I had throughout the day continued - I got locked inside an airport bathroom because the handle had broken off on the inside. I should have taken a picture to commemorate the event, but I was too busy freaking out and dreading how long it would take for someone to walk by and hear my calls for help. I wasn't in there for more than 5 minutes, but it seemed like an eternity.

Outside of the bathroom incident, Stockholm was quite pleasant, even despite the 20 degree temperatures. Stockholm is quite a beautiful city, kind of like Copenhagen except a bit more colorful, more water, a bit more modern in the city center, and people are a bit blonder and taller. Contrary to popular belief, not every Swede is blonde, but it is true they are generally tall and are indeed quite pretty. They also talk like the Swedish Chef on the Muppets show. It seemed like a great place to live, though, and if it weren't for the crazy cold winters with 6 hours of daytime, I bet it would be a bit more crowded of a city.

Stockholm is a network of islands - here we are looking across one of the waterways towards the main center of town, with the rich people homes off to the side.

This part of town is quite pretty because it's where the rich people live.

This is what I meant by Stockholm being more modern than Copenhagen. I have no idea what this is, or what it's used for. A Swede giving us directions called it "the mushroom".

Think of Swedish food, and you think of meatballs, fish, or something from the Ikea cafeteria. While in Stockholm, I had none of that - rather, I had breakfast at the Marriott, sushi, a kebab, and this...the Östermalms Special. There are a ton of hot dog carts around Stockholm, and since I love low-class street food, I had to try this beauty - a concoction of hot dogs with mashed potatoes and dressing, wrapped in flatbread. An interesting $10 somewhat well-spent.

Some friends that Roberto and I hung out with. I only include this because two of them work for Ikea.
Here's Roberto at a Christmas market in Gamla Stan, the old part of town where Stockholm originated. The buildings here are quite colorful, and the market full of things you don't really need.

A more ominous view of Stockholm. The city only appears more sullen because it was already 2 PM and the best sun of the day was past, and the snow was coming down quite hard.