Balancing act

Yesterday we decided to explore our local area a little more, and went for a lovely walk by a very large frozen lake near to our house. It was so quiet and peaceful, everything so still. This is something I really appreciate about Stockholm after living in London for several years - there are so many quiet places here, even in central Stockholm there are areas where you can just sit in peace, and there's definitely nowhere like that in central London! I feel that Stockholm has a very good balance between liveliness, and more peaceful places. I had a chance to draw some pictures too - I haven't actually gone out sketching in a while, so that was really nice.
In the evening our flatmates suggested going for dinner at a restaurant they like very close to our house, so we did that and it was really nice. The waitress was so bubbly and cheerful, and repeatedly pointed out how young and beautiful I was, which I'm certainly not complaining about!

Since I found a job in this country I feel that balance is my biggest problem. Seeing as most emerging artists are obliged to support themselves with a day job I know that my problem is not unique, and it certainly isn't a new problem for me, it's been a constant issue in my mind since I graduated in 2012. However, up until now I was in London, where I had my life already set up, I had friends, I had plenty of art contacts, I knew my way around, and of course I was fluent in the language there! It definitely wasn't always easy to do everything that I wanted to, but I feel like it's much more difficult for me right now.
Whilst I was looking for work here I obviously had a lot of free time, and it was easier to do everything that I wanted to. Now I work five days a week, which I'm perfectly willing to do, but it obviously takes up a large part of my time. In the remaining time I have to try to fit in making art and looking for opportunities etc related to this, working on this blog and a novel that I'm writing, exploring my new home and getting to know Stockholm better, having a social life, which right now involves more effort because I don't know many people in Stockholm, so I need to make an effort to go out and meet new people, continuing to learn Swedish, and also having time to relax and have a private life with my partner.

Already I've had to really think about what my priorities are. Shortly before I found a job I got involved with a newly established advertising agency, who wanted a few hours of voluntary work per week, and were aiming for this to turn into full time employment for their volunteers in a few months time when they had a revenue stream. This seemed ideal whilst I was still job hunting, and I liked the prospect of this hopefully becoming a more creative day job in the future.
However, it became apparent that this would involve taking part in fairly long meetings on Saturdays, and that's not particularly appealing after working Monday-Friday. As I hadn't even started doing any work for those people, and already was struggling to fit everything in, having another commitment on my plate didn't seem like a good idea. I worried that doing this work to deadlines could mean that my own work would fall to one side, and that is much more important to me than working for free for someone else's benefit. So I dropped this idea, and I'm sure I'll feel pretty stupid if this company later becomes one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world. But I have to make my choices.
Recently I've started to become more efficient in a bid to fit everything in. I practice Swedish online on my way to work; if I have a little bit of quiet time at the end of the day I try to write if I can. I think the secret is trying to fit something in wherever possible - even five minutes is better than nothing at all.

I remember that an American artist I met during a residency in Iceland a couple of years ago told me that she tried to do small pieces of work, because it seemed much more manageable when she came home from working all day and then had to produce something. I've been keeping this advice in mind, because currently the main drawing I'm working on consists of lots of small drawings that will later be connected together to make a large scale piece of work. I think even aiming to work on one of these when I get home each day is a good strategy.
Stockholm is still new and exciting to me, so I'm obviously really keen to visit different areas and see new places, particularly galleries and art spaces that are brand new for me. At weekends it is really tempting to go out and explore, rather than concentrating on work or the more administrative side of my career. Perhaps I should keep in mind that we are not here for a short trip, we have plenty of time to go to new places, and we don't need to see everything this instant. I'm making friends and doing various things to help me meet new people, and hopefully when I have more of an established set of friends here, which is what is starting to happen now, things will be a bit easier. I hope that, as I settle more, and force myself to become more disciplined, it'll become easier to balance everything in my life.
Perhaps I also need to avoid beating myself up for not working or being active constantly, and keep in mind that I also need time to relax. Until I get to a position where a day job is unnecessary I think that this will be a constant issue in my life to some degree. I'm getting there, I'm making friends and art related contacts here, and my efficiency is definitely improving. Maybe I shouldn't expect to be superwoman. I think my life would be easier if we'd stayed put in London, but I'm certain my life would not be happier that way.

Differences

Here is a list of a few differences between Sweden and England that I’ve noticed recently.

Public transport etiquette during rush hour

For the past two weeks I’ve been using the pendeltag to travel to work each day. I’ve had a lot of amusing experiences on the pendeltag, including completely ignoring someone who tried to speak to me and strolling out of the station, before realising that that person was a ticket inspector, and witnessing a man who had a separate seat next to him for his sandwich. Experiences like this have given me a great love for the pendeltag.

However, having moved over the weekend I need to take a slightly different route to work now, and Monday was the first morning I used the t-bana to get to work. It was certainly busier than the pendeltag, and I had to stand up for some of the way, as I would expect at that time of the morning. I did, however, notice one big difference between going to work on the t-bana, and going to work on the tube in London. In London if there’s a free seat it’s often very competitive over who gets to sit down. Here, each time a seat became free, everyone seemed to ignore it or just look slightly confused by it. I’ve noticed that commuters here look less like their souls have been destroyed than in London, which is nice to see, so maybe in London people are more desperate for a small comfort, such as the option to sit down.

Cigarettes

This, in particular, is something I find odd and a bit annoying here. It’s really difficult to buy the necessaries to roll your own cigarettes. In England some people smoke pre-rolled cigarettes, some people do not, and that’s all there really is to it. Until after I left Stockholm in September I primarily smoked Marlboro Lights, since then I’ve smoked rollies, and now I find smoking pre-rolled cigarettes a bit unpleasant. However, it’s sometimes quite difficult to buy the relevant materials for this, possibly because I’ve been told that smoking in this way is typically associated with using drugs here. Maybe it’s just really unpopular and so fewer shops actually stock rolling papers etc.

As an example, on Friday morning I needed to buy Rizla, so when I got to the train station I went to the Pressbyran shop, which is a chain of newsagents here. They didn’t have Rizla – not as in they were out of stock, as in this is a product they didn’t stock at all. There is another Pressbyran shop outside the station I was getting off at, so I decided to try there too, expecting they also would not have them, and when I couldn’t see them behind the counter I just bought Marlboro instead. Pressbyran is a major chain, so it doesn’t fill me with optimism that they don’t sell them. There is also a 7-Eleven quite close to my workplace, but when I went there previously to try to buy filters they didn’t sell them at all, so I’m doubtful that they would have papers. In Hagsatra the local Spel & Tobac sold everything we needed, in Hogdalen the local shop is a Pressbyran so this puts us in a slight pickle. These items seem to generally be confined to specialist tobacconists, but obviously there isn’t one of those on every street corner. To moan even more, slim filter tips and papers don’t seem to be usual here, and the tobacco isn’t quite the same, so we end up with fat, slightly unpleasant cigarettes. I know I should probably use this as encouragement to quit smoking, rather than encouragement to moan.

Dagenslunch

This I love. A lot of restaurants offer lunch inclusive of water or juice, coffee, salad, and the main meal! It seems that a lot more is provided for your money here, although I’ve encountered the salad bar thing in Finland too. In restaurants in England you tend to sit down and stay put, but here it seems more normal for people to be wandering about helping themselves to some things. It’s normal enough that a lot of places don’t even tell you to do this stuff yourself – when we went to Greasy Spoon on Saturday we ordered coffee and had finished it by the time the food was brought to us. We asked for two more cups of coffee, and were told the coffee was round the corner and we could help ourselves to as much as we liked! When you love coffee as much as I do that’s obviously a good thing to hear, and also makes your coffee even better value for money! In England if you want something other than tap water you’re paying for it. I’m getting to like the restaurant culture here, especially as there seem to be a lot of good restaurants to try in Stockholm.

Hot dogs

What is going on with Swedish people and hot dogs? They love them! I suspect this may be a Nordic thing rather than a specifically Swedish thing, as I once spent a month in Iceland and learned that the establishment voted the best restaurant in Iceland is a hot dog stand in Reykjavik. I even walked past it once! Hot dogs are so popular here, Pressbyran frequently advertises the hot dogs they sell, and I’ve even seen advertisements for their hot dogs for breakfast! Hot dogs are literally promoted as breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack! Sausages are a legitimate element of an English breakfast, so perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised by this suggestion, but it’s not something that would ever have occurred to me. I’m even being influenced by this big love of hot dogs – last night I bought vegetarian hot dogs for myself, and meat ones for Kai, and we had a hot dog night, which is not something I’d ever done before, but I’d definitely do it again.

A lovely afternoon in Södermalm

As it was Valentine's Day yesterday we wanted to do something nice, so we decided to go to Greasy Spoon in Södermalm, which was recommended to me when I previously wrote about my desire for a vegetarian fried breakfast.

We got there around 2pm, and didn't think that it would be extremely busy, but maybe it's understandable seeing as it was both Valentine's Day and a Saturday afternoon.There was a one hour wait for a table, so we went for a little wander to pass the time.

Yesterday was really a beautiful day - the weather is definitely improving, and there's much more daylight now than when we arrived. We walked to the tip of the island, and from there we had beautiful views of Djurgården, Gamla Stan, and Skeppsholmen. It reminded me how beautiful Stockholm is, and I felt so lucky that I can live here and that our life here is starting to become more stable. We also walked to the Viking Line ferry terminal, so it amused me to see a street sign pointing to Finland. Now that I have an income I really need to look into the price of ferry tickets so that I can visit Turku.

By the time we'd had a walk for an hour we were so hungry, so back to Greasy Spoon we went. Actually getting food was quite a slow process because it was so busy, but I don't want to criticise the staff, especially the kitchen staff because they were putting food out constantly. The staff were all English, and automatically speaking English to every customer. I only heard Swedish being spoken amongst groups of customers. As it's clearly as English themed cafe maybe this added to the experience for non-English customers. The customer based seemed to be English people, and Swedish hipsters who probably think eating breakfast in the middle of the afternoon is edgy. I do actually find it a bit funny that this kind of food is a novelty here because it's the most normal thing in the world to me.

I like the way the cafe is decorated - the wallpaper looked like it had attractive scenes of London at first, but when we looked closer it actually showed scenes of gangs and police cars. I liked that - it felt more real to me, as someone who has lived in London for years, than having various tourist friendly pictures of Big Ben and double decker busses.

Eventually the food arrived, and wow, it was worth the wait!

Needless to say, this cafe is not a greasy spoon in the traditional sense. The ingredients and cooking were obviously of a much higher quality, and it may well be one of the best fried breakfasts I have ever eaten! Even now, the next day, I am still thinking about the food! Usually I prefer fried eggs to be more well-done, but these were actually delicious, and I say that their chefs are doing an amazing job. I also feel that you can't have a decent breakfast without some nice toast, and the toast here was just perfect, with lots of butter. Every single component was perfect, and I was so happy to find that the vegetarian sausages were Linda McCartney sausages. Maybe it's a bit sad that I knew that from taste alone. Fortunately, they're my favourite vegetarian sausages, and went perfectly with the rest of the food. I remember that the same sausages are available in The English Shop in Medborgarplatsen, and now I'd quite like to buy some to have at home. I've been to a limited number of restaurants in Stockholm, but for now I'm actually going to say that this is my favourite.

I'm not homesick, and I don't actually want to surround myself with purely British people and British culture here, but it was nice to be in an environment where my native language was expected, rather than potentially awkward. There seemed to be a sense of humour that's very familiar to me, the staff were lovely, the food was amazing, the coffee was very good, and it really did feel like a little piece of my home. They were playing English music from a cool jukebox, the cafe looks lovely, and I really enjoyed every part of our visit. I will definitely be going back there, and if I ever want some comforting food I think it's the obvious choice.

I would highly recommend Greasy Spoon. British people will love it because it's so comforting and familiar, I think for Swedish people it must be an interesting novelty. At least I know now how popular it is, and will maybe time my visit better, or at least be prepared for a long walk whilst I wait, as by the time the food actually arrived I was so hungry I could have passed out.

Friday night was the first night we'd spent in our new house, which we are so happy with, so overall yesterday was a really nice day. We're still exploring our new area, but there a more shops and businesses than there were in Hagsätra - so far we're really pleased. The flat is beautiful, and the two guys who already live here have been really friendly and welcoming to us. I think it's a really good thing that we now have the Swedish language being spoken in our home, so it's there all the time and hopefully this will help us both to keep improving.

My weekend is going very well, and I'm already looking forward to my next trip to Greasy Spoon. If they could start a home delivery service that would just be even better!

The personnummer problem

I’ve heard so many stories about Skatteverket taking a really long time to respond to personnummer applications. Well, I can now say that they definitely don’t take their time if they want to reject you! I visited them on Monday evening, yesterday I received a letter from them to say no! I was pleased that I found work here more quickly than I did in Finland, but it seems it’ll take me much longer to get a personnummer here than it did in Finland, which was pretty easy once I had a work contract – incidentally, a short term, temporary work contract.

I was expecting this – I was concerned about the length of my work contract anyway, the man who helped me at their office mentioned that this might be a problem – but the reality of it actually happening is very frustrating. I’ll now have to make a second application for a temporary number, which will enable me to pay tax in Sweden, and basically nothing else. I won’t be able to open a bank account, or do any of the other things a personnummer enables you to do. It’s certainly fortunate for me that my employer is able to pay my wages into my UK bank account, otherwise I’d be in an extremely difficult position.

The thing that really irritates me about this situation is that whilst Sweden is more than happy to take my money away from me in the form of taxes, I will not be allowed to benefit from this at all. One particular thing going round in my mind is what would happen in a few months if I needed medical attention – I have an EHIC card issued by the UK, and in September was told at Skatteverket that I’m only entitled to use this for 6 months if I’m living permanently in Sweden. After that the card is basically invalid as I no longer live in the issuing country, but I’m quite sure there’s no way I could apply for another card issued by Sweden when I’m not officially recognised as a person who lives in Sweden!

In this country you can apply for a personnummer if your partner qualifies for one, hence why I applied for both of us on Monday. This surely means that there are a lot of foreign people here with Swedish partners, or partners who have other grounds for being given a personnummer here, who have their own personnummers but don’t work or bring anything to the table in this country - and I’m sure in some cases have no intention of working or contributing in this country – who are treated equally to Swedish people and can fully live their lives here, whereas I work for a living, pay taxes, and contribute to this country but see no benefit whatsoever. That seems rather unjust, and quite frankly, really, really pisses me off. I briefly considered not even applying for the temporary number, but I believe this is used to work out the “correct” amount of tax I should be paying, so not doing it could hinder me financially. I say “correct” because I think the correct amount should actually be zero – if I contribute my money to the system I think it’s only fair that the system gives me something back. But obviously that would be far too easy.

The thing that makes it more complicated for me is that in general my workplace just offers short term contracts. I met someone yesterday who has worked here for 5 years, and has had 7 different short term contracts in that time. I believe she studied in Sweden before starting work, so her situation is probably a bit different, but in theory could they take taxes for that long and still claim you’re not entitled to a permanent number? Someone else told me that they’d taken short term contracts adding up to a year to Skatteverket and they still weren’t happy! The letter I received yesterday seemed to imply that they needed to know you would still be here a year into the future, which suggests to me that if you only had a contract for a few months into the future they could still say no, regardless of how long you’d lived and worked in Sweden up until that point. But then, in September they also told me that it’s necessary to have a personnummer if you’re here for at least one year. When I apply for the temporary number I need to find out at what point they will accept that I’m here for the long term, regardless of the length of my contract, because clearly there is the potential for me to work here for several years on short term contracts. Unless I get a new job with a long term contract, or Kai gets one, allowing me to apply as his partner, it seems like the earliest point this could be resolved is a year from now, which is ridiculous!

It makes me so angry that it’s really easy for someone from another EU country to move to England, when it’s so difficult for me to go the other way. If a Swedish person decided to move to England all they would need to do is make an appointment to get a National Insurance number – which basically involves showing their passport to prove that they’re from an EU country – and then they’re good to go. Plus seeing as National Insurance relates to paying tax, proving you’re allowed to work in the country, and literally nothing else, if you are unemployed or not intending to work it really makes no difference to your day to day life whether or not you have this number. Whereas here I am, working in Sweden, paying taxes in Sweden, but not recognised as a resident of Sweden, not entitled to open a bank account, or even join a gym! I’m wondering if this will be an issue with trying to rent a house in a few months, unless it’s a private contract with a landlord who is just satisfied that I am employed. Thankfully we are moving somewhere new today so we have a while before we need to worry about that, and hopefully our circumstances will have moved along a bit by then.

In a way, I don’t even know why I’m shocked by this situation. I remember in Finland being expected to pay €50 to register as a foreign resident of Finland. €50 for “the right” to live in a country I allegedly already have the right to live in as an EU citizen. Freedom of movement within Europe means absolutely nothing, it just means I can go on holiday to another European country without needing to apply for a visa, and here it just meant I didn’t have to bother getting a residence permit from Migrationsverket.

The past couple of weeks have been full of highs and lows – I think when you’re in a strange environment with little support you feel things more strongly. A small success can make everything feel better, a small setback can make everything seem worse. I’ll try not to worry about this too much until I can get some more information from Skatteverket about what I can expect in the future if I have to continue with short term contracts. I’m a bit concerned, but more angry at how unfair this system is. I feel like I’m contributing and integrating, but at the same time I’m on the fringes with fewer options than others. I hope that this is not the start of a problem that will go on for years.

Skatteverket attempt 2

People who have read this blog previously may remember my last attempt in September to get a personnummer - you can read about it here. Essentially, it was a complete failure.

However, this time round I have a work contract, and my only doubt was what they would make of me having a short term contract with the possibility of extension. Either way, I left work early this afternoon and went off to the same office I visited last time.

I told the man at the front desk what I wanted, in Swedish. He immediately said "Oh ok, English" when I said I was from England, I then told him I could speak Swedish, I then misunderstood the next thing he said to me in Swedish. My spoken language skills definitely need some perfecting. Anyway, we got there in the end, he gave me the paperwork and a ticket - they love giving tickets for when you're waiting here, just like in Finland - and sent over to fill in the form and wait to see someone. This alone is further than I got last time!

It took a while but eventually I was called up by a very nice man, who was very encouraging. He did say there might be a problem with the length of my contract, but unfortunately there's not very much I can do about that. Although the Skatteverket website doesn't state this, he told me that for a permanent personnummer you usually need a work contract of at least one year. I know I wouldn't choose to leave this job without something else lined up, and if the contract was not extended then finding something new would obviously be my main priority, but they can't rely on that.

However, he took the application anyway, and told me that if this application is declined I can apply for a temporary number which will definitely be accepted. Presumably having this means I'd have to renew it each time my work contract changed, which would be quite annoying, but if I got a longer term contract I could apply for a permanent personnummer straight away. Seeing as Skatteverket says that if you are staying here longer than 6 months you need a personnummer, surely there would be a point where they would have to accept that I'm here long term and give me a personnummer? A short term number is better than none at all - I had a temporary number in Finland, but I think that's because I knew all along that I was going to leave. That's not the plan here.

Anyway, the man who saw me was very nice, and gave me the paperwork for a temporary number already, so that if there is a problem I can apply for it really quickly. He actually checked to see if I could apply for both numbers at once but that's not possible.

One helpful thing is that whilst I'm applying as an employed person in Sweden, I can also apply for Kai even though he's not working. However, if it comes to the temporary number I can only apply for myself. If he finds a job in the meantime with a long term contract we can both apply for personnummer's through that. That option would make him finding a job even sweeter for us.

I'm realistic, and I'm going to get the temporary application ready, as it seems likely there will be a problem with the length of my work contract, even though I explained why it's short term, and this can be verified with my employer. I've still got further in this process than I did last time, and it's been much less confusing and difficult so far. Having to renew a temporary number every so often would be frustrating, but better than nothing. It's still a step closer to getting settled here. I'm expecting to have to go down that route, but in an ideal world I might get a nice surprise from Skatteverket this time!

A reflection

This week there's been a lot to be happy about, finding a job and a place to live in one week is a bit special. As I still don't know a huge number of people in Stockholm I decided to invite everyone I do know out last night, and it was great. It made me think about our situation.

Five weeks ago we came to this country with nothing - no job offers or solid long term plans, nowhere to live long term, and we knew only a couple of people in Stockholm. Five weeks is not a long time, and I'm actually so proud of how I've done, and that already I'm in a position where I feel at home here, rather than feeling like a visitor or tourist. 

Although I lived in Finland for a year I was more nervous about coming here, probably because I'm now older and wiser, and more realistic about the difficulties of living abroad. In Finland I had a lot of good luck, and a lot of help from others, and I did worry I wouldn't manage this time round. I really do not want to live in England, so failing here would be such a massive disappointment. 

I'm so happy that we've started to really make a life here in a short space of time. Obviously it's still very early on, and things are not perfect yet, but I'm surprised at the progress we're making. I have a job, we have a place to live, which I can't wait to move to next week, and we have friends here. It's starting to become home. 

I'm keen to make Swedish friends, but I also like meeting people from a variety of countries and backgrounds. I realised last night that the people we count as our friends in Stockholm are all of different ages, nationalities, and backgrounds, including Swedish, but despite this everyone can be together without it being awkward or uncomfortable. I love that, and I feel lucky to already have people here I think of as friends. I'm used to having a lot of friends and contacts in London, so to suddenly be in a strange place where you know barely anyone can be lonely and depressing. There have been a couple of times when I've been lonely, but that's not really the case now.

Good luck comes in threes so hopefully very soon Kai will find a job or something else that he wants to do. I hope that our luck doesn't run out and we keep having as amazing a time as we've had so far. I've put in a lot of effort since we got back here, and it's so good to know that said efforts have paid off. I feel it proves that anything can happen if you try, and that the negative experiences I've heard about do not go for everyone. I feel that we have a future here, and I'm so happy.

Busy, brilliant week

I've been busy this week, mainly settling into my new job. I'm still adapting, but I'm enjoying it. As I work for an EU agency, and it's such an international environment, I don't know how much the workplace culture is influenced by Sweden, and how much by other places, but either way, there are some aspects that are brand new for me.

1.) Flexible hoursThere are certain hours of the day when I have to be in the office, but outside of these hours it's flexible, as long as I work enough hours in total. This is great, in particular because the Skatteverket opening hours are not very compatible with people who work usual business hours.

2.) Meetings
I've heard that meetings are very regular occurrences in Swedish workplaces; having meetings about meetings is not unusual. I've definitely experienced this during the last few days, and it looks set to continue.

3.) LunchLunch seems to be a much bigger deal here. My workplace has a canteen, as do numerous places nearby, and it seems more usual to have a proper hot meal at lunch time. Swedish law, I now understand, requires employees to take a lunch break, so there's no sandwiches at your desk here!

Obviously it's early days, but I'm enjoying it, and it is a bit surreal to think that 5 weeks ago tomorrow I arrived here with no job, and now things are totally different. Another big change is that yesterday I found somewhere for us to live for a few months! I'm so excited, especially as the house we've been living in since we got here last month has not been great. That's a story for another day. We were looking for another airbnb property, as we knew we wouldn't find somewhere to live by the end of next week. We found something suitable in Högdalen, only two stops from here on the t-bana, and when I explained our situation to the owner he told us he's going away for a few months until May, and offered to let us rent from him until then! This gives us a chance to relax for a bit, not immediately look for housing again. I'm genuinely amazed that I found both a house and a job within a week! I'm looking forward to moving next Friday, it'll be nice to settle in somewhere for a while, even if it's not really our own home. It really feels like everything is starting to come together here, and a bit more quickly than I expected. I'm starting to feel much more comfortable. I'm even more sure now that September wasn't the right time; this is the right time. I hope that our luck continues into the future, I feel so happy.

A trip to Uppsala

Yesterday we went to Uppsala for a visit. It's possible to travel to Uppsala using a Stockholm travelcard, and just pay a 36kr supplement for crossing the county boundary. When I found out that the Uppsala train runs from Älvsjö station, which is 15 minutes walk from where we live, and that the journey only takes just over an hour, I really wanted to go. By coincidence, on Saturday I met someone who moved to Stockholm from Uppsala in December, so he was able to give me some suggestions of what to do there.
Unfortunately I don't think we chose the best day to visit Uppsala. I had been warned that there was a lot of snow this winter, more than in Stockholm, and whilst the weather in Stockholm yesterday was somewhere between snow and rain, in Uppsala it was very windy and very snowy. It wasn't the best day to be walking around outside.
It was also a bit difficult to get away from the cold, seeing as very few shops or businesses seemed to be open. Maybe Stockholm is a bit different to elsewhere in Sweden, and I took it for granted that everything would be open. The streets were so quiet too.

Regardless of this, I really enjoyed our visit, and I thought Uppsala was really pretty. The river there kind of reminded me of living in Turku - I'd love to see how it looks in the summer. We went to see Uppsala castle, which is up a very snowy hill with really nice views, and also visited the cathedral. I would seriously recommend visitors to go to the cathedral - it's very beautiful, with lots of tombs, stained glass, and interesting decorations. I noticed a large number of skull motifs in various places there, and also some sort of decoration that featured tall horns - not something you'd really expect in a cathedral. The decoration of the cathedral is so varied and beautiful; I found it quite awe inspiring. I think there is a lot that would appeal to designers and artists there.
Although the businesses that were open were quite limited, we did go into a small shopping centre and visit a very cool second hand shop, where you can either pay for an item entirely in cash, or pay less and give them an item you no longer want. I like rummaging in second hand shops so I thought this was a cool idea, I'd love to find somewhere similar in Stockholm, but if not at least Uppsala isn't far to go.
I also noticed a few colourful sculptures around Uppsala, and any form of public art usually appeals to me. Even though it was a very cold and dark day it helped to brighten things up.
I enjoyed our trip, and I'd definitely like to go again, preferably on a warmer and busier day. I'll look out for exhibitions at the art gallery there too, seeing as travelling is so cheap, easy, and convenient.
Maybe the weather in Uppsala was just a sign of things to come, as since yesterday the snow in Stockholm has been quite relentless. I started my new job today, so I no longer have the choice of staying at home avoiding bad weather! But I'd much rather have this step in the right direction than avoid the snow.