I went AWOL

It's been almost a month since I updated this blog. I've had to personal matters to deal with recently, and it seems that, very sadly, I'll soon be going back to London due to what's been happening. It's unexpected, and if it weren't for this I would not even be thinking about leaving Stockholm, but it's something very important to me. So this has taken up a lot of my time and energy recently, I've gone into myself a bit. My work contract finishes at the end of April - I never looked into other options at the same place because all of this came up - so it looks like I'll be shipping out at the start of May, meaning that I was here for four months. It's so sad, especially as it's now getting warmer and sunnier in Stockholm, summer is definitely on its way. I have a very short time left here, so I'm trying to appreciate it and make the best of it. As it's been a while, here are a few noteworthy things that have been going on lately.

First of all, in another unexpected turn of events, in a weeks time I will be travelling to Krakow for a week! For the final month of my contract I've been given a slightly different role at work, which mainly involves planning an event in Krakow, and as part of this I'm required to attend said event in Krakow! I'm excited but also nervous, and it does mean that, according to when I expect to leave, this is my last full weekend in Stockholm, as I will be travelling to and from Poland during two weekends. It's still a new experience, so I'm really grateful to have the chance to go.

I visited a vegetarian restaurant lately that I had walked past many times in Gamla Stan, but never been to, Hermitage Restaurang. It's a vegetarian all you can eat buffet - a lot of the food is vegan - and is wasn't bad for 120kr for dinner. There are not a huge number of choices - bread, soup, a hot dish, lasagne, rice, potatoes, and various salads - but the food was quite nice, and it's a pleasant environment. You're given free jugs of water with mint and lemon, which is a nice gesture. The restaurant is small, and I was part of a large group at a busy time, so I did get cramped. The buffet and counter area is also quite cramped, but other than that I really enjoyed it here. I think that lunch here was 10 or 20kr cheaper than dinner, and I think this would be a great place for lunch. Yet another restaurant in Stockholm that I approve of.

After the meal we went for a drink, and walked to Södermalm. We found one bar called Stora Vikingen, or in English, "The Big Viking", and decided that we really had to go there. It was all really kind of funny because the bar looked a bit old and tired, it didn't look to be that well maintained, but when we sat down they gave the menu to us in the form of an iPad! We sat down and immediate had four iPads on the table! It wasn't the most attractive looking place but the staff were pleasant, the wine we ordered was good, and we enjoyed ourselves. But it goes to show that not everything in Södermalm is cool.

On Friday night I went somewhere really cool though, also in Södermalm - Södra Teatern. I hadn't been here before, but actually had probably one of the best nights I've had in Stockholm. At first we were on the terrace, where the views are absolutely beautiful. Definitely one of the best places I've found to look at all of Stockholm. In the evenings right now it's still a bit too chilly to sit outside very late, so we went back inside to the bar, but it must be so nice to sit outside there in the summer. 

Best of all, after a while it turned out there was a ska/reggae night happening, which happens to be my favourite genre of music, and until now I hadn't found any nights with this type of music in Stockholm. I really enjoyed it here, and would love to come again.

At the moment I'm really taking each day as it comes, but I hope that I will have time in the next few weeks to appreciate being here, and make more happy memories of my time here, which is sadly being cut short.

A delicious new experience

Last night I had a new experience, but not a very Swedish one. Our housemate suggested an Ethiopian restaurant to us, so Kai and I went for dinner there. I'm certain that there are Ethiopian restaurants in London, but I'd never really eaten Ethiopian food before, so it was new for me.

We went to Gojo in Södermalm, and it was amazing. We hadn't booked a table but they managed to fit us in anyway with a time limit. There was a nice atmosphere and the restaurant is comfortable and looks great, with portraits of Ethiopian people and colourful lamps. It felt really homey, and they played Ethiopian music too. When we left we noticed there's a live show on Saturday nights - we were a bit too early for that last night.

The menu is small, and there's just one vegetarian meal, but after eating it once I have no problem with that at all! I loved it! 

The food is presented beautifully, with the plate set in a woven basket with a lid that the waitress took away. It looked nice on the plate, and tasted so good. Even the salad was seasoned perfectly. Every item on the plate had a unique flavour and texture, and it all balanced really well. I can't think of many occasions when I've been to a restaurant for the first time and been so impressed. Kai had a similar meal that included meat, and he loved the food just as much as I did. Of all the small dishes I really can't choose a favourite - the salad, cabbage, beans, and potatoes with carrots were all unbelievably tasty. The bread is really good too, but very different in texture, flavour, and appearance, to European bread.

We read on the menu that coffee is a very significant part of an Ethiopian meal, so next time we go to Gojo we'll definitely book a table so we can take our time and drink coffee too - we finished eating just in time last night so ordering coffee was unfortunately not an option. After this experience I would undoubtedly recommend Ethiopian food, and Gojo too. It wasn't even very expensive; the vegetarian meal cost 145kr. 

I know of a couple of other Ethiopian restaurants in Stockholm - I walk past one of them every day, it doesn't look great from the outside but is almost 100kr more expensive than Gojo, and my housemate read me an online review that said someone found a bug in their food. So I don't think we'll be going there, but there's another near Rådmansgatan that we could also try. 

I've been really impressed with the restaurants in Stockholm - the variety of food available, and the quality. Every time I've eaten out here I've been very satisfied. I'm used to living in a very multicultural city, and I'm glad that Stockholm also has such a mix of people, meaning that authentic food is available. I think Gojo has replaced Greasy Spoon as my favourite restaurant in Stockholm, and its location is ideal for us, it's so easy to get to. I really can't say anything negative, and I've found a new type of food to enjoy!

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!

English food

I've been back for just over 3 weeks now, and definitely don't miss England, but I've been craving some English food, some things I could probably replicate here, some things probably not.

1.) Pret A Manger

Until recently I worked in Central London, meaning that Pret A Manger was literally everywhere, and took care of my lunch most days. My last meal in England, in the departure lounge at Gatwick, was a mozzarella and tomato croissant and a cup of coffee from Pret. Maybe it's just something familiar and dependable, but every now and then I've wished there was a Pret around the corner. Perhaps I could open their first franchise in Sweden! There are so many things I love from Pret it's impossible to list them all, and I love walking into their shops knowing that there are so many options. Once I start working here I think I'll be a bit lost at lunchtime at first.

2.) Fried breakfasts

Although I'm vegetarian and therefore don't eat the traditional breakfast, cafes in England always offer at least one vegetarian fried breakfast, and on a couple of occasions I've felt like a greasy breakfast would really be perfect. I suppose this is something I could replicate quite easily if I bought the ingredients, and I noticed that The English Shop in Stockholm sells Linda McCartney vegetarian sausages, which I quite enjoy, so if I get very desperate I know what to do. I've noticed that people from outside of Britain find the ingredients of a fried breakfast quite odd for breakfast - Heli and I once had a debate about whether this meal was suitable for breakfast or dinner, but I suspect most British people living abroad probably miss this one. It's normal for England.

3.) A very particular halloumi burger

I had a strange experience one day last week where I literally dreamed about a halloumi burger, and woke up desperate for it. For a little while I thought the burger was one I ate in a bar in Medborgarplatsen during the summer, in which case problem solved! After a while it dawned on me that unfortunately the burger I'm dreaming of is from Mildreds, my favourite vegetarian restaurant in London, and possibly the world. All of their food is delicious, I've actually only ever gone there with meat eaters, and all of them have loved it, including my mum, but it's the bread that makes that burger. I don't know what kind of bread they use but it really is amazing. A halloumi burger and a Kir Royale sounds like a pretty satisfying lunch to me. I need to stop thinking about it because I want one again, my friend Elena did offer to post one to me but I think I might pass on that offer.

4.) Refried beans

I love refried beans. Any mexican inspired food I make is incomplete without refried beans, and bizarrely, the Swedish public don't seem to be into them! When we visited The English Shop I noticed they were selling Old El Paso refried beans, which seemed very odd because that brand is available in all the normal supermarkets here. A few days later when we decided to make fajitas we noticed that the Old El Paso range in the supermarket included everything EXCEPT refried beans! I've looked in more than one supermarket, and it appears that Swedish people just aren't on board with refried beans - they're nowhere to be found in Swedish food shops! I'm a bit confused by this, especially as all the other products are available here, and Mexican food seems to be fairly popular in this country. Unfortunately, until I bulk buy beans in the only shop I've seen them, probably at a fairly high cost due to being imported, it seems that my fajitas and enchiladas will be a little bit lacking. Last time we did attempt to make out own "refried beans" - they were bloody awful.

That's all I've been missing for now. As mentioned before, restaurants are good and there are a lot of vegetarian options available in Stockholm, so I definitely don't feel like I'm going without. I think that wherever you go you end up missing things from other places. I miss a lot of Finnish products, some of which I can buy here, some not. Heli pointed out to me last week that the ferry between here and Turku has no luggage limits, so I have a feeling that sooner or later I'll be getting on that ferry with an empty suitcase, and coming back with a very full one!

Vegetarian Sweden

One thing I've noticed recently, and which I'm very pleased about, is that in Stockholm there seem to be so many vegetarian restaurants, I would say more than in London, despite being much smaller. I had previously noticed one restaurant at Medborgarplatsen, but lately when I've been looking at various areas on maps, or just when I'm walking around, I've noticed so many more. Last time I was looking for specifically vegetarian restaurants in London it was a bit of a challenge to find somewhere other than my favourite restuarant. Here there are so many really visible options. I haven't been to any of them yet but I'm looking forward to doing that sometime.
I joined another group on Meet Up for vegetarians and vegans in Stockholm. There's an upcoming pot luck event that I'm looking forward to - I love food, and hopefully the people in the group can give me some ideas of particularly good restaurants to try here.
Even in the supermarket I've seen so many vegetarian and vegan options. As well as Quorn being available in this country, there's a Swedish brand making similar products, which I've tried and thought were pretty good. Last week I bought some dehydrated soya protein products, and although they probably wouldn't be my first choice they're definitely not the worst thing in the world. The ICA supermarket near to me also has a cabinet of vegetarian and vegan products - several varieties of tofu, which has been delicious so far, various vegetarian cold meat products, and a massive selection of vegan cheese. I'm not vegan, and probably could not live without real cheese, but I think it's cool that such a wide range of products catering for vegans and vegetarians are available. I've never actually seen vegan cheeses available in a regular supermarket in England - I think that kind of product would be sold in speciality shops. I like that it's so easy and accessible here.
On the subject of food, my palate actually seems to be changing a bit here. I've always preferred savoury foods to sweet, but in Sweden I find I'm actually really enjoying sweet foods too. Someone suggested that maybe sweet foods here are less sugary than in England, and that might be the reason why. Kanelbullar (cinammon rolls) are obviously a very traditional food here, but it's not something I would ever have purchased myself. Kai bought one for me and I actually loved it! I also really like Swedish sweets - Bilar have been one of my favourites since I lived in Finland, I've loved Daim bars since I was very small, and although it's from Finland I can easily purchase Fazer chocolate here, which is something I missed in England.
I'm also very keen on Festis and Bravo drinks - the flavours are really imaginative, flavour combinations that I haven't tried elsewhere, and they're delicious. In September I also discovered that Festis is a perfect cure for a hangover!
I think I can eat extremely well here, and the best part is that I don't have to worry too much about what I eat because I've been losing weight without meaning to! I thought this might happen, as it did during winter in Finland - presumably I use up extra energy keeping warm, but I'm not complaining. If only I was taller I'd look like a supermodel by spring!

Moderna Museet

We had a really nice day yesterday. As my boyfriend, Kai, and I are both currently putting a lot of effort into job hunting I feel like we could easily get bogged down worrying about the future, so I feel like it's really important for us to also get out and enjoy ourselves, so we remember why we actually came here in the first place.

First we met Kai's friend Eddie for lunch. Eddie gave me a lot of help when I was last year, and has been a very good friend to both of us. We went for lunch at Waan Thai, opposite Sankt Eriksplan station - when I was here in September this restaurant quickly became my favourite restaurant in Stockholm. My only complaint is that the amount of food they serve is ridiculously large!

After that we went to Moderna Museet, which is a gallery I highly recommend to anyone either living in Stockholm or visiting here. I went there when I came for a visit in June last year, and absolutely loved it. It's located on Skeppsholmen, a very beautiful island in the center of Stockholm. It's very green, with lovely views of Södermalm, and is very peaceful. Last time it was in this area I noticed that you can be in the center of Stockholm but it can still be tranquil and quiet, which is such a huge contrast to London!

The current exhibition is on post-modern sculpture, and I really enjoyed it. This show takes up one room, and the way the work is laid out is great, because as well as being able to appreciate each piece individually you can also take a step back and look at everything at once, almost turning the entire room into one giant piece of art.

Another thing I found was that the permanent collection is rotated - although there were some pieces I saw during my previous visit, there were also pieces that were not there last time. I really think this is a positive thing - it can be a bit disappointing to visit a gallery and find there's only one room of new work, especially if there's an entrance fee. 

As well as having work by artists who are well-known throughout the world, such as Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jackson Pollock, Moderna Museet also has work by a large number of Swedish and Nordic artists who perhaps I would not have heard about otherwise. Yesterday I noticed a painting by a Danish artist, Harald Giersing, who I had not heard of before, but whose work I'm keen to look into further. 

In the piece I saw, and also in some of his other paintings that I've since looked at, I can see where the artist started to paint but then changed his mind and worked over it, which is something very relevant to my own drawings at the moment, as I'm working with building up layers, smudging mistakes and working over them. If and when I move back to concentrating on painting I think I could draw on his work even more. Thanks Moderna Museet!

Next month there will be a new exhibition of work by Louise Bourgeois, an artist who is a particular favourite of mine because of her use of textiles. I picked up a flyer yesterday, and some of the work that will be shown has never been publicly shown before, which is quite exciting. On Fridays after 6pm you can also go to the museum for free, which will probably be quite convenient once I'm working.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the new show next month, and to many more trips to Moderna Museet in the future.

Eating my way through Stockholm

I've now been here for a week, and I realise that I've pretty much devoted myself to eating my way through Stockholm. I've been spending a lot of time with Heli, my friend from Finland, this week, and thankfully we're both pretty into food.
This week we made two visits to Vapiano, which is extremely popular in Stockholm, but with only one restaurant in London. I first visited Vapiano when I was last visiting Heli in June, and was very happy to visit again. The concept is kind of unusual, as you order your food directly from the chef, which means you can have some control over seasoning etc. The downside is that this means your food might be ready at separate times. We found this when we went to the restaurant in Gamla Stan - Heli had to queue for about 40 minutes for risotto, I ordered a pizza and had completely finished it by the time she sat down with her food. Kind of defeats the object of going out for a meal together. This wasn't a problem when we've visited the restaurant in Östermalm previously. I also found that the pizza in Gamla Stan wasn't cooked as well as in Östermalm, so I'm not sure if I'd go back to that particular restaurant. Generally I really like Vapiano, the food is good and the prices are very reasonable too.
There is another Italian restaurant in Gamla Stan that we went to both times I visited Stockholm in the past, called Michelangelo, which I really do recommend. I've never actually had pasta there, but the pizzas I've eaten have always been really good. Again, the prices are really reasonable, and the atmosphere there is very nice.
Yesterday we had a lovely lunch at Sushi Hjorthagen, very close to where Heli lives and across the street from Ropsten station. This also marked the first occasion that I ordered something completely in Swedish and the other person spoke back to me only in Swedish. I assume I have a very foreign accent, as Swedish people tend to start speaking to me in English even when I am speaking Swedish. Yesterday an Irish man I met advised me to just persevere and speak Swedish even when they speak English, so I think I'm not the only person who has experienced this. The sushi was delicious and beautifully presented - they also had a number of vegetarian options, which is a big positive for me. As it was a small, local restaurant in a residential area I wondered whether the quality would be that good, but I was really impressed and would definitely visit again. It was a lovely, sunny afternoon, so sitting out on the terrace of the restaurant was great, and the area was really peaceful.
Last night we intended to go to the nacho buffet at Hellströms. Everyone I meet seems to have heard of this, even if they haven't been there. We visited when I was last in Stockholm, and it's amazing that you can get all you can eat food for only 20kr. That's unimaginable in London, 20kr is approximately £1.72! It would cost you more to buy the ingredients and make the food at home! Even better is that beer is only 29kr, and this is the weekend price, throughout the rest of the week it's only 24kr! Definitely the cheapest drinks I've seen in Stockholm. The buffet is from 4-7pm, unfortunately this time we turned up a bit too late and there was no food left. In terms of value for money I can't think of anything better. There's always next Friday...
As an alternative we went to Opal in Söderhallarna, which we've visited before just for drinks. I like that they have shiny silver sofas and some tables that look like a glitterball cut in half. Opal mainly offers burgers, I had the vegetarian halloumi burger and it was pretty good, very filling. It was almost 200kr, quite expensive for what it actually was, and definitely more than you'd pay for something similar in London. Although people often say Stockholm is very expensive I find that the cost of living is roughly the same as London, with some differences. Alcohol generally costs slightly more, cigarettes are much less, and rent is much less. Shame that it's so difficult to find somewhere to live in the first place!
When I was last here I ordered a falafel wrap at the end of a night out, and was very confused to find that this wrap included mashed potato as a filling! I like mashed potato, and it was very tasty mashed potato, I just really didn't understand why it was there. Sweden is apparently really big on mashed potato, and this is quite normal. I mentioned this earlier today to a German person who I'm currently sharing a house with, and she didn't seem to be phased by this at all, so I'm wondering if this is actually normal outside of Sweden too. Definitely not in England though.
In other news, I've decided in a couple of weeks to go back to England temporarily, as my boyfriend and I are both quite unhappy about being separated. It also seems the more sensible option, as when we get back here in December or January we'll have more money and more options for housing, which is the biggest concern I have here. I can go back to my old job on a temporary basis, and save even more money too. It's sad to leave Stockholm again so quickly, but something is really missing being here alone, and I'd much rather change the plan and come back in a couple of months. I'm still going to go to job interviews and look into jobs in the next couple of weeks, and also use this time to improve my spoken Swedish, and generally integrate more with Swedish people. I'm planning to leave a lot of my belongings in Stockholm, so I can say with absolute certainty that I'll be back before long. I have a meeting about a job on Monday that's quite important, but this is the plan regardless of the outcome of that. I don't think that company will want an immediate start, and I'm told that a notice period of three months is quite normal here, which takes us up to December anyway. Coming here now was still completely worthwhile, but I do feel that I could be much happier than I am. So that means two more weeks to keep munching my way through Stockholm, and then a little while to plan what to eat when I'm back!