Stockholm Knife

Last week I went to Stockholm with my friend Nik to see a somewhat obscure band called The Knife. We thought we´d make a bit of a trip out of it so we left on Wednesday and caught the overnight ferry. After my recent Tallin ferry experience, I decided I wasn´t going to leave the cabin at all, except of course to visit duty free!
Of course, after a bottle of wine I was ready to go dancing so we braved the crowds of suit wearing men and stiletto wearing women and headed for the disco. It didn´t take us long to realise that the disco had been overtaken by Scandanavian Hunks who were literally (and I´m sure being quite well paid for it) taking their clothes off. We beat a hasty retreat and ended up listening to a wonderful singer/songwriter from Sweden. She looked like Alanis Morrisette and sounded like a cross between Sheryl Crow and Janis Joplin. So naturally we requested Alanis, Janis and Sheryl and she did them justice. We listened to her just long enough to get drunk (we also happened to be the end of her set) and set off to do some dancing.
After throwing our selves around the floor for about 20 minutes (or and hour or two... who really knows), we headed back to our cabin to let the comforting sounds of breaking ice lull us to sleep.
In Stockholm we stayed in a hostel that was a converted boat (by the end of this trip I had my sea legs!). It was very cool and very red! The view from our cabin window was of ice, a church and someones frozen left over picnic. Interesting.
We wandered around Old Town, marvelling at the beautiful architecture and taking advantage of the sun which reared it´s longed for head. Then, on a quest to find fish net stockings and a cheap haircut, we found ourselves in bar lined back streets jumping sludge and trying to make sense of menus... well, I was. Nik was a little more prepared with two years of Swedish language classes under his belt.
We were successful in all ventures... although the haircut was a little scary as there was no common language available and all the hairdresser managed to say to me in English was "Your streaks... not fine". I responded with all I could say in Swedish, a very sarcastic "tack". Although, truth be told it´s very difficult to make one syllable sarcastic, but I think I made my point.

For some reason I had a craving for rare steak (and no I am not carrying the devil´s spawn) and we managed to find a very Melbourne style pub near the trendy section of the town.
Full of beer and beef we headed back to the hostel to prepare for the concert.

The concert was at this funky ballroom style venue and by the time we got there it was packed. There was no support band, just a DJ, so we pushed our way to the front and patiently waited. I somehow got into an argument with some Swedish girls (no idea how!) so I recieved dirty looks until the band started. This band is notorious for their somewhat anti social behaviour and as the time ticked by, we were beginning to worry that they were not going to appear. But then all of a sudden there were on stage... well, if a ten minute instrumental intro can be described as sudden. Decked out in monkey masks and hands, they kicked off with a song from their latest album. The visuals were awesome but due to my height issues, I couldn´t really see much so I escaped to the back where I could dance properly. Weird thing about Swedes... they don´t dance. I stood at the back over looking heads of totally unmoving people. After a moment of self conciousness my favourite song came on and I couldn´t stop dancing. Nik managed to locate me in the crowd and we danced ourselves silly for the next 40 minutes. And then the concert ended.
WTF!!!!! That´s what I thought as I stood in shock for another 20 minutes. We came to another country to see this band and they played for 50 minutes. I was appalled. And it was so good while they lasted.
So, somewhat devastated and frustrated, we trudged back to the hostel ... stopping briefly to take photographs of me in a life boat suspended over the ice. This was very difficult to get in and out of in a dress, fishnets and sneakers... but I did it and I didn´t break anything.

The rest of the trip involved a lot of eating at tapas bars, looking for cd stores that didn´t exist and drinking wine. We found the local sleazy latin nightclub and attempted our few salsa moves rather badly, but realised that we were not alone in our awkwardness so left feeling redeemed.

On the last day we chilled out, had a brunch while listening to a live jazz band and then realised our flight left in one hour and we were at least 30 minutes from the airport... and we´d lost our metro tickets. We hightailed it to the city, caught the airport express just in time and managed to check in with seconds left.
Back in Finland, we were greeted with sleet and the realisation that the sun had stayed behind in Sweden.

Stockholm is an interesting city and has great food, venues, cafes and live music... but I´ve got to say, Helsinki dance much better.

Stay tuned for Diva night post mortem...