Might be a bit late to post first impressions three months in, but here goes.
Landed in Stockholm late September, just in time for the cold weather to set in.
Bought a train ticket to Nyköping, the town where I'm working, only after finding out I pronounced it wrong. Luckily I showed the friendly girl the name, else I might have ended up who knows where!! And I don't have the best relationship with that friend of friends, ol' Murphy, and getting lost on my first day would have been just another fun event...but luckily not.
And once again, I enjoyed the great public transportation of an European country. I spent two weeks travelling through Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy and Austria, hitting the big cities mostly almost 4 years ago(...can't believe it's been so long already). And trains are great ways to travel. Back home in South Africa, the only time I rode a train was in gr 1 or 2 as a class trip somewhere I can't remember any more. Nowadays you won't find me close to a train station there. Well, except for the Gautrein. That's one train I'd like to ride in S.A.
Riding down south for about 80km I had a great view of the Swedish landscape. Late Autumn, but it was still bright green fields with dark splotches of wooded areas all over, dotted with wooden farmhouses and buildings from pictures I could have sworn I saw on the internet. A great way to spend an hour and a half.
At Nyköping station I met a new college and he drove me to Oxelösund, 15km away, where I'll be living for a year. Small city against the Baltic sea with a nature reserve (which I visited without my camera), a cold war nuclear bunker and more. Unfortunately not open after I found out about them, but they are definitely on my list.
A big, but fun, change for me is the commute to and from work. The bus takes about 30 minutes one way between Oxelösund and Nyköping, with another 10 minutes by foot through the main street's pedestrian area lined with shops and restaurants.
After almost three months, the other passengers seem like old friends, even though I've barely spoken a word to any of them except "tack" (thank you). I've even seen some of them at other locations and started thinking....That person looks so familiar I must know him from South Africa...just to realise they get on or off the bus one stop down from me.
At first I took a books along to read (can only spend so much time looking at the other passengers without freaking them out), but after about a month the books I brought along from home ran out and the book shop here has a limited amount of English books and though Swedish has some relation to Afrikaans...it's not nearly close enough for me to read a book and understand. So after a recommendation from a friend, I purchased the Amazon Kindle and am really happy with this nifty device. Although I also think it is evil....it is too easy to buy another book and another book and another book, from the comfort of your bus, train or even bathroom...!
And another big change from back home...cold and snow. Luckily, it is not the first time I've seen snow. Last year I spent Christmas and New Years in Canada and masses of snow there, as well as a couple of weeks of snow in my time in the US.
But it is still a very strange, fascinating thing for me. I love watching the snowflakes drift lazily down, the soft touch as they melt against my nose (usually the only part of skin that sticks out, especially after the freak cold front the last week...) and the look of snow-covered trees and roofs.
What I do not like about the snow is it's either slippery or slushy, so I'm either struggling to keep myself upright or trying to extract my shoes from mush.
And I'm very glad I don't have a car. Watching the people trying to free their cars from the mountains of snow and hazarding the ice covered roads don't appeal to me. And since there is no designated parking spots, with my fantastic memory, I'd probably rescue someone else's car halfway before realizing I'm parked in the next spot.
I also spent some time in Stockholm. Beautiful city. I have a great fondness for medieval stuff: stories, ships, persons, weapons etc. So of course my first visit was the Vasa Museum where the Vasa ship, which sunk in 1628 and was found in 1956 and salvaged in the following years, rebuilt and restored, is displayed along with smaller finds. I always find it incredible that, even with a ship that seems so majestic and strong, that people braved the sea in a wooden ship in such cramped conditions and risky environment. Obviously, the Vikings and other civilizations were made of sterner stuff than I.
The rest of the day I spent walking the streets of Gamla Stan, the Old City island. Filled with small winding streets lined with shops and restaurants that seems small and quaint until you step inside to a deep room with stairs leading up or down to other levels. It took a lot of effort not to spend more than what was budgeted for and I failed miserably.
And of course, I had to end the day at the Ice Bar. At the time it was a very novel idea to drink a cocktail at below zero temperatures. And it was a great experience, even though I did expect a bit larger room (and cocktail for the price). But at the moment I can just mix something myself and step onto the balcony and...not need ice. Luckily the décor is a bit better there than on my balcony and drinking out of a glass made of ice, from the rivers up north, that slowly melted was a new experience.
And now my rambling has to stop. For now anyway.
Salutations.
Njoy!
