Stockholm, en gång till...

From Stockholm 2 a...

Yesterday we were cordially invited to return to Stockholm with the International Committee, so all of us (even the Spanish!) dutifully arose in time to set off from Kåren at 8 in the morning, which was nice. By half 9 we were outside the central train station in the captial, where we assigned ourselves guides from the selection offered and were led merrily around the city, being told jovial tales of invasion, relgious scandal and much erection of buildings. Our tour guide, Åse, was quite a chirpy and interesting lady, though once she discovered I was English, she did begin to single me out for special references to my homeland, and was particularly pleased to tell me that the Swedish royal palace has one more room than that of our good Queen Lizzie (it's true, she rang up Buckingham Palace herself. They only have 107 rooms!). After this rather informative excursion and a hefty lunch, we found ourselves quite tired and beyond visiting museums etc., but (quite besides the fact I saw a lot there when I was 8) I'm sure I'll have chance another time while I'm here. Besides, we did managed to go to the ice cream shop where they make their own waffle cones, which was good fun. We also went back to the dungeonesque tea room (though this time opted to sit outside) and generally chilled out a bit.

Upon returning to Västerås, we had all become a little tired due to our early start, though personally I was determined to experience some of the City's Kulturnatt (Culture Night, of course), as it's the only time I expect anything to be happening on a Saturday night in Västerås for pretty much the whole time I'm here. We'd actually missed some of it, but there were all kinds of dance, music, art and theater, amogst other things, going on all over the city, and the atmosphere was great, kind of like bonfire night (except with hot sugared almonds instead of parkin). In the Konserthus we caught part of the set of what seemed to be an acoustic guitar orchestra, which impressed me, though the sound was quite bad - they weren't mic'ed up, nor were they in the best place for acoustics, as I can only assume there were "more important" things going on in the main halls. After this we nearly got some Pytt i Panna, and indeed were foiled only by the price, before we moved to the library (I did say there were events everywhere) to catch some of Howlin' Wolf and the Leftovers, if only for the name. They actually turned out to be quite a good blues-soul outfit, and had I had more energy, I'd have hung around for longer. Indeed, my only complaint was that there weren't many of them - I'd expected at least eight from the name, but was faced with only three musicians. Anyway, we were all flagging somewhat, so at this point we indulged in the aforementioned hot, sweet nuts (insert your own jokes here) before finally calling it a day and lumbering our various different ways home for a (possibly) well-deserved sleep. I have personally never provided a better definition of the phrase "crashing out". Good day all round :)

From Stockholm 2 a...