February 18, 2016
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We awoke at 2:30 AM after crashing at 5 PM earlier that evening. Similar to the previous morning, we spent the first few hours writing the previous day’s blog post and selecting pictures to go along with it. Once finished, Heather cooked a hearty breakfast, complete with pesto, eggs, and toast, as well as pesto pasta (which we saved for the next few meals). As we were eating breakfast, Heather dropped her silverware, ran to the window and gleefully squealed, “IT’S SNOWING! IT’S SNOWING BIG SNOWFLAKES!” Indeed it was.After quickly showering, we bundled up and dashed out the door to a veritable winter wonderland. As we walked down the snow-covered sidewalks, Heather excitedly attempted to catch snowflakes while I did my best to avoid getting hit in the eyeballs by incoming monster flakes. Since we were having such a good time enjoying the cold and listening to our crunching footsteps, we didn’t even look where we were headed – we just continued straight along Ringvägen until we came upon a pristine snowy hill.📷Snow!
Climbing up the hill, Heather spotted a beautiful church at the very top. Struck by the blanketed beauty around her, Heather handed me her camera and began exhuberantly frolicking in the snow as she made her way towards the church. As we now know from the conveniently located placard, we were looking at Sofia Kyrka, a church built in 1906. Since the rest was in Swedish, we don’t know much else about the church, but it sure was pretty covered with snow.📷Sofia Kyrka
📷Packing a snowball
Heading north, we walked down the hill and through a gamut of stairs – up and down, up and down, until we came out at a beautiful view overlooking the entirety of Stockholm. We could see everything we visited the previous day – Gamla Stan, Kungsträdgården, the Vasamuseet, and even the waterfront – but this time everything was blanketed with snow! From this vantage point we also spotted the Fotografiska, a must-see, world-reknowned photography museum, on the waterfront side of the expressway far below. Since the Fotografiska was so close, we decided to find our way down to the waterfront. But first, we built a miniature snowman!📷Enjoying the view
📷Building a snowman
📷Fotografiska below
While I’m not usually very fond of art museums in general, the Fotografiska was pretty impressive. It had a wall of photographs of well known political leaders from the 1970s and 80s, a surprisingly large number of shots from early 1900s New York City and Los Angeles, and even some old photographs from all around the world. On the second floor, there was a featured exhibit on the renknowned fashion photographer Guy Bourdin. While his photographs were certainly innovative and provocative, they were a bit too avant garde for us (as amazing as they were). We think the Vasamuseet definitely spoiled us.📷Fotografiska entrance
📷Inside the Fotografiska
About an hour later we left the Fotografiska and by this time, the falling snow had turned into a light sleet. We meandered along the waterfront until we could switchback up the bluff that we had come down earlier. As we moved south climbing up a different set of stairs, we came upon another church – also covered in snow. We had arrived at Katarina Kyrka and its adjoining cemetery. The black candle lanterns next to nearly every tombstone stood out starkly in the soft white background.📷Snowy stairs
📷Katarina Kyrka
📷Cemetery
Leaving through the south gate of the cemetery, our stomachs grumbled since we had eaten breakfast several hours ago at 5:30 AM. Seeing that we were entering a hipster area of Södermalm, we resolved to find a trendy spot to eat brunch. While we originally intended to eat at Nytorget 6, we arrived at Nytorget, a grocery store that confusingly housed a generically named restaurant and bar, Urban Deli. Even though we were accidentally seated at the wrong restaurant, we ended up loving the food – especially the creamy sauces and all-you-can-eat whipped butter. Swedish dairy is so damn delicious.📷Urban Deli
After we finished our delicious meal of Swedish-style curried fried chicken (me) and halloumi (fried sheep/goat cheese) with couscous (Heather), we awkwardly stared around at the Scandanavian-style decor trying to determine how we pay for our meal. This took much longer than we had hoped because we were the very first people to be seated since we arrived when Urban Deli opened. Finally, a couple went up to the bar counter and offered the bartender their card. We quickly mimicked their behavior, paid for our meal, and groggily made our way back to the flat. While we only intended to take a short nap, we were so exhausted that we slept through the afternoon and much of the night. It was only 1:30 PM when we passed out.Addendum: map of where we walked:📷
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