we made it…
we spent Friday night in little italy in new york, shared a bottle of wine over a plate of pasta at one of the sidewalk restaurants. Afterwards, we enjoyed gelato (one of my many favorite past-times) and walked around the city. We looked on in horror at the grown individuals waiting in line, dressed in capes at one of the local bookstores for the overly hyped children’s novel and entered a cute bar around the corner for drinks.
it was a fabulous evening, with the enhanced experience of joining overly intoxicated, scary people in the humid subway tunnels under the city around 3am…
we had an entire day to kill on Saturday before our flight (hopefully) would leave for stockholm. i added a few gray hairs to thomas’ collection when i suggested we head over toward penn station in newark to enjoy some food from the largest portuguese community in the united states. fantastic little bakeries and a fun area, definitely worth the detour.
back to the newark airport…only to find out we would be charged a “re-booking fee” by malaysian airlines for our troubles. yelling at them really didn’t help but i tired anyway and then befriended a nice swedish girl who had encountered the same problem…we met up again for much needed drinks at the bar in the international terminal 🙂
stockholm is amazing. the airport is straight out the ikea catalog (which as many of you know, could not make me happier). the subways are beautiful, clean, and air conditioned! the architecture is beautiful and the city is well-connected archipelago. we are staying in a charming little apartment. my only complaint is that shower heads should really be connected to the top of a bathroom, not the bottom. its very difficult to hold it over your head and wash your hair at the same time, someone should really send them an e-mail on this subject.
today we explored the city. visited the tourist center, cursed my non-GSM phone and figured out how to use the pay phones. we discovered the huge expanse of shopping in the city center. we visited the national museum and picked up a little information on medieval and viking history. we walked around old town which contrasted the rest of the city with its narrow, winding streeets. It was lined with cliche touristy shops as well as an array of restuarants and cafes. it seems sweden in general is not lacking in any of the wordly cuisines.
looking to try some authentic swedish cuisine, we stopped in the oldest restuarant (a german owned restaurant in fact) which was originally built in 1491 (since moved, moved again, and re-built). we had the pickled herring platter (which is family favorite of mine) and then some sesame-breaded perch with beets and potatoes. all was washed down with yummy german beer and lots of it!
