Take A Chance on Me

If you change your mind, I'm the first in line
Honey I'm still free
Take a chance on me
If you need me, let me know, gonna be around
If you've got no place to go, if you're feeling down
If you're all alone when the pretty birds have flown
Honey I'm still free
Take a chance on me


I did not realize how much I have missed this place until I actually got here. I was greeted by the giant Abba mural and the wonderful and familiar smells inside of the gate of the always immaculate and modern Arlanda Airport.

Abba makes me happy. Makes me long for (what I imagine in my mind to be) the idyllic 70s of Sweden. The era, I am told by older Swedes, where tourists left cameras or wallets on buses only to frantically return an hour later to find the wallet untouched in the same exact spot. The era of Abba, hopeful idealism and relative innocence.

I am not exactly sure if that world was how I imagine it. Though, I do see and feel vestiges of it still in modern Swedish society which only confirms my romanticized view of how things were.

Overall, it feels excellent to be here. So oddly familiar. I walked nearly the entire city for the past two days. From the apartment on Kungsholmen where we are staying, through my old haunts in Vasastan, the city and it's center, through the Old Town and to the very end of Södermalm. Amazed at all the beauty that was once my back yard, taking in the wonderful smells that only Europe smells like and overall reminiscing about the way of life Stockholm offers.