Tyresta National Park

Yesterday, we spent the day in Tyresta National Park and Nature Preserve. Stockholm is the only European capital with virgin forest close by, about an hour south of the city center. Here you can find primeval forest with pine trees that are 400 years old, pristine forest lakes and a large number of unusual plants and animals.

The main entrance to the national park is at Tyresta village, which is considered to be among the best preserved villages in the Stockholm region and has been inhabited since the iron age. The buildings date back to the 18th century and have been preserved in their original state.

Call Roto-Rooter

What's worse than a plumbing problem? How about a plumbing problem in a foreign country and really limited knowledge of the language?

My kids were washing off their feet after spending the day at the park yesterday and, well, my daughter decided it was too strenuous to actually stand and do this. She decided to sit on the sink. That was barely anchored into the wall. With anchors that where twenty years old and jimmy rigged in with toothpicks, I later found out.

The horror that followed is still so raw it's really difficult to relive at this moment and let me tell you, I am not entirely sure, it can not be somehow be traced back to the Shaman. It'll be a while before I look back at this and laugh. Though, I know I will at some point.

Upon screams from my son that "Keeley ripped the sink out of the wall", I walked over to the bathroom. I was thinking she probably knocked the European style spray nozzle out of the shower.

Wishful thinking, I entered the bathroom to see her holding the sink up. Cracked anchors, icky black sink goo and cracked plastic piping lay on the floor. My son had a small glimmer of satisfaction in his eye and I think I detected a small smirk on his face, quite eerie actually, when he said to her, "You are going to be in so much trouble when Dad gets home!"

Ah crap..I had just received a text from him that he was on his way home and ready to start his five day weekend. Yeah. I am thinking this wasn't what he had in mind.

Getting a handyman in July or August in Europe? Lots of luck. The whole city is on vacation and has been since early July.

What ensued next was really much of a blur. A lot of internet surfing and trying to figure out just what the hell a Home Depot is called in Swedish. A whole lot more surfing to discover there wasn't one in the city center. A subway, a bus ride, $50 worth of parts and it was fixed. Actually in better condition that it was when we started.

Someday, it'll be funny. Just not today.

Hagaparken

We spent the day in Haga Park yesterday. Hagapark is Stockholm's crown jewel and is said to be one of the best maintained English style parks in Western Europe. It's probably the nicest park I can recall spending time it. Nicer than Central Park, the Tiergarten and, even, Bangkok's Lumpini Park. What's even nicer is that it is about a five minute walk from our flat. It's actually located in the city of Solna which is the next municipality north of Stockholm.

It is an oasis in the city, offering vast amounts of green trees, fresh air and water for those who want to relax and refresh their souls. It is home to forest, gardens and many lakes. Another plus is that is immaculately kept and free of the urban debris.

The 50,000-square-meter park has a fairly-tale-like atmosphere, due to the many fantasy-filled structures, like the Ekotemplet, the blue Copper Tents, the Turkish Pavilion, and the Chinese Pavilion. It was said that the King Gustav III liked to sit under Ekotemplet for breakfast.

Hagaparken

Haga was the project of King Gustav III during the 18th century. His royal architect was responsible for most of the park’s design. The King Gustav III’s summer palace stands in the middle of the park, and today it is open to the public during the summer months.

Pay to Play...er Pee

You won't find a public toilet here that doesn't require paying a fee. It's usually 5-10 SEK. The conversion rate, which you can't help doing in your head no matter how painful, is about 7.5 Krona to one US dollar. It's fluctuating, it got as high as 7.9 last week. With the dollar tanking this week, it was down to 7.4 yesterday. The Euro trades at about ten to one and that's about where things should be to be just ridiculously expensive. Converting to dollars, makes it comically expensive.

Doing the simple math, you can see, that's nearly a dollar to over a dollar to go to the loo. I have been told that they charge to maintain the bathrooms. Strange that they can't maintain the bathrooms on the sizable amount of tax revenue they collect. Even stranger that no one else finds this pretty unacceptable.

Places like McDonald's and it's Swedish equivalent Max Burger charge also. Leading me to believe it's also about keeping the inordinate amount of crazies, drunks and drug users out of the bathroom. So again, it becomes a case of the majority having to pay for the irresponsible behavior of the minority.

The Easy Way

"There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist."
Ayn Rand

I saw a guy with a nail in his nose today. This isn't really a commentary on Stockholm because, really, cities everywhere attract these sort of attention needing types. The exception is, in Stockholm, they are generally drinking beers while walking down the street. I am guessing there are no open container laws here and if there are, they aren't enforced. So, yeah, here he was nail in nose, beer in hand.

How old was he you ask? 15? 17? Nah, he was about 35. As soon as he saw myself and kids he got louder, apparently to draw more attention to himself. You know to really freak me out. Because, having just fallen off the turnip truck and it being 2009-- I've never seen an idiot with a large piece of hardware in his nose. Well, maybe not one who's five years out from an enlarged prostate, I'll give him that.

Stockholm is full of them. Which is interesting, I guess. But, more than anything it's so yesterday. The non-conformists need to come up with something new. The 1970s punk rocker---not shocking. The over tattooed and pierced thing--seen it. The gothic look. For real? People are still doing this?

And isn't conforming to non-conformity--well, conformity?

The Ugly American Part One of Many

Faced with a four day weekend, I set out to take a small trip. To complicate things, I am trying to keep it relatively inexpensive seeing as we just went on vacation. Inexpensive European vacation, an oxymoron if there ever was one. Especially with a dollar more fit for lining bird cages than anything else.

Originally, we were headed to the original Legoland in Billund, Denmark. Getting there turns out to be an ordeal. Three trains, a bus--sounds more complicated than what I had bargained for. Then I turned to the idea of renting a car. Ten hour drive, ferry to get the car over the water, $7 a gallon gas to get there..again, getting way more complicated than I have the tolerance for.

Isn't there a 1-800 number I can call and get the all inclusive deal? Some sort of mapped out, error free, baby stepped package for the easily overwhelmed? Someone would have thought of this in the US. Plus, we'd get free T-shirts to help market the idea along to other attention span challenged travelers. It's what we do. Actually, we just drive or fly. We don't bother fucking around with trains.

Really, I can't even blame it on my short attention span. My husband, who excels at conquering, complicated Kilimanjaro sized tasks, looked up from the computer and said, "Are you frikking kidding me right now?"

I'll eventually have to make good on my Legoland promise but a nagging voice inside my head keeps asking, "Can't we just wait until we get home hop in the car and make the 5 hour drive to San Diego?" We'd be guaranteed a rain free experience--with ice.

Plus, I hate the idea of spending my money in the highest taxed country in the world. Isn't it bad enough I am spending it in the second highest taxed place? It's like a subtle nod of approval.

Then I moved on, so I started racking my brain on where to go. I've been to many of the larger European cities so I started to look for the cheap, last minute airfares. Cologne, Bonn, Vienna--Yes, I know, Ugly American poster child here- but old buidings, old buildings, old churches. I am surrounded by old buildings. And I love old buildings, don't get me wrong, but I don't need to spend $3,000 to look at old buildings for four days. Especially, when I can walk outside and see old buildings all day long.

In my searches I see there is an airline called German Wings. They have cheap flights to Berlin. I love Berlin, a city worth going to again and again. Normally, such an airline might be a little frightening. I'd be a bit nervous to fly Turkey Wings or Poland Wings. But German Wings, I am OK with. The Germans may not be overly friendly but if there is anyone who I'd trust to maintain, fly and schedule flights--it's them. And I bet you could eat off of the floor of one of those babies.

Bah, it looks like there is some sort of World Cup festival going on in Berlin this weekend. Soccer, right? Don't even get me started on that topic.

Back to my search. Anyone of these cities would be a dream, if I were sitting planning the trip from my computer in Phoenix. But, I am in Stockholm. In the thick of it. So, I am not exactly sure what I am looking for.

Plus, old buildings and museums, at this point, aren't a huge selling point to my kids. Especially, when Legoland was on the table.

I am still looking and taking each city and googling "things to do in city". Museums. Hmm, Krakow has a water park. Who knew?

Then, I move on to what really makes me feel like getting on a plane and going somewhere. Sunshine and blue water. Now, I am down into Portugal, Spain, Greece and Turkey. It might be hard to actually drag me out of any of these places. Plus, it's high season--not really cost effective for four days, keeping in mind the ever eroding dollar. All and all, still considering Portugal...

In the meantime, we've decided it's Phuket, Thailand for Christmas. It's an idea everyone can agree on. Maybe we are all going Euro.

Uber Tolerance

Witnessing the usual barrage of visual assaults on any given day in Stockholm got me to thinking about over tolerance and it's effects on the longevity of society as a whole. Perhaps it isn't the role of government to criminalize certain activities and it is more the role of society to ostracize certain behaviors. A concept that predates modern religions and practiced by tribal peoples throughout the world. Interestingly, I don't write this as a bible-thumping zealot, as I identify myself as much an agnostic as anything else.

When a society loses it's moral bearings, it can not exist in a vacuum forever. Something will eventually come along to fill that vacuum. It does not shock me that Islam is filling that vacuum in Europe.