On Sunday I went to the Stockholm City Museum mainly to see their exhibit of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I think admission was like $15 and it was TOTALLY not worth it. We had a guide and I liked her. She asked where we were from and there was a family from the Netherlands. So they reminded of "dhe windosh on dish buildink..." from Trigger Happy TV. The daughter always had a small smile on, the son was super skinny and had tall hair, and I just plain didn't like the dad for no good reason. I didn't trust his eyes and therefore face. Too intense for a man taking a tour. He asked a decent amount of questions and maybe wasn't as polite as I would have been during the answers or actual asking. I dunno, I'm rambling. The lady was funny because she would pat her heart when she would mention parts of the city burning or being demolished because she longed to see them in their 16th or 17th century state. She showed us out the window a place where they were digging up the foundation to improve the building and you were actually able to see an 18th century road and a 16th century road! It was surprising how far down they were from the current street level. I guess much construction was done atop the old roads.
Anyway, the tour was pretty good because the woman told some good stories. For instance, she told of some kids in an orphanage running 300 meters to the Queen's palace on Gamla Stan and actually getting into the palace to complain about conditions. She didn't know if the queen helped, "but I'd like to think she did. She didn't know how poor conditions were in the city, so it was a surprise to her." Then later she showed the orphanage and palace on a map of the city (built in maybe 1920, but of that time) and the dutch son said, "That distance is 300 meters?" His only question of the tour. Come on, does it really matter? She said maybe 500 m looking at the map. Freaking dutch.
The girl with the dragon tattoo exhibit was super lame. A cheesy Millennium office, some photos of the movies from production, some fake newspaper articles (ok, those were kinda cool, seen below)
and a few maps of locations mentioned in the books. Lame! Totally not worth $15 admission. Still glad I went. I guess even when things are lame I'm glad I did something besides watching Dexter on my phone in the hotel.
Got lunch at a fried herring place with mashed potatoes and pickled cucumbers and lingenberry sauce. It's quite similar to cranberry sauce when it's just from a Costco equivalent. It's not quite as tangy, though. But I likes it.
Then, I finally found a mass in English and so had to make sure I knew where the church was. Turns out it was right by Kungstagarden (The King's Garden) and so I had time to dip into the mall to cruise for super tiny cologne samples. I went into this one very nice men's shop and politely asked if they had cologne samples because I am traveling and did not bring mine. The woman replied "Perfume samples? Yes, of course." And I said, "Yes, cologne." She went over to her drawer and began folding up a tiny little box, and put two little spray bottles in it. She was telling me how they are free and I can even come back tomorrow and get the same thing. She folded another box and put two more in and gave both boxes to me. She said, "There you are, men's perfume." And I laughed at men's perfume. That's like men's eyeliner or something. She said they were their finest samples. Ooo la la! I've yet to try them, but there are pub crawls 5 nights a week here in Helsinki, so I'm sure I will soon.
Mass in English was very nice. It started over ten minutes late, though. It was odd because the pianist welcomed us and asked us to introduce ourselves to one another and then we waited for ten minutes for mass to start late. Oh well. The priest did not try to tame the difficult message of entry to heaven but reminded us that God goes after the ones that leaves. It was great to hear in English!
After that, I met up with the Brothers London from the pub crawl for dinner. The first night I met them, Adrian was saying how they live in different countries (he lives in Whales I think), do different jobs, and have their own identities. He was surprised to hear about the Patterson twins in Sacramento (of course I didn't name them) because I was wondering if he and Andre had gone to school together, worked together, and lived together like the girls. So from Friday night, I kinda got the impression that they wouldn't be as in sync as stereotypical twins. Well, Sunday definitely changed that for me! They are anything but stereotypical; they are great guys and are interested in history and technology and rant and rave about the now ended American show "The Shield". But they are uncannily in sync. Adrian said he had a horrible day and not to even ask him about it. He put his head in his hands and just was looking for a place to eat. So Andre started the story. And Adrian jumped right in to tell it, not mad at Dre at all, even though he just said he didn't want to talk about it.
They had gone kayaking that day and Dre was put in the kayak first and looked good. Adrian didn't take off his jeans despite the fact he had his swim shorts on underneath. Almost as soon as he got in the kayak, he felt water on his shoulder, and he tipped it over. He said he was so close to the shore that he was able to jump out into a tree! Dre was laughing at him saying he heard nothing, then looked back and "How'd you get up there?!" They would constantly interrupt each other with details and constantly rehash things and man, I probably would have decked someone for interrupting me so much, but it is just how they work. It was so funny and interesting! They talk super fast and are always adding to what the other just said. Even corrections that I expected would be taken with a "come on, it doesn't have to be perfect" were accepted and appreciated. I really like these guys. And they jump topics like hop scotch. We would "finish" the kayak story and move on to talking about the differences between LA and London or why Swedish girls are shy and then all the sudden, Adrian would go, "And it's like I said, I can do this, Dre did it, ee's doin foine, and then I'm in the woo-ta!" (water, I dunno if that's exactly how he says it) And I'm laughed again at his predicament but also because I thought the subject was over. And the Dre comes back in to fill in details I already heard. It was awesome. And this happened at least 4 times. Each time a slight detail was added about the event like how hot the Argentinian girl working there was, or how they were overloaded with punters (customers) and that's why they got no training and crappy boats. And so eventually they gave Adrian a kind of paddle boat and he was much better. But Dre would say "Ven I looked back, and saw Adrian on fis fing and I said, 'What you doin on vat?'". I loved it.
They are also super considerate for how much and how fast they talk. When a topic has temporarily run its course, they ask about what I did last night or how the trip has been. They ask because they are curious and to start a new topic of conversation. But since they interrupt each other so much, topics would seem to get lost. But they don't let them. They always figure out what street we're on or of that bar is good ("nah, it's crap") and then immediately say, "I'm sorry, we were talking about..." and then they pick up right where they left off.
We had dinner at a traditional Swedish restaurant run by Asians. The food was great, but we were all a little confused by the staff (#racism). I got chunk of steak with potatoes and good mustard and horse radish. Adrian got a seafood soup that was just what he needed after that day. I mean, one minute I'm telling myself, I can do this, and then the next minute, literally! the next minute, I'm in the water! And I had my crappy phone and Dre's good phone in my pockets and now Dre's phone won't turn on! Dre got the halibut and prawns and loved it. We all took happy pictures with our meals.
We talked about The Shield a lot. The guys love it, absolutely brilliant. They said it makes you deal with all the real stuff happening, no sugar coating. They said The Wire was more watered down and careful but it was shown at prime time on BBC 2. The Shield was shown on channel 5 at 11 pm on a Tuesday and didn't get enough viewers to support a showing of the final season. They had to catch it on their own. I saw the first episode years ago with Dan, loved it, and didn't watch a thing more. I definitely will start it up.
Adrian told me how Dre is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (spelling?) when it comes to alcohol. He said his eyes go in different directions and he is a different person. He had Dre tell me a tame story. Here it is:
Dre went to an alumni dinner with his at the time girlfriend at her very highly regarded English college (I unfortunately can't remember the name). The brothers have Italian and Chinese blood, but grew up in London and fittingly call themselves British. But he said his girlfriend's friends kept asking him things like, "Is English your second language?" and "So you don't have any English blood?" He was surprised they dwelled on this when he was clearly British. (They said British is your nationality where English is your ethnicity) He had a few more drinks and was very surprised to hear the president of the alumni (an old distinguished gent) to make a jab at the Irish (I think). He thought it was a very odd that this very prestigious school could be so old school in their views on ethnicity. So after a few more drinks, he loudly exclaimed, "You're all bigots!" and then said he looked around and then thought, "yes, I'm glad I said that!" It was a great story and many times through it, Adrian said, "Ooo, wait till you hear this!" or "ere it comes, ere it comes!" making it seem JUST like he was there. But there was no way he would have been invited to Dre's gf's alumni banquet. It was so funny. Just another example of their synchronicity. And Dre would just smile at the encouraging interruptions. I made them feel welcome by telling them the story of me missing the girl with short hair at the bar that Josh was already at with his parents. They liked the constant expletive I yelled while pounding on the table in front of Josh's parents before even saying hi to them.
After dinner, we spent a while looking for this ping pong bar called Tragarden (circles over the a's). One brother would go quiet for half a minute and the other would sincerely ask if he was alright. The answer was usually, "yeah, yeah, I'm fine, just a bit tired." We had to walk down under a bridge, next to a park, past a huge indoor swimming pool and diving center to get where a hotel staffer told us where it should be. When we finally saw something that had a shuttlecock decal above the door, we figured that was it. But it was closed and a scruff looking older guy with a gray beard who was changing the trash can asked us "Tragarden?" And we said, yeah, do you know where it is? And he said "It's closed." We said, ah, ok, which it clearly was. But then he said, "I'm asking you." And we were like, uh, what? We don't know! Then he just continued to look at us like the conversation wasn't over. We walked away and had a good laugh at that.
We finally seated ourselves at an outdoor bar and Dre bought the beers. We were politely informed by the security guard (all security guards in all bars and clibs have the same uniform) that it closed in ten minutes (midnight, it was Sunday after all). So we quickly had our beer and got a big, nice thumbs up from the security guard when they promptly closed ten minutes later. We were all happy at how well the security guard treated us instead of flexing his power like you'd expect elsewhere. It was a great night and I hope to see the Brothers London real soon.
Anyway, the tour was pretty good because the woman told some good stories. For instance, she told of some kids in an orphanage running 300 meters to the Queen's palace on Gamla Stan and actually getting into the palace to complain about conditions. She didn't know if the queen helped, "but I'd like to think she did. She didn't know how poor conditions were in the city, so it was a surprise to her." Then later she showed the orphanage and palace on a map of the city (built in maybe 1920, but of that time) and the dutch son said, "That distance is 300 meters?" His only question of the tour. Come on, does it really matter? She said maybe 500 m looking at the map. Freaking dutch.
The girl with the dragon tattoo exhibit was super lame. A cheesy Millennium office, some photos of the movies from production, some fake newspaper articles (ok, those were kinda cool, seen below)
and a few maps of locations mentioned in the books. Lame! Totally not worth $15 admission. Still glad I went. I guess even when things are lame I'm glad I did something besides watching Dexter on my phone in the hotel.
Got lunch at a fried herring place with mashed potatoes and pickled cucumbers and lingenberry sauce. It's quite similar to cranberry sauce when it's just from a Costco equivalent. It's not quite as tangy, though. But I likes it.
Then, I finally found a mass in English and so had to make sure I knew where the church was. Turns out it was right by Kungstagarden (The King's Garden) and so I had time to dip into the mall to cruise for super tiny cologne samples. I went into this one very nice men's shop and politely asked if they had cologne samples because I am traveling and did not bring mine. The woman replied "Perfume samples? Yes, of course." And I said, "Yes, cologne." She went over to her drawer and began folding up a tiny little box, and put two little spray bottles in it. She was telling me how they are free and I can even come back tomorrow and get the same thing. She folded another box and put two more in and gave both boxes to me. She said, "There you are, men's perfume." And I laughed at men's perfume. That's like men's eyeliner or something. She said they were their finest samples. Ooo la la! I've yet to try them, but there are pub crawls 5 nights a week here in Helsinki, so I'm sure I will soon.
Mass in English was very nice. It started over ten minutes late, though. It was odd because the pianist welcomed us and asked us to introduce ourselves to one another and then we waited for ten minutes for mass to start late. Oh well. The priest did not try to tame the difficult message of entry to heaven but reminded us that God goes after the ones that leaves. It was great to hear in English!
After that, I met up with the Brothers London from the pub crawl for dinner. The first night I met them, Adrian was saying how they live in different countries (he lives in Whales I think), do different jobs, and have their own identities. He was surprised to hear about the Patterson twins in Sacramento (of course I didn't name them) because I was wondering if he and Andre had gone to school together, worked together, and lived together like the girls. So from Friday night, I kinda got the impression that they wouldn't be as in sync as stereotypical twins. Well, Sunday definitely changed that for me! They are anything but stereotypical; they are great guys and are interested in history and technology and rant and rave about the now ended American show "The Shield". But they are uncannily in sync. Adrian said he had a horrible day and not to even ask him about it. He put his head in his hands and just was looking for a place to eat. So Andre started the story. And Adrian jumped right in to tell it, not mad at Dre at all, even though he just said he didn't want to talk about it.
They had gone kayaking that day and Dre was put in the kayak first and looked good. Adrian didn't take off his jeans despite the fact he had his swim shorts on underneath. Almost as soon as he got in the kayak, he felt water on his shoulder, and he tipped it over. He said he was so close to the shore that he was able to jump out into a tree! Dre was laughing at him saying he heard nothing, then looked back and "How'd you get up there?!" They would constantly interrupt each other with details and constantly rehash things and man, I probably would have decked someone for interrupting me so much, but it is just how they work. It was so funny and interesting! They talk super fast and are always adding to what the other just said. Even corrections that I expected would be taken with a "come on, it doesn't have to be perfect" were accepted and appreciated. I really like these guys. And they jump topics like hop scotch. We would "finish" the kayak story and move on to talking about the differences between LA and London or why Swedish girls are shy and then all the sudden, Adrian would go, "And it's like I said, I can do this, Dre did it, ee's doin foine, and then I'm in the woo-ta!" (water, I dunno if that's exactly how he says it) And I'm laughed again at his predicament but also because I thought the subject was over. And the Dre comes back in to fill in details I already heard. It was awesome. And this happened at least 4 times. Each time a slight detail was added about the event like how hot the Argentinian girl working there was, or how they were overloaded with punters (customers) and that's why they got no training and crappy boats. And so eventually they gave Adrian a kind of paddle boat and he was much better. But Dre would say "Ven I looked back, and saw Adrian on fis fing and I said, 'What you doin on vat?'". I loved it.
They are also super considerate for how much and how fast they talk. When a topic has temporarily run its course, they ask about what I did last night or how the trip has been. They ask because they are curious and to start a new topic of conversation. But since they interrupt each other so much, topics would seem to get lost. But they don't let them. They always figure out what street we're on or of that bar is good ("nah, it's crap") and then immediately say, "I'm sorry, we were talking about..." and then they pick up right where they left off.
We had dinner at a traditional Swedish restaurant run by Asians. The food was great, but we were all a little confused by the staff (#racism). I got chunk of steak with potatoes and good mustard and horse radish. Adrian got a seafood soup that was just what he needed after that day. I mean, one minute I'm telling myself, I can do this, and then the next minute, literally! the next minute, I'm in the water! And I had my crappy phone and Dre's good phone in my pockets and now Dre's phone won't turn on! Dre got the halibut and prawns and loved it. We all took happy pictures with our meals.
We talked about The Shield a lot. The guys love it, absolutely brilliant. They said it makes you deal with all the real stuff happening, no sugar coating. They said The Wire was more watered down and careful but it was shown at prime time on BBC 2. The Shield was shown on channel 5 at 11 pm on a Tuesday and didn't get enough viewers to support a showing of the final season. They had to catch it on their own. I saw the first episode years ago with Dan, loved it, and didn't watch a thing more. I definitely will start it up.
Adrian told me how Dre is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (spelling?) when it comes to alcohol. He said his eyes go in different directions and he is a different person. He had Dre tell me a tame story. Here it is:
Dre went to an alumni dinner with his at the time girlfriend at her very highly regarded English college (I unfortunately can't remember the name). The brothers have Italian and Chinese blood, but grew up in London and fittingly call themselves British. But he said his girlfriend's friends kept asking him things like, "Is English your second language?" and "So you don't have any English blood?" He was surprised they dwelled on this when he was clearly British. (They said British is your nationality where English is your ethnicity) He had a few more drinks and was very surprised to hear the president of the alumni (an old distinguished gent) to make a jab at the Irish (I think). He thought it was a very odd that this very prestigious school could be so old school in their views on ethnicity. So after a few more drinks, he loudly exclaimed, "You're all bigots!" and then said he looked around and then thought, "yes, I'm glad I said that!" It was a great story and many times through it, Adrian said, "Ooo, wait till you hear this!" or "ere it comes, ere it comes!" making it seem JUST like he was there. But there was no way he would have been invited to Dre's gf's alumni banquet. It was so funny. Just another example of their synchronicity. And Dre would just smile at the encouraging interruptions. I made them feel welcome by telling them the story of me missing the girl with short hair at the bar that Josh was already at with his parents. They liked the constant expletive I yelled while pounding on the table in front of Josh's parents before even saying hi to them.
After dinner, we spent a while looking for this ping pong bar called Tragarden (circles over the a's). One brother would go quiet for half a minute and the other would sincerely ask if he was alright. The answer was usually, "yeah, yeah, I'm fine, just a bit tired." We had to walk down under a bridge, next to a park, past a huge indoor swimming pool and diving center to get where a hotel staffer told us where it should be. When we finally saw something that had a shuttlecock decal above the door, we figured that was it. But it was closed and a scruff looking older guy with a gray beard who was changing the trash can asked us "Tragarden?" And we said, yeah, do you know where it is? And he said "It's closed." We said, ah, ok, which it clearly was. But then he said, "I'm asking you." And we were like, uh, what? We don't know! Then he just continued to look at us like the conversation wasn't over. We walked away and had a good laugh at that.
We finally seated ourselves at an outdoor bar and Dre bought the beers. We were politely informed by the security guard (all security guards in all bars and clibs have the same uniform) that it closed in ten minutes (midnight, it was Sunday after all). So we quickly had our beer and got a big, nice thumbs up from the security guard when they promptly closed ten minutes later. We were all happy at how well the security guard treated us instead of flexing his power like you'd expect elsewhere. It was a great night and I hope to see the Brothers London real soon.
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