Palaces and Deer Meat in Stockholm

July 4, 2009

Gamla Stan is one of the islands — the central and longest-inhabited one — that makes up Stockholm. The royal palace is there, along with myriad medieval buildings. I love medieval buildings. America has none of them. Initially, I was delighted by all the narrow, winding cobblestone streets, the tiny alleyways, and the heavy wooden doors suitable only for those under four foot eleven:

Soon, though, I realized that a great many buildings from, say, 1500 had been turned into kitchy souvenir stores and we-knit-this-reindeer-sweater-ourselves boutiques. Can’t keep a bunch of medieval buildings unchanged forever, I suppose. But it’s bizarre to look past a bunch of yarn or plates featuring photos of King Carl XVI Gustav and see an arch before a wall of large, roughly-hewn exposed brick or stone, and think … damn.

This medieval building has been turned into a store that sells women’s clothing from India. In the basement, below multitudinous batik dresses, Indian furniture is for sale in the “vaults”:

This is the lunch I ate. Prittypana consists of diced potatoes and beef, which one then makes more exciting by the addition of that egg yolk you see here:

A lot of restaurants have “kok” in their names. (I inferred from having seen the word on both bars and home furnishings stores that it means “kitchen”). A ten year old could laugh all day at the many instances of “kok,” “fart” and “vag.”

This man’s job is to guard the Swedish royal palace from tourists, possibly by distracting them with his hat.

This man must protect the cannons from tourists. In a game of Rock Scissors Paper refitted as Swedish Royal Guardsmen, Tourist, Cannon, what would trump what?

This looked like a nice, boring legend on the office door of some kind of company. Except it says “Important Looking Pirates.” Which is, um, awesome.

Me near the palace in Gamla Stan.

The wind is blowing my hair in a slightly different direction in this one.

Oh, and I ate reindeer for dinner. In sauce. With potatoes. After a herring appetizer and before a strudel. So if Santa doesn’t come this year, you know whom to blame.

Posted by jen | Filed Under Jen says, Sweden 

Comments

One Response to “Palaces and Deer Meat in Stockholm”

  1. J.D. Finch on July 10th, 2009 3:10 am

    “I love medieval buildings. America has none of them.”

    I LOLed.

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