Thankfully, the run went very well considering I rarely run solo in other countries by myself. But I knew it was safe, and if I got lost, free wifi was abundant and I could always call Rich. A few pics of my run that morning:
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Best part of running up north? You don't need to get up at 4am to get a cool run in! You can WAKE UP AT ANY HOUR of the day and run and not be hot!!! Imagine that craziness!!! By 6am in Hawaii I'm already a sopping puddle on the verge of needing an IV line inserted from dehydration.
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| The best view of our 'hood from a park near the house. I didn't tell Rich I was going to veer off to park, since we all know parks are only patronized by two segments of the population- screaming children and crack whores. And although I don't particularly enjoy the company of either...I also know they'll generally leave the sweaty, middle-aged Asian lady with orange hair alone, so I felt safe. |
As I should have predicted, this was the least productive run I've ever attempted. I stopped every 5 minutes and took pictures, which required this process each time: remove gloves, unzip phone out of case, take seven photos, delete six, put gloves back on, zip back up phone, out gloves back on, repeat. So after two hours, when I should have run about 11 miles, I'd run a grand total of...six. So I freaked out and went back to King's Garden so I could frantically do laps around the park without distraction.
Once that was done, we all trekked up to the library, or as they call it- Stadsbiblioteket, to check out the rounded, Neoclassical design of the building/shelves. I'd done recon that morning on my run and confirmed it was only a quarter mile away from our house.
The building was built in the earlier 1900s, opening in 1928. And don't let the rounded shelves fool you as being more form than function...the library still holds over 2,000,000 volumes, and was one of the first libraries in the world to have open shelves, where patrons could find/select books on their own (prior to that, you needed staff to select the books for you).
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| What I'd missed, however, that Ryan's eagle-eye spied, was a small park right next to the library that had a zipline. |
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| The outside of the library |
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| Stunning rotunda, isn't it? It looks like a surreal, upscale bookstore...not a nearly 100-year old library. |
On the day that we strolled in, there was an event going on, with a Swedish woman doing an impassioned reading of what I imagine, was her novel. But truthfully, with my Swedish level, she could have been reading an issue of Playgirl...so who really knows?
After spending about an hour there, we walked over the nearest subway stop (the one and only time we rode it while there) and started our subway art tour. There are roughly 110 subway/metro stations in the city, and 90 of them have been commissioned by an artist to design. Many of them reflect what is above ground... I had googled the top ten most spectacular, and narrowed it down a bit. I was surprised to see that every station we saw still had the roughly hewn rock when the subway was built- it's not covered up with dry wall or tile.
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| My favorite subway station was the Solna Centrum. It appeared to very clearly be an ode to science and the universe, and is located near a university that specializes in the scientific disciplines. |
The second stop on our tour was King's garden (Kungstradgarden)...and again, this subway had mosaic-like artwork that appeared to reflect the actual gardens above ground.
The third station we chose was the main, central station in town, called T-Centralen. It's on the blue line, so many believe the artist's selection of blue was not a coincidence. And because it's the busiest station, the simple design is meant to be both simple and soothing to the masses huddled together each day.
When we first got off the metro there it was quite crowded, so I reminded everyone to keep an eye on their belongings and to zipper up their pockets, as pickpockets tend to congregate in crowded subway stations. Ryan, who carries no valuables and knows this, loudly said, "Well they BETTER NOT steal my Tic Tacs!" and protectively covered his pockets. And maybe because he's my son, I thought that was hysterical. (Even better- no one separated him from his Tic-Tacs that day.)
A number of stations also have the coolest elevator lights, hands down...
Our fourth station was Tekniska Hogskolan, which is near a scientific-technology institute:
And I think we saved the best station for last- Stadion. This line is near the annual Pride Festival, so I think/hope the artist's rainbow rendering of a rainbow is a nod to diversity and love.
Our final stop of the day was an early dinner in Gamla at this historic restaurant called Ruth de Mare...it did not disappoint! We started off with a full, gluten-filled bread basket with sheets of nutty lavosh and fresh butter, then we made an exception to our usual meat-free meals so we could sample the local cuisine. I had the Swedish meatballs with lingonberries and picked cucumber, and Rich had seafood cakes. Utsokt!!! Ry nibbled on the bread, pronounced himself 'stuffed' and said he couldn't eat another bite, then went back to the apartment and ate chips. So you know, a typical night for him... ;-)
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