Nordic Christmas

It was definitely feeling more and more like Christmas was just around the corner.  Everywhere Phil and I went, there were more decorations and more and more people were dressed for the "festive season".  We decided we wanted to join in with some of the fun, so we made a reservation at a specialty restaurant that was doing "Julebord", which is pretty much just the Christmas version of a Swedish smorgasbord.  We wandered off to a bizarre former prison island, got lost, then eventually found the Julebord restaurant.  Inside, the place was filled with Swedes wearing Christmas sweaters, enjoying one another's company whilst politely eating their fill of the limitless food.  We were surprised by how polite and well mannered they all were given the nature of the meal.  Phil and I clearly didn't have the patience or the class of these Swedes as we attacked the food.  Our old boarding school mentality was still with us and having "unlimited food" in front of us seemed to trigger a response to test the limits of that claim.  The food itself didn't seem to be anything special.  There was a Scandinavian tilt towards it all and I've definitely never seen so much herring in one place at one time.  Still for the price of it all, I didn't think it was worth it other than to add to the list of experiences I've had.

We spent the rest of our time in Stockholm walking around and exploring.

Outside of the old town of Gamla Stan, Stockholm is a mix of historic old buildings and newer buildings that are probably best described as "modern brutalist".  There's a lot of concrete and a lot of steel.  Even some of the public walkways displayed this sleek and abrupt form of architecture.

As much as that look may appeal to some people, it was definitely the older style that I found nicer to look at.

The Christmas decorations definitely added to the atmosphere.  I felt the Christmas mood everywhere I went.  I've always loved Christmas, so this was very welcome to me.  The streets weren't yet covered in snow, but it was already more than cold enough for us to start enjoying some of the festive activities.

In the centre of town, a small Christmas market had been constructed.  We gathered around small fires, we ate the cakes, drank the glug and wandered through the shops looking at the strange traditional Swedish toys that were synonymous with Christmas and the region.  I often think of Christmas as being a fairly generic holiday for all, but the reality is that to this day, even in our globalised world, there are still many traditions for Christmas which are unique to different regions.  Here in Sweden, during Christmas they celebrate with little "Christmas trolls", which are bizarre little troll dolls which only appear during Christmas.  I'm sure there's a deeper meaning to them, but it was completely lost on me.

In the middle of everything was a large ice skating rink.

Kids dashed around with a confidence that neither of us had.  It made me wonder how different we would have been if we had been brought up in this environment instead of in Australia.