Copenhagen was an average city in my opinion. It was pretty but not stunning, large but not big and above all it was cool but not fun. I will admit, after a seventeen hour train ride that is delayed due to engine failure for two hours, one is always going to be underwhelmed but Copenhagen just didn't seem like it was trying.
Sweden on the other hand was a vastly different story. I bailed on my Danish experience that was as bland as their cheeses a day early and went to stay with Edward Browne, a friend from my old EC days. He showed me the sites of a pretty little university town in southern Sweden called Lund while we caught up on five missed years. This was all rounded off by a Mexican dinner with his friends and a movie called 'The Thing' (a dreadful 80's B-grade horror. I want those two hours of my life refunded.) The next day I was bound for my Cousins place in Örbyhus (Orbi-hoos), about an hour north of Stockholm. Matt showed me the sites of rural Sweden which was a fantastic change from all the cites I have been staying in. I was also immersed in the culinary culture of Sweden by means of a Kabab Pizza called 'Spezcial Viking' (pretty much a pizza base fashioned to resemble a boat... kinda, then filled with kabab goods) and a glass of Coco-Cola that had a distinct cinnamon character on the palate and a slight menthol bouquet. The match was fantastic but the beverage only scores a thirteen out of twenty due to lack of complexity and potential bottle development. After this Matt suggested I sample some of the Baltic sea and warily I obliged but was surprised to find it predominately fresh! When you think about it there is a perfectly good reason for that. Look at a map. Having sampled the coasts brackish fare we headed home.
It was good to think of somewhere as home, even if it was only for a couple of days.
With an initially heavy heart I headed down to Stockholm for a couple of days and checked out what the city had to offer. Compared to Copenhagen this place was a veritable orgy of entertainment. I went and saw a four hundred year old ship, the Royal Armory and Crown Jewels then stumbled into a multinational food market and finished the evening with two Canadians taking me out for a good time and failing, then two Germans taking me out and succeeding admirably. The next day I had breakfast with my old boss at a Stockholm cafe, lunch at about thirty five thousand feet and dinner with two friends in Paris.
I'm feeling very Global.
