Accomodations

For the first week and a half, I was staying at the Master Johan, an excellent hotel right next to Lila Torg in the middle of the city. I had a great room that had a little living area and a nice big bathroom. I got used to the nice big breakfasts every morning. In sweden breakfast is a little different. A big part of te spread consists of different breads on which to stack a wide variety of cold cuts, mostly types of salami and bologna. there are also some more exotic toppings including caviar (it comes in a toothpaste tube) and of course picked herring. I still haven't had the nerve to try that yet. definitely have not been interested in having it my my morning coffee. Anyway, Anneli at the office was tasked with finding me an apartment and she succeeded in finding me a furnished apartment in Varnhemstorget. It's a really busy part of town with lots of shops and restaurants. My apartment is 85 sq meters and that is very large for apartment size here.

Here is a shot of half of my living room. I'm sitting on the yellow couch now writing this. Nice open floor plan with hard wood floors.

Here we have the bedroom. On the left (out of the frame) there are several cabinets to hang and stack clothes. on the right is the tv (I get all of seven channels and 2 of them are the same. Only one channel is consistently english. I get lots of opportunites to watch cbs sitcoms like New Adventures of old Christine (with Elaine from Seinfeld) and another one with Putty from Seinfeld. Hopefully that scenario will help to keep this blog updated, lots more reading and keep me out discovering the city.

Here is the kitchen. Pretty standard stuff. Not a lot of pots and pans to cook with but i sould be able to get by.

There's no garbage disposal in the sink, and from what I can tell they are not very common in Sweden at all.

Here's a shot of the rest of the kitchen. The views are great from all the windows in the apartment but this one looks right down one of the major roads and you can see everyone commuting. There are pedestrians and cyclists everywhere.

The neighborhood around the apratment is very nice. The square is right across from my apt and behind that is the beginning of Kungsgarten, which is a long narrow park that runs through the city. It's certainly no central park but it is a nice place to walk with lots of trees. There are a number of parks throughout the city and there is a very cool cemetary just a few blocks away from me. I wandered through there for a while this evening and read for about an hour. Lots of old (and suprisingly new) headstones. Seemed like a lot of family plots with multiple...residents. :-) I didn't explore too much but the oldest headstone I found was from the late 1800's.

I think that's about all I've got in me for this evening. Cubbies are playing an afternoon game in Colorado that is just starting now. Think I'll watch a few innings of that on the web and then head to bed.

More to come soon.

Greg