Sweden

Well I seem to be spending my time writing journal entries and letters home rather than entries on this blog. Here's a photo journal of my fabulous stay in Stockholm the last week and half.

Me Old Town Stockholm in a cute little square with a marvelous tree.

Lots of statues in Stockholm. Here's George Slaying the Dragon in Old town Stockholm.

I was so fortunate to stay at Jan and Lissa Goransson's centrally located flat the first few days in Stockholm. Here is the view from the back deck. I met Jan and Lisa's daughter, Kristina, dancing tango in Portland. She lives in Providence with her partner and was an artist in residence last year at Oregon School of Arts and Craft. But I digress... Kristina, Jan and Lissa: Thank your generosity it made a BIG difference my first days in Stockholm.

The street markets are full of colorful foods.

Most of the time I was in Stockholm I stayed at Maja Aberg's place in Lilla Essingen which she very generously made available to me while she was traveling in Arizona for 10 days. My battery ran out before I could get a picture of Maja Aberg, but here is a photo of her talking on her cell phone (sorry Aberg) with an old school ecoroof in the background. This is at Skansen, an open air museum, in the Djurgarden.

Stockholm is quite dense but it has lots of greenspace too, here juxtaposed dramatically along Lake Malaren.

The Nordic Museum in the Djurgarden (big park east of downtown). Check out the canoes.

The Swedes have a history of building these mini "garden houses," a small summer cottage on a fairly large piece of cultivated garden. There are places right in Stockholm where you can see them. This shot was taken in Skansen, the open air museum in the Djurgarden. I think Eli and Orange Splott would be inspired by these little homes.

This is a fabulous church in South Stockholm. That night there was a free concert in the adjacent park and seven hot air balloons floating overhead. Pretty dreamy.

The last few nights I was in Stockholm I spent time with Jan Semenza, his wife Christina and their 10-month old son Pelle. They were great and opened my eyes to a lot of great things in Stockholm... most of which I will have to come back to see.

July 28-August 2 I attended a great tango festival in Stockholm. Very fun. I was matched with a great partner Ingrid Berthe, a good match so we got a lot out of our classes. I met a fabulous new friend, Heike Luu, and we had many good dances and an outing or two. Heike is from Marburg, Germany and has a passion for many types of dance, especially some kind of Norwegian dance that I want to learn more about.

Saturday August 1st was the big grand ball dance in this super-elegant dance hall, shown here the day after (they didn't allow photos at the Milonga. I danced until 3AM (thanks to some encouragement from Heike Luu) and had a BLAST!

More lounging at Lilla Essingen. I have posted more photos of Lilla Essingen on my facebook page.

Sunset at Slussen, Stockholm!