How to spend 48 hours in Stockholm (abridged)

July 31, 2005

Rhian Salmon paid Stockholm a visit this week in a futile quest to use up the vacation allowance she accrued during her 18 months on Halley, Antarctica. She and fellow Antarctician Liz had just gone on "holiday" by mistake: Crossing the Baltic in a 21-foot sloop without engine or GPS in one of that sea's rainier weeks in living memory. They seemed to have enjoyed it, perhaps by channeling Shackleton, but were eager to hit Stockholm town.

Liz on the left, Rhian on the right.

There is definitely a circuit for showing Stockholm to visitors with time constraints. We went to Pelikan the first night, where I ran into my friend James the expat ER doctor, who was entertaining family friends in exactly the same manner. Pelikan has three things going for it: It serves great honest Swedish food, the locale is an old-school classic, and it shuns pretence. Ironically, in Stockholm, this can also mean there is room.

Over raw herring appetizers and Skåne snaps, Rhian told some flattering news: Beaver Me First, that masterpiece of a short film which Matthew and I had made back in 2002, turns out to have had a public showing in addition to the première — on Antarctica, no less, in front of 16 Halley base winterers. They had been enthusiastic, apparently — as would be anyone if the alternative is watching The Thing for the twelfth time, but why parse compliments overly?

The next night, nearer to home at Lokal, we discovered why it is unlikely the Kungsholmare cocktail will ever take off. The bartender couldn't/wouldn't make it for us, as it included vodka and pear cider, both of which are alcoholic, and this apparently presented a problem. He had fewer qualms selling us the ingredients separately, so we ordered pear cider with a dash of lime cordial and a shot of vodka on the side. It made for a rather expensive drink, however. Best to try this at home, then.

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