I was in Stockholm recently.
Will write about it more later.
But there is this one thing that stood out at this trip.
It brought in new people into my life and I became fond of them and call them my friends now.
Nice, isn't it?
We were on a training, for about a month, at KEMI.
And we all are very much different.
Not to mention bunch of women spending days and nights together.
And we all are from Balkans.
Meaning: opinionated, speaking before thinking and making jokes about anything.
We loved spending time together.
Each one of us got a tiny little flat at 2Home Apartments.
I was the luckiest one.
My flat was on the 9th floor with great view of Solna, next to the big terrace, laundry and sauna.
Meaning I always had someone to chit chat to until they would come up to me from their 2nd and 5th floor :).
What I liked the most about this little group was the thing that we respected our differences.
We would choose routs to go to after a day at KEMI and you could tag along if you want or not.
And no one would hold it against you.
And we just met actually at the airport in Belgrade.
Later in the evening, we would meet at the terrace or sauna and exchange highlights of our day.
Sipping wine or beer, laughing like crazy.
Priceless.
You should know that I do not like shopping tours.
Am not a big fan of clubs or bars like I used to be.
Not much fond of staying in hotels too.
And after a long day, I like to watch a movie, sipping wine
OR
I take a walk.
Since I was abroad, option number one was not acceptable.
That specific day I have decided to go for a walk down the Gamla Stan.
I love old parts of big cities.
I was at Gamla Stan many times on this trip,
but the idea of looking for the narrowest street just came up to me one evening.
Girls were like 'Are you mad? It is dark.'
'So what. This is Stockholm not Mexico City' was my first thought.
Mårten Trotzigs gränd (Mårten Trotzigs alley).
Very difficult to find actually.
Though my map was really great.
Gamla Stan at evening is REALLY empty.
Just a rare few souls you come across.
And few groups of tourists on Ghost walks.
Looking at these photos I took, it looks maybe unpleasant to walk since it is narrow and dark BUT to tell you the truth I did not feel uncomfortable.
Even though I was alone.
And no, I did not manage to find that narrow street by myself.
I had a little help by a fellow traveler.
Perfect timing one might say.
Or lucky coincidence it was.
The fellow traveler was sort of looking for one church and I was looking for that street.
Turned out I just passed the church and this traveler was accidentally at that street a few minutes ago :).
We decided we go for a walk together.
Funny walk that was.
It took me ages to guess what country this traveler comes from.
Great accent with mellow rrrs.
In a few minutes we were at the Mårten Trotzigs gränd.
Nothing spectacular.
Graffiti.
Not too narrow actually.
Well, I must say I prefer southern old cities.
Narrow streets of Dubrovnik or Rovinj or any Sicilian old town.
But somehow I grew to like THIS narrow street.
At Gamla Stan.
For one reason.
Shel Silverstein pointed that out in this short poem Masks.
You should try to keep an open mind always.
Most of us live a very busy life.
This trip reminded me how great it is when you relax, take some time and let people in.
They might bring in something new
or
you get to know someone quite similar to you.
One thing I am sure of is that they both will bring in variety.
And you all know that saying
'Variety is the spice of life.'
But do be prepared to slap some hands if you want things to be done your way.
..........
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