Stockholm is a small city when compared to the urban sprawl of most metropolises. Sweden's capital city is packed with personality, though. My cousin, Tina, acted as tour guide as I hit some of the highlights of the city that I had previously missed. Although I had been a tourist, plus one (shout out Seth!), not more than a few weeks ago, it was raining and I was jet-lagged so I missed a couple of things to see here. One thing that I missed was an area called Gamla Stan, which is Stockholm's old town. Tina and I walked around the narrow medieval type streets and had coffee in the town square. Tina and I both enjoy people watching and town squares are always a prime location.
Gamla Stan has a constant flow of people and they are all tourists, save for the workers. I always like figuring out which group of people is a tour group. These are always easy to find because they are always holding up some random object so that their group can identify them as the guide. Some hold up umbrellas, some hats, others hold up a shoe, or a bouquet of flowers. If all those sound like a bunch of random shit to hold up, well it is. I have no idea why someone who is a professional tour guide wants to identify themselves to their customers by using whatever they grabbed on the way out of the door, but they do. If I were a tour guide I would have a bunch of those aluminum balloons made with my face on them, maybe even a thumbs up for good measure. Unfortunately I'm not a tour guide. I could still get the balloons made, though, just for good measure.
After we touched on our Stockholm sightseeing Tina was nice enough to take me to a soccer game. It was awesome. As we turned the corner I got my first glimpse of European soccer fans. The pubs surrounding the stadium were packed with soon to be drunk soccer (football on this side of the pond) fans. Everyone had their team colors on, having a good time waiting to go into the game. We stepped into the stadium and took our seats, six rows up from the grass. The game started a bit slow but ended with a bang as it was tied, then AIK, the team we were rooting for, scored a last minute goal to win the game.
The actual sporting event is only half the experience, though. There is a section of a few hundred guys that chant and sing the entire game. I was impressed that they were able to keep it up for the whole 90 minutes. They even had a huge bass drum. I always wonder how guys get drums by security, but I'm guessing security just waves them through figuring that if the guy with the bass drum does something illegal it will be easy to find him, on a count of the bass drum. Sports fans in the stands at sporting events are just the best. Sometimes I think people are rabid sports fans just so they have an excuse to curse loudly, drink ridiculous amounts of beer, and have a reason to drink ridiculous amounts of beer before 5pm on a Saturday. Whatever the reason may be, sports fans are some of the best people to observe in their natural habitat. The game was a great way to round out my tour of Stockholm.
No comments:
Post a Comment