Stockholm Surprise...

Today was a delightful day in Sweden with a little unexpected ending. I couldn't take advantage really of the outcome, but I did what I could while I had the time and energy. I got out in the early afternoon today because of an early rehearsal we had for our upcoming show. We went off into old town, Gamla Stan, and enjoyed lunch at this restaurant my friend Trisha and I enjoyed last year in the Baltic. This restaurant was in an old prison. We all got the daily special, which turned out to be pretty cheap. We strolled around all the familiar areas before deciding to head back to the ship. Before heading out this afternoon there was a strong chance that we'd be here overnight in Stockholm due to bad weather. Bad weather did keep us in. It turns out there were gale force winds out in the Baltic area so it would be hard to navigate the channels of Stockholm and we wouldn't get to tender into port tomorrow in Kalmar due to rough waters. We got the official word later this evening and everyone started to make plans. It turns out it could be an expensive evening since there seems to be or is rumored to be a 92% tax on alcohol and most places have huge cover charges and are far distances away requiring huge fares on cab rides. Someone said a good evening out could cost one in the midst of $200 - $300 for fun. I wasn't too keen on that and got invited out by a friend to meet with his friend from high school. Imagine that. He had a friend here from high school. She was going to bring a friend and there would be 4 of us. We met her and it turns out her friend couldn't make it, so then there were 3. Oh well. I bummed along anyway. We went up to this area on the side of this hill that was overlooking the city. It was in Sodermalm, which is the southern portion of the city. She was interested in our way of life on board as were we about her life as an American here in Sweden for the past 7 years. They enjoyed a drink and I a coffee since it was the night before our live show. The jazz music started wafting out from the inside café just down the way. The scene here was bustling. There were people everywhere milling about and enjoying the warmer evening. It was also a Wednesday here, which I guess is a mini Saturday for them. It seemed just as busy as a weekend night. We went into the café where the jazz music emanated out of and sat down for a spell. It was fabulous. There were 5 young musicians just tearing up the stage on bone, sax, drums, upright bass, and piano. It was smooth jazz and the environment was reminiscent of this old coffee house on my college campus. They had time to catch up a bit while I enjoyed the music, a glass of wine, and an intense chess game happening right next to me with timers and everything. Out beyond the stage you could see the sun setting over the city skyline through the large windows. It was divine and I reached a moment of pure happiness. We stayed a while and enjoyed the atmosphere before heading out for the evening. It got chilly all of a sudden. The weather is so freaky here. It even rained on and off throughout the day and temps went up and down as it did. We walked through the area down the hill where we parted with his friend for the night. It was around midnight when we left her and we decided to walk through town a bit. We were both exhausted, so we headed back to the ship. I started to feel a tickle in my throat again because of the cold air and we decided to head in. Sad day that there was an overnight with a morning departure and we couldn't take advantage of it since we partied so hard over the weekend. All these port days as well just add to the exhaustion. It was still an unexpected pleasure to have a night out in Stockholm.