Cafe String and a Visit to the Embassy

What’s that quote… I keep getting older, the high school girls stay the same?

That’s sort of how I feel right now. I’m writing from the venerable Cafe String. Anybody who has been to Stockholm with me knows String is sort of a favorite of mine. It is a rather unappetizing cafe full of used furniture and high schoolers in vintage clothes. Still, I can’t help myself. They have couches and free wireless access. The place was probably 10 or 15 years old back when I was in high school and well, that’s 10 or 15 years ago by now. I saw a girl I could have sworn was my friend Ellen, then realized she probably looks 10 years younger than the real Ellen. Weird.

(Clicking the photo will take you to my Flickr set for this trip)

The weather just keeps on being wonderful. I spent the weekend meandering across Stockholm by foot and on bike meeting various people for coffee and drinks. If I could export all my friends to New York life would truly be perfect. For me at least.

This morning I had my appointment to apply for a visa at the U.S. embassy (I have the work permit but need a new entry visa.) Always an odd experience. The embassy is a heavily fortified brutalist cold war structure by Gärdet. You wait on line on the sidewalk for 1.5 hour to clear security (no cell phones or other electronics allowed). Then you come in, wait on one line, hand over your stuff, sit on another line and eventually get called up to a window. A uniquely American style of bureaucracy. Not saying Swedish bureaucracy is less maddening, just different. Swedish bureaucracy has no air-conditioning, pastel walls and “nummer lappar” (numbered tickets).

This evening I am having dinner at Maria’s and Pelle’s in Hökarängen. Tomorrow I take the late evening train to Lund. I’m supposed to be working on an article there so perhaps I will have more exciting stuff to tell in a few days.

Hasta Luego