A friend, who I met a few years back through mutual acquaintances, is living back in Stockholm. We made plans to catch up at lunch time today. In addition to that I wanted to go to the top of the city hall tower. The rest of the day was fluid.

I organised myself to get to city hall by 9:00am. They only sell tickets to the tower on the day and there is a strict limit of 30 people per tour. My intention was to get on the earliest tour possible, but while walking to city hall I noticed the sun was still quite low in the east. It would have made it very difficult to photograph the part of the city I most wanted to. I decided to buy a ticket for later in the day instead.

Ticket purchased, I had some time to spare before heading off to meet Adam. I wandered a bit around Gamla Stan looking for souvenirs. Which reminds me, I hope people aren't expecting any post cards from me. With this blog they seem a bit redundant. For morning tea I purchased a delicious almond bun from a bakery in Gamla Stan. From Gamla Stan I had a good view of city hall.

i wanted to make sure I was on time to meet Adam so I headed to the central station to catch the metro. While I was there I checked out where I would need to go tomorrow when I catch the train to Oslo. I caught the metro to Telefonplan. It's further out than I had previously been and it was interesting to see the difference.

It was great to be able to chat with the delightful Adam and hear about everything he's up to. He's a co-founder/co-organiser of the Stockholm Fringe. But time flies and before I knew it, it was time to let Adam get back to work and me back into the city.

I made it to city hall in plenty of time before my tour so I took some photos of the building. Until today I had only seen it from a distance and it seemed a bit monolithic and harsh. Up close I saw another side.

There were just over 300 steps to the top of the tower. It was definitely a work out. But the steps were much easier to navigate than the tower in Copenhagen. The view was worth it.

By the time the tour was over I decided to head back. I was going to see something at 6:00pm that Adam had suggested and I wanted some time to regroup. By the time I got on the metro it was packed. At each stop I was getting squeezed closer and closer to the centre. I could see it was going to be difficult to get off at my stop. When we arrived I could have pushed through but, as I wasn't in any hurry, I decided to stay on the train until it thinned out a bit. I got to see some more of the outer areas of Stockholm. I ended up getting off only a few stops past mine and a return train came soon after.

The event Adam suggested is difficult to describe. Read this link if you're interested. http://www.darkmountain.se/en/the-village-the-forest-may/ It was certainly thought provoking and I'm glad I went. Climate change was the theme and some of the discussion actually connected with thoughts I'd had at the Other Worlds exhibition in London. What is nature? Does it exist on the other planets of the solar system? Are we destroying nature or are we just destroying our particular vision of nature? Will nature rebalance and go on without us? Would nature still exist in a lifeless earth?

It wasn't a late night though. I'm just sitting in bed now writing this. Tomorrow I catch the train to Oslo.

A change of pace