Look at this amazing fika with a view! What is fika you might wonder? Look it up, it is basically a Swedish ritual that (usually) involves coffee or tea and something to eat. This fika I had at Fjällgatans Kaffestuga. If you want an amazing view of Stockholm and some fika go there or to Hermans.
Afterwards me and Carmen took a long walk.....we walked and walked and talked. I have known her since I was seven.
We hopped on a ferry from one end of town to the other, a free ferry. Kind of a fun thing to do. There are plenty of options to go out on ferrys around Stockholm or further out in the archipelago and explore the many islands......or get on a larger boat and go to Gotland where Pippi's house is amongst other things. That is something I need to do more of, explore the amazing archipelago. Perhaps next time I come here.
Check out this comic that supposedly was in some Tokyo newspaper. (I found it on Reddit).
Ok....let's see, I would much rather have a latte or a coffee than a soda (in this case Pepsi) and I am currently typing away on a Mac laptop although my very first PC was a HP desktop but since that first computer I have stuck with Apple. I am more of a rainbow flag march person than a church going person. So according to this comic I must be a democrat.
Some background, I was not born in the US, I am not a US citizen so therefore I cannot vote here. Had I been able to vote in the upcoming 2024 presidential election I would hands down without any hesitation vote for my man Bernie Sanders but wait, Bernie is not running so I would vote .....drumroll......DEMOCRAT.
Let me explain why. And most likely I will lose readers now (and that is OK) because a large amount of people are so very divided here in the US on this topic, like you are either a democrat or a republican. Well I am a HUMAN first of all, my identity is not a political party. I float around on the political spectrum but I know what I am for and what I am against. I have friends that are republican, friends that are democrat and friends that don't stand for much politically and we manage to get along. I don't like how polarized US society is, how much division there is. It is dangerous and unhealthy.
We all know by now that a 20 year old kid tried to take out Trump during a political rally. The bullet grazed Trump's ear and in his own words, he was "fine". One person in the crowd died, very tragic. Plus the shooter. Then Biden withdrew from from the presidential race. Which probably took a lot. So I admire him for that. Right now it looks like it is Kamala Harris and Donald Trump that will be battling for the votes. At this point I do not care who is the nominee for the Democratic Party, I would vote for anyone representing the democrats because I do not think that Trump should be in the White House. There are plenty of high ranking republicans and conservatives as well that oppose of him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Republicans_who_oppose_the_Donald_Trump_2024_presidential_campaign
Does this mean that these individual would vote blue? I don't know. I know that the debates between Harris and Trump will most likely be thrilling. In case you do not know, Harris used to be a prosecutor.
I do not like how Trump has mocked Kamala's name, so arrogant. I do not like how Trump encouraged the January 6th attack (coup attempt) on the Capitol. One police officer tragically died that day doing his job, so many officers were injured and four commited suicide within a year. Shameful. Those people that rabidly ran around the Capitol looking for Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence and were excited to cause destruction walk amongst us in society, that is insanity. I do not like the MAGA crowd that to me come across as unhinged bullies. I do not like individuals like Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert. I do not like how the wife of the man that passed away at the Trump rally mentioned above refused a phonecall from Biden with the explanation that "I didn’t talk to Biden. I didn’t want to talk to him. My husband was a devout Republican and he would not have wanted me to talk to him.” Like ??? This mindset to me is scary. What did Biden do to you and your deceased husband? Some republicans were quick to announce that it was somehow Biden's fault that Trump got shot. Mentally unstable people listen to that, believe it and that can lead to bad stuff. When Paul Pelosi got attacked inside his own house by a far right conspiracy theorist that beat him with a hammer Trump thought it was funny. There are many more I do not like Trump examples that I can think of. These reasons and more is why I am would vote democrat. Women's reproductive rights are important to me as well.
Back in 2016 when Trump won the then election I was ok with him as president until he started acting out in ways that I do not agree with. I am sure Trump has a nice side to him in private at home with his children, around friends but another four years of Trump in the White House? Absolutely not. It is enough, just go away and take MAGAs with you.
The other day I visisted Skogskyrkogården (Woodland Cemetery), a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a beautiful place to visit and relax the pace for a while.
I walked around and looked at tombstones, statues of angels, admired an interesting gate, saw Greta Garbo's grave and there is a visitor center with a giftshop, café and an exhibition (not open year round though). You can't help but reflect on life, death and the afterlife or lack of thereof when spending hours at a cemetery.
Resurrection Statue.
Angel of Death by sculptor Carl Milles.
An interesting keyhole.
This gate is intriguing to me, it's located inside the Woodland Chapel which was locked so I took the picture through a small window in the door. The giftshop at the visitor center sells a poster of the gate. There is something about the skulls with the snakes underneath them.
My personal thoughts on death.....Death scares me because it is the unknown. I dread the day somebody I am close to passes away. I do not want to go through that, again. I experienced one huge loss once and I think about that daily and it hurts.
I do not want to be here on Earth again, one life is enough for me. Just like the Buddhist believe, existence is a cycle of life, death, rebirth and suffering and to me being alive is to suffer so I do not want to suffer another lifetime, or even worse over and over again in samsara.
How do I suffer you might ask? I am extremely grateful that I have food, water, shelter, clothes, health, everything that I have but I get sad everyday when I see and read about human behavior. I get sad if I see any kind of bad, from too much litter laying around to a human or an animal that can't defend themselves get mistreated. I do not like feeling that deeply because it affects me. I can feel it in my heart area and stomach. There is too much bad in the world. So if I can just die one day and maybe if I am lucky/blessed get to spend forever together with all the pets I have known and will know and all the other beautiful animals in a nature setting in some sort of a nirvana afterlife then that is a perfect forever ending to me.
The other day me and my friend Carmen went for a walk. It was a gorgeous day......full of sunshine, big beautiful clouds and rain as well. We sat on a bench and later on a mountain looking at a lake from underneath our umbrellas while the rain smattered down. It was nice.
Look at this super cute bat house!
I visited my friend Marie the other day. To get to her place I took the bus from Handen Centrum and hopped off at Evertsbergsvägen. When I got off the bus I got flooded with childhood memories. The school I used to go to is still there. I walked to school and home every day. Right there, on that paved path or sometimes across the grass. We had a huge field to play on and in the winter time we would ice skate on what during the rest of the year was the fotboll (soccer) field.
In one of those classrooms I learned the word umbrella and still remember that I thought it was funny sounding in a nice way and that I thought it would be a nice name for a horse. I loved horses back then (still do).
The apartment I lived in was up a hill and back then I would walk through a small forest area on this path and I walked on that same path the other day. It looks the same. It is like time froze here. It made me sad and I cried as I walked, remembering my childhood self and how innocent life was. We would play outside all day in the summer time, no care in the world. I was not aware of the pain life can bring.....then.
This is where me and my Mom lived for a few years. In that apartment to the left. My friends would come over and we would sit at the kitchen table and draw for hours. I remember reading in my room. I remember winters with mounds of snow and taking evening walks with my Mom and the sound the snow made under our boots and how the snow glistened under the street lights.
I met Marie here and she still lives in the building across from where I used to live. The area in the middle we called "Gården" and that is where we played until our Moms decided it was time for us to come home, so reluctantly we did. So many memories. It is kind of sad.....life goes by so fast. All the people that we meet, some stay some don't. I get super emotional over stuff like this. My heart hurts. Part of me wants to stay here in Sweden with my friends and the place I grew up. This has given me anxiety (I have experienced some anxiety in the mornings lately) and a friend adviced me to try to shake the thoughts/feelings off and go live in the NOW. Which is totally the way to do it. So I am trying to do just that.
Hello from Stockholm, also known as the Venice of the North. It is so beautiful here that it makes my heart ache. Of course that ache also stems from the fact that I grew up here, so I have formed a familiarity and attachment to Stockholm. I walk around and just soak it all in. The old buildings with all the beautiful details, the cobblestone streets, the breath taking views, the green parks, the wind from Lake Mälaren that comes over you when you walk or relax on a bench close by the water. It is so beautiful I have to blink away the tears when the emotions take over.
