Stockholm Old City

I’ve said this a million times. But I love Europe. Cobbled streets, chilly weather, romantic languages and lots of cheese and bread.

Ninety percent of the time whenever I’m there it’s really cold, even in summer i just tend to get the bad days. So when I end up in a European city it involves a very similar tradition: dress well, wear dark lipstick and sometimes I pretend to be sad. Why sad? I suppose it matches the weather and it often goes with the look (yes, really). And also when walking up lonely, winding alley ways between stoney churches and cosy coffee shops, I secretly enjoy the dramatic empty feeling of having someone to miss. Simultaneously I have the asshole-esque enjoyment of how small the world has became for me over the last year. On the inside I’m laughing at my own dramatics though, and I think living such an isolated life has caused me to know myself so well that I’m amused by my own company and silly antics. Needless to say, “Sad Girl in Gloomy Europe” has become one of my favourite games, and I often take it a step further by imagining it in a black-and-white montage with a sad accompanying violin tune, but that’s only if my mind is really bored. It’s not really what I see in those cities though, more the feeling that the atmosphere evokes.

Stockholm’s Old City set the perfect scene for that; cobble everywhere, steeples and old churches, bridges, sidewalk cafe’s spilled-out onto a storm-drenched street, couples huddled together while they walked, sharing an umbrella that held on for dear life. However, it was nonetheless the perfect storm; the water wasn’t cold at all, and showers fell perfectly perpendicular to the ground with absolutely no wind, so when I held my umbrella straight up there wasn’t at all the problem of that kind of rain that hits you from all angles and leaves you soaked and cold.

Part of me is going to miss this game. But while this all sounds dreamy and fantastic, the other part of me really just wants to put my feet up on the dashboard of my car, feel the sunshine on my face and contemplate life while parked on Signal Hill. I could never stop missing that.

Three more weeks, Cape Town.

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