Journal no. 3

the summer sun rose at 4am, making it difficult to sleep.
and we were excited to explore Stockholm, so me and mom went out early.
the problem was that we didn't have a plan.
randomly, i decided to see what was at Radhuset station.
it was on the blue line, where the underground stations feature unique art.
for Radhuset (meaning 'court house'), the station seemed to be a red earth trench with some armaments hidden in the corner.

it was quiet above ground, with many solemn town houses and a smattering of shops.
without any goal in mind, we wandered the streets and found the river.

a dash of color breaks up the monotony.

families of ducks chilling by the river where attractive joggers do their morning exercise.
we followed the broad path down the river and found some attractive residential areas where the houses were chic yet cosy and not flashy. very Swedish.

then we took the subway to Tekniska Högskolan, again uninformed random choice.
Swedish words can bear some similarity to English, so after our ears and eyes adjusted to the foreign tongue, it's fun to guess what something means.
Tekniska = technical and Skolan = school (probably).

there, we found KTH Royal Institute of Technology nearby, a stern looking stone and brick collection of buildings devoid of students except for a few going in and out of their dorms.
we went in and admired the layout of the garden square and the austere early 1800th century style buildings. the doors were shut so we peeked through the windows at the living spaces where bronze busts and grand pianos sat comfortably with flowers on the windowsills.

KTH was next to a gigantic park area which would be nice to cycle in.
we went to the Stockholm Ostra station to try their suburban railway system. this line was above ground tracks servicing a small line in north Stockholm.

there was an attractive but vague map with illustrations of rune stones and old castles at Ostra station but the words were in Swedish...
i should have asked the train attendants for recommendations. i think Swedes are able to speak English well, but i was afraid to ask.

we choose to go to Nasbypark, thinking it was near the sea. it wasn't.
but we saw a grand building of Universitetet, plots of land subdivided to have individual cute garden house-sheds and flowers, and cut straight through a golf course.
i never knew that golf courses can have trains operate in the middle of their flat grassy plain.

Nasbypark seemed like a relaxed residential area. few people, few buildings, few cars, few buses... thus we did not stray far from the train station. nearby was a shopping mall with a little public library in it.
their library looked like a hipster book cafe with nice lighting, modern layout and quirky furnishing.
my mom bought some sweet cherries from the vendor beside the station, and we waited for the train to bring us back to the city.