Another day, another walk, you know it!

A phrase used by Daniel, a Dutch YouTuber living in Stockholm. I found his YouTube channel three years ago. That day, I had been out walking with a friend. We made our way around Lake Magelungen and when I got back home I Googled the lake looking for a few facts and by doing so I stumbled upon Lets Walk Around Stockholm. A walking channel where Daniel walks and talks as he makes his way around Stockholm and the suburbs. He had just uploaded his walk from the same lake, which I thought was a fun coincidence, so I left a comment about that and started watching his channel. Always fun to see what other people see and focus on while walking the streets of Stockholm. I took these sixteen photos two days ago, they are from Drottningatan. Gamla brogatan. Östermalm, Blasieholmen, Kungsgatan and Slussen.

The Contortionist

Well, this young woman blew me away. I noticed what looked like a whale skeleton in the middle of the Sveavägen street during the street food festival, so I walked over for a closer look. And then I saw her. Standing there. Silent. Looking right at me. After what felt like a long time, weird music started playing, and that's when I realized that she was a contortionist. Her fifteen-minute-long performance was world-class. It was the best balancing act I have ever seen. And as you can probably guess, I took way too many photos of her. I googled a bit and found out that the sculpture is called VAL. Made by Tom Brand. And the contortionist is most likely Marina Cherry from the US, but based here in Stockholm. More photos of Marina in my flickr album.

Street Food Festival

In the second photo here, you can see Lars Strömgren. A keen cyclist, so a good person. Also, a politician. And in charge of the traffic situation in Stockholm. His title is Trafikborgarråd. Lars is a member of Miljöpartiet. The Green Party. And the guy who decided to close off a stretch of Sveavägen for four weekends this Summer. A street that normally sees very heavy traffic. And in doing so managing to upset a lot of motorists, which I kinda enjoy. Anyway, that stretch was filled up with people this last weekend, quite a few of them locals living along the normally busy street. But for two days it turned into a street food festival. I was there both Saturday and Sunday, because why not. These photos are from Saturday, when you could enjoy a lot of Thai food and more.

Way Out Farsta

It is Summer. Which means that there are festivals everywhere. Big and small. Cycling home from a street party in Stockholm, I could hear music from a park in Farsta, so I pedaled that way. It was the second ever rock festival, Way Out Farsta. They took that name to poke fun at one of the largest festivals in Sweden. Way Out West in Gothenburg. This event was much smaller. On stage when I arrived was a three-piece band called &nova. A punk band. Lumi, Filippa and Joel. I did what my brother used to do at the annual rock festival in Tungelsta, I tried counting the crowd. Maybe three hundred people spread out on the green lawn and elsewhere in the park, eating and drinking. Listening to the young bands performing while the younger siblings were playing their games. A bit of fun for everyone.

Vattentorget

A new square opened to the public at Slussplan earlier this month. Vattentorget. The water square. It is part of a still ongoing project at Slussen in Stockholm. A new sluice has been constructed. Named after our future Queen, Victoria. It connects Lake Mälaren with the Baltic Sea. Located between Södermalm and the old town. Lots of history here. This is the fifth version of Slussen. The first one was constructed five hundred years ago. The new square became an instant hit. There are walkways and benches everywhere. There is a new fish passage. The boats will have to wait for a few years longer before they can pass through, though. A rock club will soon open, as will a few other places. I was there both on Saturday and Sunday. Parked the bike and went for a walk. Testing out the different benches and snapping away left and right. This first bunch of photos are from Saturday. One of the bike paths here is not marked out, which will cause all sorts of trouble. Hopefully that will be fixed quickly before any accidents happen.

City Hall in June

Four photos from Stockholm City Hall. A wedding couple waiting for their turn to tie the knot. A colorful Asian couple enjoying lunch in the garden. I like how he films the area, trying not to look like he is filming the area. Next, three people, four if you count me, taking photos of yet another happy couple soon to be married. In the fourth and last photo, a flag with Sankt Erik, the patron saint of Stockholm. It was a very fine day. I came home with a lot of photos from different places in the city. My ebike is still at the repair shop, so I used one of my normal bikes, and wow, it sure is a bit tougher riding 70 km without the pedal assist!

Royal Guard

I took a few days off with the street photography. And with the Stockholm documentation. You need a break sometimes. But I was back at it again yesterday. A nice Summer day it was. I visited quite a few different places and the cameras were hard at work. The joy of photography was back, so the little break did me good. Walking past the Royal Palace, I decided to take a few portraits of the Royal Guards. Högvakten in Swedish. Whenever I do that, I always give them a little nod before I take their photo, and they always give me a nod of approval back.

Sagerska palatset

Sagerska palatset, or Sagerska huset, depending on who you ask. The official residence of the Swedish Prime Minister at Strömgatan. Built for a diplomat called Sager. The family owed the property for around a century, before the Swedish state bought it.

Gastropods

Out walking in nature. The plan was to take a photo of a house where there once lived a famous woman. She also lived at a nearby castle, which I had photographed 15 minutes earlier. But before I could my planned, photo, I snapped this of the two gastropods making out. We call them Vinbergssnäckor. The French eat them, I am yet to try that.

East and West

I took a bike ride around Österhaninge yesterday. 16C. Sunny, although quite a lot of clouds gathering during my ride. Here are two photos from two different golf courses. One in Österhaninge. The other in Västerhaninge. Back when my great-grandfather was around, he was Mayor in what was then the Västerhaninge municipality. Later, East Haninge and West Haninge became one. I like the top photo best here best. I noticed the three golfers wearing different colors, so I stopped for a photo. Earlier, in Västerhaninge I stopped at a bus stop to drink some water, and that is when I snapped the second photo.

Sommarmorgon

Swedish word of the day. Sommarmorgon. Summer morning. 4:00 A.M.

Jungle

Very cool mural at Hagagatan in Stockholm, near Odenplan. Been there for seven years. Made by Carl Adam Kjellström and Alex Culafic. It took them a week to finish the artwork. And 400 spray cans. It is a big one, 14 by 23 meters, so they also used a skylift.

That Old Tree

Only been a week since my last photo of the old tree, but here it is again. Looks a bit different, as always. No one else around. This is one of just three photos I managed to take on this day. I took another bike for this ride. More suited for off-road cycling, so riding it mostly on the road is harder. Looks like I have what is known as a "pyspunka" on the bike I used the day before this and I am yet to fix that. The forecast for today says 10C, whatever happened to Summer?

Moo!

The May heat is gone. Replaced with more normal Swedish Summer weather. So as I am typing this it is maybe 10C, windy, but with fluffy clouds. I am having some issues with the eBike so it is at a repair shop. Luckily for this obsessive cyclist, I have three other bikes. And I have used two of them over the last couple of days. And, wow, it is a bit harder to bike without the help of the pedal assist, and slower. This is a pasture at Länna, near Lake Drevviken in Huddinge. Usually there would also be sheep here, but not on this day.

Summer in the city

I sometimes use rules while out photographing. It can be about what I can photograph, or which camera, or lens that I can use. On this day, I decided to only use the old Canon 77D, with the 70-300mm zoom lens. It was kinda tricky as it was a very sunny day and some of the photos had to be deleted as I had shot into the sun. But here are a few that made the cut. From the central bridge, I spotted a woman at Tegelbacken on a red Vespa, a style icon since the 1940s. Next, a photo taken from the same spot. A zoomed in photo of a Government building used by Finansdepartementet. I shot the boating photos from the City Hall bridge. It connects Norrmalm with Kungsholmen. Next, a tourist at the City Hall garden. Her boyfriend was busy snapping away with a smartphone. The Flag of Ukraine can be seen here and there around the city, and I found this one at Östermalm.