Tag Archives: interior design

Modern Stockholm: Living with Style, Innovation and Coffee

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After learning about Sweden’s medieval and pre-industrialization history, I wanted to feel the pulse of contemporary Sweden. The trendier parts of Stockholm (I stayed in the Sofo neighborhood, a play on NYC’s Soho) are chic and streamlined, like walking around a giant IKEA store, or hipper-than-thou neighborhoods in Brooklyn (cough, Williamsburg). You can get a good read on the city by simply hopping between cafes, which are present in abundance at a density that rivals Italian cities. These cafes often serve espresso and cinnamon rolls, and you can also find hybrids like cafe-thrift stores, cafe-record stores, cafe-office, cafe-hair salon, etc. Swedes take their coffee very seriously it seems, perhaps as a substitute for alcohol. This is, of course, by design, since Sweden has a state-run monopoly on alcohol sales and the prices are inflated to discourage drinking in prodigious quantities. All this means that Swedes go to Denmark or Germany to bring back cheaper booze.

Many cafes also offer light meals, sandwiches and such, and you can usually get a breakfast or lunch special with food, juice and coffee for a set price.

Ready for some people watching? Don’t forget to bring your skinny jeans!


Vurma Cafe is like visiting your hippie, India-obsessed aunt, with brocade pillows in a rainbow of colors lining the benches and pink lights strung overhead. I visited the Nytorget branch, but they have multiple locations, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the others have a varying style. They offer a great breakfast menu with organic and gluten-free options. For 80 SEK, I got a bowl of Turkish yogurt with pumpkin, flax and sunflower seeds, accompanied by wide multigrain crackers topped with sprouts, tomato, cucumber and cheese, plus a hardboiled egg and coffee. I couldn’t resist the call of the semla cream puffs, and added one of those to my meal to balance out all the healthy items.


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Europe for a Weekend: Stockholm

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Stockholm Map
Image: designlovefest

Ever since I subscribed to The Flight Deal, there’s been a constant stream of cheap flights that drop in and tantalize me with dreams of kicking off and leaving the country on a whim. Well, I was finally in the right frame of mind when I saw direct flights from New York to Stockholm through Norwegian Air for just €282 (approximately $384). Given that I’ve paid more to get to the West Coast, going to Europe for a long weekend was sounding like a pretty good proposition.

Why such a short trip? First and foremost, I need to be back in town for culinary school. Secondly, on a trip to Japan, I met some people who regularly jetset to other countries for the weekend. It sounds crazy at first, but as they put it, the core attractions of most cities can be covered in a day, so exploring a city and nearby outskirts in a weekend is totally manageable. The caveat is that this only works if, like me, you are impervious to jetlag and run on adrenaline when you’re abroad.

I’ve never visited Scandinavia and Sweden has always held some fascination for me as a bastion of liberal thinkers with generous social welfare policies. I mean, Sweden’s Twitter account is held by a random person every week, from astronomers to lesbian truck drivers. If that’s not democracy, I don’t know what is. This week, the Twitter is being run by Irma, an expat cartoonist from Maplewood, NJ. I’ve been following her stories on what it’s like to move to Stockholm right after college and learn Swedish as a foreigner. Also, she recognized my Twitter avatar (rainbow cake batter), the first person ever to do so!

Stockholm Map
View larger map

I culled through food and design blogs and skimmed some old-fashioned travel guides to create the following color-coded map of food, shopping and attractions. It’s a little heavy on hipster coffee shops (like Cafe String, where everything is for sale, even the chair you sit on) and concept art shops (like Flux Shop, which is “an attitude, not a movement or a style”). It will be a weekend of excellent seafood, coffee and Vikings.

Nu kör vi!

Odyssey to Italy: Results

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My first Italian sunset, right before I realized I was hilariously lost.

It was going perfectly, until it wasn’t. I managed to navigate through London, catch my connecting flight in another airport, and got through Turin before making a mistake. At the Turin Porta Nuova train station, I asked for a ticket to Bra, and it was printed with the destination as “Bra.” Thus, I assumed that the train led directly to Bra, especially since the clerk didn’t mention any sort of transfer. An hour too late, and after some fitful dozing on the train, I panicked when I realized that this line didn’t directly go to Bra, and I should have transferred trains at Carmagnola. Luckily, the first person I asked for help was ludicrously well-prepared and whipped out a complete book of train timetables, and helped me figure out a new itinerary to get “home.” With palpable relief, I stepped off the bus at 22.37, about two hours later than planned. My flatmates came to pick me up in a car, and were overjoyed that I hadn’t inadvertently ended up in France or something. All in all, I have taken 10 planes/trains/buses to trek from New York to Bra, Italy in the last 24 hours, while lugging about 3/4 of my weight in luggage, up and down stairs, through traffic, across bumpy cobblestones. Heathrow might be my new favorite airport now because they offer the free usage of luggage carts. This has been one of the most draining days of my life.


The flat is beautiful, and decorated with all kinds of neat murals and photography. I don’t know if this is handiwork leftover from previous students, or designed by the school, but either way it is most impressive, and definitely better decorated than any of my previous apartments. I’ll try to post more photos of the place tomorrow, but below is a shot of my bedroom. There is a balcony where I can hang clothes to dry and a nice full-length mirror. The kitchen has some china, pots and utensils included, but I’m still glad I brought my trusty 10″ Calphalon. The one thing the apartment is sorely lacking is an oven; we have a large toaster oven, but it’s going to be difficult to do serious baking in that.


After picking me up from the train station, we all gathered round the kitchen and broke open a beer. Many of you will not be surprised to hear I was told several times that I have impressive amounts of energy. Jet lag, schmetlag. Tomorrow, the plan is to get the bureaucratic paperwork out of the way (I have to apply for a permesso di soggiorno residency permit within my first 8 days in Italy) and maybe explore the town a bit. Classes start at 9 am sharp on Wed.