Tuesday, January 06, 2009

City of Fairy Tales



I’ve come to the country of opportunities, where everything is possible. It’s the city where dreams come true and a place with no barriers other than your own imagination. There is a “jantelag” but not in Stockholm - here are people just as dry as you expect them to be. You can do whatever you pleases and no one will stop you. Even if you kill someone!

The first two hours in Stockholm City I was wondering what the fuck was I doing here. Sat in a taxi with a taxi driver that barely spoke understandable Swedish. My place wasn't too hard to find, 'cause its next to the castle. My place is located in one of Stockholm's oldest houses. If you look deep into the catacombs, under the house. You may find the remains of the blood from the Stockholm Bloodbath. That's what I call history! Tourists point at me, if I'm too close to the window. Probably because they think the old town (where I live) was built up especially for them, and that I'm one of the actors in the show.

Late one night a few days ago I went to ”the million programme” suburbs with a scottish friend. Back to Fittja, to a party in the apartment where Fittja Paradiso was recorded. (Do you remember it?). People smoked and it was free beer and food. This gave me a new perspective on Stockholm. Different from the city centre life with suits, SUVs and medieval tournaments. You can experience new things – if your mind still are opened and flexible. You don't have to travel. The key is within yourself! Just as Madonna and I wrote in our intros! NYC, Buenos Aires or Stockholm doesn't really make a difference...

Many of you gave advice and observations on what's special in the cities of the world. Two of them work just fine in the case of Stockholm, amazing!
  • Advice nr 1 (Johannes): Don't think you're the only Scandinavian around
  • Advice no 2 (Annie): Wine is really cheap! If you’re lucky you can make a real bargain and find wine for just 12 euro.
Sorry we all get carried away at times - so easy when my english personality kicks in you know.

My life has been spelled W-O-R-K more or less since the internship started. Work 24-7. Work work work. Graphic design, graphs (what did you expect?!), project management, heavy e-commerce solutions and business strategy. The company Designstationen that I work with are on the rise and we delivered an E-commerce thing to the swedish gigant Vattenfall some weeks ago. On the evenings when I get home from work and on the weekends I have been working with my little baby: The Photobook about Sweden. 44 young photographers (age 14-30) shows their Sweden with 64 images in a book printed mostly with EU funding. Fully translated into six languages... English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, German and French. It will be sent to the print house tomorrow. The release will be on Berns 2.35:1 the 26th of February. The club is perfect for the release. The pictures will be shown on the four 120” screens. Just like it should be! You will be able to buy the book on the site later on!

Hope you all had a nice christmas and a good new year!

Sorry for hi-jacking a day at the blogger schedule but I feel like the workload already are stacking up here. The 15th I will be working again and you know how it is. When you work, YOU WORK. I don't have time to write silly blog post about life on a working day... Why live life according to your own values when you can have a company to slave you around!

Over and out
Ola
Stockholm, Sweden