Marta, Polly, our friend Asia and I left Stockholm on Saturday morning, heading north by car. Our destination: Grisslehamn. It's 12o km north of Stockholm. It's situated by the Baltic sea, but could easily be reached by car, which is two of the reasons we chose it as our destination.
Our drive there was mostly uneventful, which is how we wanted it. To tell the truth *spoiler alert*, the entire trip was almost entirely uneventful, but I feel it's my duty to tell you about it anyway. We got to Grisslehamn around lunchtime, but chose to go for a short walk before eating. When we finally picked a place to eat (there was a surprisingly fair amount of places to choose from, considering the size of the "town"), it turned out to be of... questionable standard. It was the local pizza joint, where most of the biker tourists hung out. The owner was a man who knows most people who come there are only passing through, and hence won't eat at his place more than once, no matter how nice he is. The result was an attitude we, as relaxed tourists, could only laugh at. And we weren't the only ones. A few people at the next table had brought a ketchup bottle to their table to have with the burgers and fries they were waiting for. The owner came out and barked at them not to take the damn bottle before they'd even gotten their damn food! They still needed it in the damn kitchen!
This was the spark Swedish people needed to socialize. I know a lot of you readers might already be familiar with the ways of Swedes, but allow me to explain nonetheless. Swedes are generally quiet and... well, not antisocial as much as simply unsocial. I attribute this to our extreme respect for other people's right to privacy. When other nationalities need very little in the way of an excuse to engage someone they don't know, on the train for example, Swedes tend to need a bigger push to socialize. For instance, a Polish person could strike up a conversation about the weather with a fellow train passenger, but for a Swede to talk to another, it would take an event. This event could be someone else, like a drunk or an obviously mentally ill person behaving in an extraordinary manner, or a car crash. When such an event has taken place, Swedes are free to talk to one another.
Well, when the owner of the Grisslehamn pizza place had been rude to the guests at the next table, they felt free to strike up a conversation with us. That was nice, and mercifully brief (because I still like my privacy - one should be excessive in one's socializing).
After lunch we went for another walk - a longer one this time, exploring most of Grisslehamn and its surroundings. There was another event actually: an ambulance helicopter landed in the harbour parking lot when we were there. Luckily, there were few other people around, Swedes or otherwise, so we weren't forced to chat about it.
We went to the sea and I realized again, for the millionth time that I miss it a lot. Thankfully, I don't miss it when I'm not by it, I only realize how much I miss it every time I'm looking at it. That's a very nice feeling. After that I felt completely exhausted, which prompted a nap in our room at Grisslehamn Gård. We had a big room with a big balcony and a few beds all to ourselves. It was altogether very nice.
Marta stayed awake, but I think the rest of us slept for a few minutes. Then it was off to the nearest Greek place, just outside the "town" limits. The food there was considerable better than the stuff in town, and since nobody was yelled at, the service was nicer too.
Polly slept the whole night. I woke up a couple of times, but all in all I slept well. The room was incredibly dark. It was almost weird.
In the morning we cancelled our other excursion plans (a trip to Singö) and headed straight home after breakfast. Well, since my breakfast consisted of one (1) slice of bread with butter and ham and a glass of water, we did stop at a fancy restaurant in Norrtälje so I could have a McFeast burger meal. But then it was fairly straight home.
