Stockholm to Lund train debacle

Currently I am stopped in the middle of Swedish countryside, on a broken down train waiting for buses to show up to take us to the next train headed south. The apologetic staff is compensating disgruntled travellers with internet vouchers, free coffee and baked goods. I'm thankful for the internet voucher, it's the best and fastest connection I've had yet.

I really liked Stockholm, despite the bad weather. Though, there is a strange perfection about it, almost like it is too good to be true. The charming old town, helpful people and beautiful harbor. It is an easily navigable city, mostly low rise, and composed of many islands and the archipelago. Though, even in the eco friendly neighborhood development, there was trash collecting in the marshes of the docks, so it's not that perfect. Overall I am most impressed with the transportation system. Absolutely no need for a car, there are street cars, buses, subways, and one card can be used to ride all modes. Brilliant, really. The 7 day full pass cost about $45USD but it was well worth it.

Typical Swedish souvenirs are these wooden horses painted red and decorated sort of like Easter eggs. Viking hats, and moose/reindeer hats were also popular. Mummi cartoons were also at every tourist shop, which Gamla Stan (old town) is full of. It's this hippo looking animal and a little girl with a ponytail that sticks straight up kinda making her look like a samurai. She's usually scheming or grimacing about something. I cracked and decided to buy myself a leather jacket, since I left mine on the Spirit flight to New York. This one is way nicer, and more fitted, I like it a lot. I'll need it if it continues to stay cold and snowy in Iceland, like it was last week.

There were more glass goods from Iitala, the Finnish glass company that makes the famous Aalto design vase. I didn't get one, because they were overpriced and not really my style, no offense to Aalto- he is still pretty B.A. in my book, and all books for that matter.

The Woodlands cemetery, subject of one of Caroline Constant's books was as beautiful as the pictures we've seen in lectures suggest. There's swirly designs of a darker species of grass in the hilly landscape, the place feels more like a forest oasis, with tall, tall trees varying in density in some areas, other times they are perfectly aligned both on a diagonal and orthogonal axis as pedestrian paths weave through. There is a small summit, with stairs that lead to the top. They are supposed to get easier (less rise) as you go up, representing the grieving process and how it gets easier over time. The symbolic cross was added after the project, which has a few chapels strewn about and one central meeting canopy, none of it symbolic as cemeteries before it. Built in 1919-1920, it was a new kind of cemetery for its time. I still don't think I've ever been to one like it.

OOooO... they're now offering free food as we are 2 hours delayed and counting. More on Lund and Malmo (the southern Swedish cities we're visiting), later.