We got our first taste of Stockholm's nightlife last night. Actually, we got our taste of Stockholm's pre-night nightlife. At the end of the day on Friday my coworkers round up whatever they're doing between 4:45 and 5:15, then slowly filter into a common area to enjoy chips, popcorn, a few drinks and lovely conversation with whoever shows up. My boss told me that Miranda is an unofficial employee between the hours of 5:00 and 6:00 (more like 7:30) on Fridays, so she came to the office to "learn a little more about the work we do."
It's a very interesting setting. Young people are more naturally drawn to these inner-office gatherings, but ocassionally an older coworker will join in the fun. By American standards, everyone is extremely well educated and extremely well traveled. What's even weirder for me is that all of my company's lines of business are represented equally, and on top of that, they actually interact. That would never happen in Minneapolis. Even if my Minneapolis coworkers ended up at the same place, only a select few would interact.
The conversations always start in English, then side conversations break off, and if these side conversations don't include Miranda or me, they naturally revert back to Swedish. Soon the group gets involved in the Swedish conversation, and Miranda and I are left clueless on the sidelines until some merciful soul decides to switch back to English. I joked that I really didn't have any choice but to sit around hoping somebody would show interest in me and start up another conversation in English.
Our group conversation has included talk of some Eastern European cities and countries each week. It's sad because I love geography, but typically have no idea that the places they're discussing even exist. Western Europe gets so much attention that Eastern Europe is completely hidden in its shadow.
Enough of the conversation. Friday night we enjoyed a couple beers in the office, then took a fifteen minute walk through the posh business and nightlife district to the rich area of town. We went to a place called Hotellet in the exclusive Ostermalm. If I could use umlauts on this computer, the O of Ostermalm would have umlauts. Anyway, I don't know if Hotellet was actually a hotel, or if it was just a lounge, but if it was a hotel, it was by far the coolest hotel lounge that I've ever been in. At least three separate bar areas and plenty of table, bar and lounge seating. The place was packed, yet not crowded. Everybody was dressed well, but as Miranda mentioned, even though there are definite things that are "in style", as long as people wear their clothes with confidence, they fit right in.
I've been to plenty of bars in Minneapolis. I'm no expert, but I've been to enough to know that a bar like this does not exist in Minneapolis. No dress code, no cover charge, no waiting line, yet everybody looked good. At the same time, nobody in the bar seemed terribly self-important. Sometimes when you go to a bar this nice you'll find people and their entourages gaining attention through their size and the way they act. These people were mysteriously missing from Hotellet. Not that I talked to anybody outside our group, but I just got the feeling that everybody in the bar was on equal footing.
We stuck around for a few hours, then once things started getting late we went to a different club. Totally different scene. The restaurant downstairs was overlooked by a mezzanine lined with booths. The music was too loud to talk to anybody, and the upstairs was packed. Apparently this place was another pre-night nightclub as it closed at 3:00 in the morning. This might best be described as a club that Pondo would lead us to. We left after about an hour. The bar sucked, with the exception of one thing, they had a rockin' playlist. Miranda already promised to post on the music, so I'll leave that out for now.
We left around 1:00 and half the group went to yet another bar. Miranda and I joined two of my coworkers at a pizza and kabob restaurant about a block from my office. On the way to the restaurant we saw guys wearing tight-rolled jeans, something we had only seen on mannequins before Friday night.
I love the pizza here. Once again, that deserves a post of its own.
Once again, I started writing this post a few days ago, and by now it has lost all of its momentum. It doesn't help that Scrubs came on about 45 minutes ago, making it impossible for me to concentrate. To sum it all up. The night was a lot of fun. We hit an awesome bar, and even more important than the bar, my coworkers are a lot of fun. Here's to more to come. Skål!
No comments:
Post a Comment