Day 2 in Stockholm

You know, this microblogging thing is so genius (and shout out to my homey Tracy from Tracy’s New York Life for mentioning she was going to do it on her blog and also reminding me to keep mine short when I do them) because it’s like a little mini diary of my travels and then I don’t have to do this big undertaking to write one BIG blog post (or a series) long after I get back home. BUT see—the way my attention span is set up, I hope I can handle doing this, updating on social (especially Facebook so my family can keep track of my whereabouts), and also being in the moment taking things in. I’m super smart, but I can have the attention span of a three year old sometimes :/

But ANYWAY, enough rambling because the key to this is to keep these entries short.

Today a small group of us went on a fashion-based walking tour in Stockholm’s SOFO neighborhood. SOFO (South of Folkungagatan much like SOHO in NYC is South of Houston street) is Stockholm’s hipster-y neighborhood home to some cute eateries and shops one of which included Grandpa, a cute Scandinavian fashion and home decor store. I loved our guide and loved being able to browse some local Swedish shops, but what I loved most was the people watching. People in Stockholm are SO effortlessly stylish. It’s summer here but at times can feel more like NYC fall or spring so people typically dress in chic layers: skinny jeans with a cool t-shirt, moto jacket, moto booties, some sort of cool hat. It’s stuff that you can find at local thrift stores of even Sweden’s own H&M but the people here just look so gosh darn cool and stylish. I’ll have to try and remember to get some street style photos so you can see what I mean.

Acne Studios

Grandpa

Grandpa

Grandpa

Grandpa

We stopped and had lunch at the Urban Deli—I’m pretty open-minded when it comes to trying new food but I had to take a backseat and play it safe with a salad and fries. I tried to try some of Tracy’s oysters but it just wasn’t my bag. I’m not a big raw seafood type of person and that’s what a lot of the menu was. Urban Deli has amazing atmosphere and from what my group said, what they ate was really good.

We also visited NK Stockholm, a department store that gave me Bloomingdale’s 59th street vibes but they also had some really awesome curated Swedish designers in the various departments around the store.

Then for dinner we ate at a tapas restaurant called La Oliva. I went ham and ordered a bunch of stuff—which is what I LOVE about tapas. I had mussels, some sort of fried potato with aioli, a grilled salmon skewer, some of Tracy’s pulled pork, and fried calamari. Everything was SO delicious, but I need to start watching what I eat more and especially eat way less fried foods. I’ve been a little off the Weight Watchers wagon the last month and need to jump back into my regular healthier eating habits. I need some sort of balance especially since this jet lag and the sun being out and BRIGHT until after 10 PM and coming back at 3 AM…lol.

My eats at La Oliva

Food here has been pretty great so far—it’s expensive to me though but that could also very well be because I’m not used to eating out as often as I’ve been doing here. If I had the setup, I would have loved to buy groceries and cook most of my meals and then maybe splurge here and there for some authentic Swedish food at a nice restaurant. Thankfully breakfast is included at my hotel and there’s a pretty big spread, but for lunch and dinner? See, the way my bank account is setup…lol. I love to eat though but not looking to blow the entire budget on dining.

I also popped into the Makeup Store earlier—they seem almost like an Inglot to me—I wasn’t paying too much attention to the prices but their overall aesthetic and setup reminded me of Inglot. I bought a cream highlighter because I wanted to try *something* (the beauty blogger in me) and it looked nice swatched on my hand. They seem to have a decent range—I saw some deeper shades in concealers, powders, and foundations—the range wasn’t as vast as brands like BECCA, Make Up Forever, or Cover FX but more than what some other brands offer. It’s somewhat diverse here in Stockholm from what I’ve seen so far. I also popped into a store (the name escapes me) that somewhat reminds me of Douglas in Poland or Boots in London. They had department store brands like MAC, Lancome, Chanel, etc. but also had some drugstore brands. I only popped in and out very quickly just to browse.

Jacket: H&M (old) | Pants: Ann Taylor | Shoes: Schutz (old) | Sunglasses: Celine “Shadow”

See how a chronic rambler like me can’t keep things short? I’ll end here because I’m also trying to get as much video documentation of this trip as possible to give you another angle. Plus I suppose I need to try and force myself to go to sleep (it’s after 2 A.M. here).

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