Day 29: Walking and Sunshine

There isn’t much a good walk and some sunshine won’t cure. That and a bit of shopping. Today Carl and I set out early to walk into town and shop for some winter pants that we can use for multiple outdoor activities. It was an early weekend outing for us. We left Södermalm at 11:00am, following the sun down Hornsgatan (The street we live on) to Slussen (The lock that the boats use to go from the higher level of Lake Malaren to the lower level of the Baltic sea), and then across to Skeppsbron (A street whose name literally means ship bridge), through Kungsträdgården (The king’s garden), finally arriving at Stadium, the outdoor, sporting goods store.

I have shopped in Stockholm long enough to know that I should not go out looking for something specific with particularly high hopes of finding that exact thing. However, I was hopeful. The store pleasantly had fewer customers than I had expected would be out. Probably in part due to the lovely weather outside. We were in and out in around thirty minutes and both of us lucked out and found pants that fit. The price of Carl’s pants was better than mine but being a shorty living in the world of tall folk I was satisfied to have actually found some that were adequate.

After our shopping excursion we continued our walk to Kungsholmen, another of the islands that make up Stockholm’s archipelago. It is also the home of my office and we were heading there to pick up a lamp that I had ordered but was not able to get home during the week. On our way home I said that I would stop by the grocery store to pick up a few things while Carl would go on to the apartment and check to see if there was anything else we needed. Shortly after I started shopping he called to give me a few other items to pick up and mentioned finding footprints on the kitchen counter. The footprints were from our new roommate, Pina. (Kitty, you know better).

By the time we both arrived back to our apartment we had both shucked our grumpy moods and it was just 1:00pm. We still had the majority of the day left to laze around and get ready for the week. Yesterday we went out for a nice, long walk as well but minus the sunshine. A walk is lovely in itself and I love to take long walks regardless of the weather but walking plus sunshine is a magic combination. There is something about feeling the sun shining down on your face that just makes the corners of your mouth turn up.