Stockholm, day 3

And so here starts my travel blog, which I hope to post a fair amount to over the next five months while I'm travelling the world. I do enjoy the odd bit of personal writing, but my line of work as a local government officer tends to suck this out of me - local government reports and briefings, of which I have to write a lot, are not exactly what you would call an opportunity to be imaginative, entertaining or personal! So hopefully this blog will be one of the many ways I get back in touch with myself over the coming months.

I flew out of London on Wednesday afternoon, having been running around desperately trying to get ready and tie things up in time until the very last minute. First lesson learned - if you're taking time away from everything for a big trip, make entirely sure you give yourself enough time to get ready for it! I had fondly imagined that I would be pottering around in a leisurely fashion getting ready, with time left over to contemplate what I was doing and to generally leave in a relaxed fashion, but alas it didn't quite work out that way. But then, with me it rarely does...

I'm now in Stockholm. For those of you who don't know, this is my favourite city in the world (based on the travelling I've done so far anyway!) that I come to regularly anyway, and I have a real if rather problematic aspiration to end up living here sooner or later. It's all about the sheer, indescribable beauty of the city and the surrounding countryside, the effortless style, the loveliness of the Swedish people (and, dare I say it, their attractiveness too :)), the hugely egalitarian and socially responsible nature of society here... and yes, by no means least about the pop music, easily the best in the world.

 One view over an icy, snowy Stockholm

The timing of the start of my trip here is no accident as it's the final of Melodifestivalen (in English, "The Melody Festival") this Saturday. This is the annual Swedish national song contest, the winner of which goes forward to the Eurovision Song Contest (one of my other great passions) in May. I'm very fortunate to have tickets for the sold-out show in the 16,000-seater Globe Arena. Unlike pretty much anywhere else, Eurovision is treated seriously and (up to a point) fashionably in Sweden, and Melodifestivalen has many of the country's top established pop acts and songwriters queueing up to enter every year. It's literally the most watched TV programme of the year, every year, watched by not far short of half the entire population, and the songs from the contest totally dominate the Swedish singles chart and the airwaves for weeks every year, with major album releases timed around it. And there are a number of bars and club nights (and not all of them gay either!) which exclusively play "schlager", the Swedish word for the type of happy, light, often ABBA-esque songs with which Melodifestivalen (and to a slightly lesser extent Eurovision) is most associated.

This isn't a solo hobby for me in London - to the amazement of some of my other friends with more, er, mainstream music tastes, there's a smallish but very lively circuit in London of devoted fans of schlager, a sort of offshoot of a larger community of keen Eurovision fans. So while after Stockholm my round-the-world trip is mostly solo, I'm in plenty of familiar British company here in Stockholm this weekend. I'm rooming with good friends (currently Rob, to be joined by Alasdair and Chris J today) and there's going to be quite a contingent of us here by the weekend.

The last two nights we've ended up in a schlager bar called Golden Hits. We've seen live PAs by Timoteij (one of the contenders to win Melodifestivalen on Saturday - for those who are interested, let's just say I'm not sure they really did much to improve their chances) and by schlager covers band Schlagerfeber. The ambience and decor of the place does have something in common with a gay club in somewhere like Middlesbrough or Blackpool... But once you've got over that, it's fantastic to experience and participate in the sheer unpretentious joyousness on the dancefloor, with a wide range of ages, genders and sexualities all coming together and singing and dancing along together to the fabulous schlager music. There has also been some randomness, I've been chatted up and asked to dance in a worryingly non-tongue in cheek by a chubby Swedish woman in her 50s, and later grabbed by an, er, flamboyant and possibly rather drugged-up man who I really wasn't entirely sure was actually a man. All in all it's been a great and rather memorable way to start my trip.

You can't really go too far around Stockholm this week without seeing Melodifestivalen-related things (e.g. tie-in adverts by official commercial "partners" of the event, music shop window displays), and a central Stockholm shopping centre currently has three days of PAs and signings by Melodifestivalen entrants past and present. I was delighted yesterday to get signed singles and photos with Ola and the beautiful, divine Eric Saade (photos hopefully to follow), who told me how much he loved London! I wished Ola luck in the final and he said, "I think I will need it!" (he's hotly tipped to finish last on Saturday).

 

Me with the divine Eric Saade :-)

I've also been enjoying the sheer indescribable beauty of Stockholm, if anything enhanced by the winteriness of the scene as there's a significant quantity of snow on the ground (although it's been melting in the almost unseasonably warm 5C temperatures this week). Everyone in the UK (and beyond) seems to vaguely know when you get talking about it that Stockholm is a beautiful city, but far too few ever actually venture here. And that's a very big shame. It also has the world's best, er, gay hot chocolate cafe, Chokladkoppen on Gamla Stan - absolutely fabulous in every respect.

I'm struggling at present to finish this post coherently (the day after I started it) because the computer in this hostel is next to Reception and the receptionist here has been chatting away to me about Melodifestivalen and schlager...! For those who were expecting intelligent cultural insights from me whilst travelling, well, I will do my best in due course... once Melodifestivalen in Stockholm has finished. :)