Stockholm Diary: Weekend #4 - Streets

... Few habits seldom die.

Almost all of you know that when I am in Kolkata, I barely find anything more amusing than capturing the streets. Given the correct company and place, I am up for it anytime. But here was the problem. in Stockholm, 'a correct company' was running short.  There are a few people I know who share my frequency, but they were not there with me. And for many more, clicking the streets may be nothing but a flat and boring way to 'kill' time. So, not risking anybody else 's plans, I sat myself out on the last Sunday. [the Saturday was, as they call it,  for total hibernation for me. Sofo. But then a few scoldings from a friend charged me up to follow my instincts].

Sunday... and Gamla Stan again. But this time, I was there for a different sight from the history.

I stood on this sidewalk for more than three minutes to be able to get a people-free street . But couldn't. Even the streets of this place, as I came to know on the very first weekend only, have not changed since they were first built about 400 years back. (I know... Diagon Alley... yes!).

But unlike the first weekend, this time, I was early enough to be able to get inside the church. The morning mass had probably just finished and seeing people only coming outside the gate, I felt a little puzzled. But finally went inside anyway. Afterall, I was a tourist and was allowed to make even the basic mistakes...

...and forgiven. I have no idea how the clarity of the colours on the glass with the sunlight behind it got captured in my novice camera, but once it did, it cheered my mood up and cutting through the stream of people coming out, I finally went inside the main hall of the church.

Once inside, the odd feeling went away. There were a good number of believers, non believers and tourists. I had only read about the pipe organs and have heard the sound in Dracula movies. For the first time I saw one (and it was great to see it in the most non-Dracula place) kept in the overhang of the first floor inside the hall.

Unfortunately, for some reason, my shots were not being steady. Everything inside was golden, the stands, the chandeliers, the frames, the candles, the people...

... yes... I know. She looks even prettier standing like that. No, it was not one of my sneak shots. I had formally taken the permission and also even had told her to look away from the camera for a 'better' shot. I honestly I dont know what else is exactly making this picture worth posting even with that slight shake.

Ahhmm... after Gamla Stan, I just let my habits take over. Went straight to T-Central and parked myself in the corner of the stairs just outside the tunnel gates (the one leading down to the open chess-board type area.). And out of many (many) things I saw (but could not click)... this one is my favorite.

There was a boy in mid air jumping up from one stair to another, a man walking straight at me with his pet dog, an elderly woman staring at a big poster, a lady posing in front of her friends for a photograph. But I find this one speaking to me the loudest. In facebook, I have called this one: distance.

And... distance is what mattered the most to me on those 30 days.

Away from people... away from places... in a totally different land. Although, now-a-days a foreign trip is nothing to be very surprised of (that too only for 30 days), but as far as I came to know myself, this trip made me believe that a typically poisonous... thing... has made a permanent place in me in last few years. They spell it l-o-v-e. I realized how much I love the unbalanced, unpolished, unmaintained, dirty, overcrowded place of mine. But at the same time, the treatment I got from the 'videsh' in those 30 days, I will never forget that.  Never. The ease, the smile, the respect, the trust, the walk with music, the smell of the bakeries, the cleanliness, the people...aahh!! Uncomparable...

As they would say in Swedish: Tack Stockholm!

Till "next time",

Cheers :)