Goodbye Berlin Hello Stockholm

The second hostel I stayed at in Berlin was definitely more active than the one Elizabeth and I stayed at the first two nights. A 17 year old boy invited me to go out with him and his friends, but decided it was best to do my laundry. I was hoping to connect with some people at the hostel but the washing machine was really old and I spent three hours doing my laundry. In the morning I got up early to make it to the museums.

The museum I went to was mostly about Picasso. I don't love Picasso the way I love Manet, Renoir, Munch Van Gogh, Emile, and Monet. I never get the feeling that I'm floating when I see Picasso's work, but he fascinates me. Picasso can render anything in a completely "normal" fashion, but frequently he chose not to. I'm interested in Picasso as a man. Why did he choose to render some things more in cubes, and other things, twisted or exaggerated. It is clear from Picasso's work that he has a sense of humor as well. His use of color is captivating. I've always been interested in Picasso because his work is weird, but listening to every track on the audio guide that the museum provided has only fueled my curiosity. I have added reading a biography about Picasso, and visiting the Picasso museum in Paris to my list of goals.

After I hung out with Picasso I saw another not so interesting museum and then I headed to the Berlin airport. Spending the day with myself wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I was super glad to see my friend Ursula when I landed in Frankfurt. We got to the Stockholm without a problem, and spent the night in the airport. At five in the morning the airport was full of people drinking beer. I'm not joking. Beer for breakfast. Ursula and I were shocked. I asked someone about it later and they said that people were drinking to celebrate their trip. Urusula and I had a good laugh about that. If we didn't ask, we would have thought that Swedes have beer everyday for breakfast. It is so easy to extrapolate based on one observation. Ive been trying to make observations without assumptions, but this experience showed me that I have lots more work to do.

At ten in the morning Ursula and I took a bus into Stockholm. When we arrived an hour and a half later we were amazed. Stockholm is built on several islands connected by bridges. It is truly phenomenal. I realized that every city I love is built on the water. Ursula and I immediately set out to find food, and a hostel. We were checking out hostels on a list from the tourist office but we unexpectedly found something else. It's a quite hostel in the old part of town that caters to families. The location is excellent because our little island is sandwiched between the two bigger islands and you have to pass through it to get from one big island to another. We're saving a lot of money on food because it's so easy to come back to the hostel to eat lunch. Ursula and I are eating really well in Stockholm because we supplement the food we bought with food from the free cupboard.

Stockholm is a big city, but unlike Berlin, it is very walkable. The main reason to be in Stockholm is to walk around looking at pretty buildings and water views. The highlight today was running into a troupe of dancers dressed completely in white. The dancers gestures were funny, beautiful, and inspiring. They walked around the city drawing attention to themselves. We joined the crowd that followed them to the venue. Ursula and I wanted to watch because we were both captivated, but we couldn't find a place where we could see.