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It was only a short working week last week on account of us going to Stockholm and Brussels. This was part holiday and part research for places to which we could potentially move, with the Sweden part largely being the latter and the Brussels part the former. However we also combined it with our desire to visit Brewdog bars, with us only needing to go to four more to secure the final “This is 40” prize. With two bars in Stockholm and the conveniently newly opened on in Norrköping just over an hour away, we knew we could hit forty if we visited these three plus the one in Brussels, which is what we ultimately did.
We started proceedings at the Kungsholmen Brewdog bar as soon as we had landed at Arlanda Airport. Having flown with SAS, we had the luxury of landing in a major hub with all of the excellent connections that go with it. We whisked through passport control, quickly boarded the Arlanda Express train into central Stockholm and swiftly walked the 2km to the bar. With final orders at 23:30 and having landed at 21:55, we knew time was tight, but we made it with half an hour to spare and soon racked up stamp number 37. The bar staff were suitably impressed with our tally but we weren’t overly impressed with the bar prices. We knew Sweden was expensive but over £10 for a pint of Punk IPA (it was actually about £8 for 400ml) was far worse than I remember it. Indeed while sampling a number of admittedly high strength flights, we ended up spending about £40 in about an hour, which was far from pleasant. Still, we did have some sense of mission accomplished and it was good being back in this bar after four and a half years away, with our last visit during our Nordic Fuzzcon trip in early 2014.
We had a taste of beer at this point and enquired as to whether there were any other bars open past midnight. The barkeep suggested the pool hall just down the road but we needed to check into the hotel before doing anything. This was about five minutes’ walk away so we ventured down there and checked in, being amused to discover that our windowless room was windowless because it was underground on the -1 floor. This was certainly novel and not what I was expecting, but despite the room being a little hot, it was perfect for us as we were only really using it as a base to explore the city. After we had dropped our bags, we went for a little walk in the local area, stopping off for a cheeky hot dog at 7-Eleven. Then, spying a standard-type bar open which was relatively busy, we decided to drop in. The range of beer was more your typical fayre but there was a number of brews we hadn’t yet tried, and some of them were borderline craft. Indeed this place reminded me of some of the places that Mooie had taken us when we visited Gothenburg so we settled at a Formica table with a couple of pints, both of which were again more expensive than they should have been. It was quite a deep bar with fairy lights around the serving area, with a blackjack table randomly in the middle of it, but ultimately with its white roof tiles that wouldn’t look out of place in any office, this was very much a provincial local bar in the heart of the city. Still, it was a friendly place and gave us a good opportunity to have a final pint after which we headed back to the hotel to prepare for a busy day ahead.
Wolfie had been in a right grump during the drive to the airport in Manchester and for much of the flight itself so it was good to see him pick up as the evening had progressed. Parking in the far away terminal two long stay car park and losing a gay pride wrist band in the X-ray machine certainly hadn’t helped but it was being left off the name list for our forthcoming Beer Tasting Panel at EF that had hit him particularly hard. This means heading into Sweden I was fearing the worst but after a good evening, we both awoke on Thursday morning refreshed and happier. The breakfast at the hotel only added to this sense, with pate being one of the things available. I could eat this with crusty bread rolls all day long given the opportunity while the little boiled sausages were fantastic too. This set us up for the day as we had an awful lot to do, not least explore some of the suburbs that my colleague Geoff had recommended me move to. Our first collection were in the west of the city, just off Eriksgatan, over the river from the Kungsholmen Brewdog. This was a very nice area with good links to the city Centre and a range of restaurants and bars. It was certainly a place where I would live, but as with most things, I think we will be forced to go somewhere we can afford and that’s not here. We have done some research though and believe that Stockholm is a viable place to live for us. Part of this revolved around scouting out Lidl, comparing the price of groceries. This seemed to be more comparable with English prices than I was expecting, while the nice gentleman in the Systembolaget shop took us through the pricing there. As alcohol is sold by monopoly in Sweden, I was fearing incredibly high prices but indeed they were significantly lower than the bar prices and about in line with what you would pay in Leeds. This was quite reassuring all told and we were told later in the day by the Brewdog barman in Kungsholmen, where we visited again on Thursday evening, that different Systembolagets sell different things and there is quite a range of beers there. Meanwhile, the nice elderly man in Systembolaget regailed us about his recent trip to Rugby and Stratford-upon-Avon before we had to make our excuses and leave.
We had to go as we were due to meet Geoff for lunch at midday, very near the city Centre at Odenplan. On our way there, we walked through some more residential streets, enjoying the sunshine and looking at places where we could potentially move. I must admit that looking at a city as a place to live is a whole different thing to being a tourist and despite being to Stockholm twice previously, I was now looking at it in a different light. The meeting with Geoff was about our move too, as he is an Englishman who has been living in the city for the best part of twenty years. He has also run branch offices out of Sweden and so knows exactly what needs to be done in this regard. We met over lunch at a place called Balzac, a favourite of local workers. I had a chicken salad which came with pretty much a whole chicken, much to my surprise. It was incredibly well cooked though and being sat on the outside terrace watching the world go by was quite special. The meeting went quite well too, with us learning a great deal more about living and working in the country, from both a personal and a professional level. Whether this is something that could be done under current circumstances, I’m not too sure, but there is certainly a great deal to consider. The meal itself wasn’t too expensive either - a relief based on the drink prices in the city thus far - and I would love to have stayed longer, but Geoff had to get back to work and we had to get to Stockholm Södra station to catch a train to Norrköpping. As we were slated to meet furs later in the evening, we needed to catch the 14:18 train out of Södra to have enough time to visit the Brewdog bar and come back. This saw us leave Odenplan at around 13:15, not realising just how efficient the public transportation is in Europe. As a result, we were about forty minutes early for the train so after purchasing our tickets at the platform ticket machine for eye-watering prices (around £77 return each), we had a little walk around the fountain area outside the station. This was the pleasant Södermalm district, another we were recommended as a place to live and one we were to visit later with the furs. This meant we just had a pleasant amble around before getting back to the station pretty promptly. The train was already sat there once we entered the station platform for the second time so we boarded our first class carriage - which was so negligibly more expensive than standard for the outward journey that we decided to go with it - and waited for the train to set off on the next stage of our adventure.
We started proceedings at the Kungsholmen Brewdog bar as soon as we had landed at Arlanda Airport. Having flown with SAS, we had the luxury of landing in a major hub with all of the excellent connections that go with it. We whisked through passport control, quickly boarded the Arlanda Express train into central Stockholm and swiftly walked the 2km to the bar. With final orders at 23:30 and having landed at 21:55, we knew time was tight, but we made it with half an hour to spare and soon racked up stamp number 37. The bar staff were suitably impressed with our tally but we weren’t overly impressed with the bar prices. We knew Sweden was expensive but over £10 for a pint of Punk IPA (it was actually about £8 for 400ml) was far worse than I remember it. Indeed while sampling a number of admittedly high strength flights, we ended up spending about £40 in about an hour, which was far from pleasant. Still, we did have some sense of mission accomplished and it was good being back in this bar after four and a half years away, with our last visit during our Nordic Fuzzcon trip in early 2014.
We had a taste of beer at this point and enquired as to whether there were any other bars open past midnight. The barkeep suggested the pool hall just down the road but we needed to check into the hotel before doing anything. This was about five minutes’ walk away so we ventured down there and checked in, being amused to discover that our windowless room was windowless because it was underground on the -1 floor. This was certainly novel and not what I was expecting, but despite the room being a little hot, it was perfect for us as we were only really using it as a base to explore the city. After we had dropped our bags, we went for a little walk in the local area, stopping off for a cheeky hot dog at 7-Eleven. Then, spying a standard-type bar open which was relatively busy, we decided to drop in. The range of beer was more your typical fayre but there was a number of brews we hadn’t yet tried, and some of them were borderline craft. Indeed this place reminded me of some of the places that Mooie had taken us when we visited Gothenburg so we settled at a Formica table with a couple of pints, both of which were again more expensive than they should have been. It was quite a deep bar with fairy lights around the serving area, with a blackjack table randomly in the middle of it, but ultimately with its white roof tiles that wouldn’t look out of place in any office, this was very much a provincial local bar in the heart of the city. Still, it was a friendly place and gave us a good opportunity to have a final pint after which we headed back to the hotel to prepare for a busy day ahead.
Wolfie had been in a right grump during the drive to the airport in Manchester and for much of the flight itself so it was good to see him pick up as the evening had progressed. Parking in the far away terminal two long stay car park and losing a gay pride wrist band in the X-ray machine certainly hadn’t helped but it was being left off the name list for our forthcoming Beer Tasting Panel at EF that had hit him particularly hard. This means heading into Sweden I was fearing the worst but after a good evening, we both awoke on Thursday morning refreshed and happier. The breakfast at the hotel only added to this sense, with pate being one of the things available. I could eat this with crusty bread rolls all day long given the opportunity while the little boiled sausages were fantastic too. This set us up for the day as we had an awful lot to do, not least explore some of the suburbs that my colleague Geoff had recommended me move to. Our first collection were in the west of the city, just off Eriksgatan, over the river from the Kungsholmen Brewdog. This was a very nice area with good links to the city Centre and a range of restaurants and bars. It was certainly a place where I would live, but as with most things, I think we will be forced to go somewhere we can afford and that’s not here. We have done some research though and believe that Stockholm is a viable place to live for us. Part of this revolved around scouting out Lidl, comparing the price of groceries. This seemed to be more comparable with English prices than I was expecting, while the nice gentleman in the Systembolaget shop took us through the pricing there. As alcohol is sold by monopoly in Sweden, I was fearing incredibly high prices but indeed they were significantly lower than the bar prices and about in line with what you would pay in Leeds. This was quite reassuring all told and we were told later in the day by the Brewdog barman in Kungsholmen, where we visited again on Thursday evening, that different Systembolagets sell different things and there is quite a range of beers there. Meanwhile, the nice elderly man in Systembolaget regailed us about his recent trip to Rugby and Stratford-upon-Avon before we had to make our excuses and leave.
We had to go as we were due to meet Geoff for lunch at midday, very near the city Centre at Odenplan. On our way there, we walked through some more residential streets, enjoying the sunshine and looking at places where we could potentially move. I must admit that looking at a city as a place to live is a whole different thing to being a tourist and despite being to Stockholm twice previously, I was now looking at it in a different light. The meeting with Geoff was about our move too, as he is an Englishman who has been living in the city for the best part of twenty years. He has also run branch offices out of Sweden and so knows exactly what needs to be done in this regard. We met over lunch at a place called Balzac, a favourite of local workers. I had a chicken salad which came with pretty much a whole chicken, much to my surprise. It was incredibly well cooked though and being sat on the outside terrace watching the world go by was quite special. The meeting went quite well too, with us learning a great deal more about living and working in the country, from both a personal and a professional level. Whether this is something that could be done under current circumstances, I’m not too sure, but there is certainly a great deal to consider. The meal itself wasn’t too expensive either - a relief based on the drink prices in the city thus far - and I would love to have stayed longer, but Geoff had to get back to work and we had to get to Stockholm Södra station to catch a train to Norrköpping. As we were slated to meet furs later in the evening, we needed to catch the 14:18 train out of Södra to have enough time to visit the Brewdog bar and come back. This saw us leave Odenplan at around 13:15, not realising just how efficient the public transportation is in Europe. As a result, we were about forty minutes early for the train so after purchasing our tickets at the platform ticket machine for eye-watering prices (around £77 return each), we had a little walk around the fountain area outside the station. This was the pleasant Södermalm district, another we were recommended as a place to live and one we were to visit later with the furs. This meant we just had a pleasant amble around before getting back to the station pretty promptly. The train was already sat there once we entered the station platform for the second time so we boarded our first class carriage - which was so negligibly more expensive than standard for the outward journey that we decided to go with it - and waited for the train to set off on the next stage of our adventure.
