day 24

tuesday 1 june 2010 stockholm to skavsta

crazy mad rush of a day!

rolled outta bed at J's and straight to lunch with C (click for link to read more about C!) at gondolen. never been up the tourist trap and C was very kind to take me. had a great time catching up with C, one of the spriteliest seniors i know. he's in his 70s and a grandfather a few times over and he's got a wide array of interests, from picking up italian as a 5th language 8 years ago, followed by almost monthly trips to italy for language courses, to golf, and scuba diving (he learnt last year!) and he cooks haute gastronomy and i am so very inspired by him and am more convinced than ever that age is not a limit. so as you can imagine, C is fascinating company and excellent conversation. plus he was kind enough to introduce me to not one, but two sets of swedish partners for which i am immensely grateful. so after lunch, we strolled to his boho legal consultancy smack in the middle of gamla stan for tea. my mama taught me never to go anywhere empty handed, so we picked up some pastries first and spent the afternoon discussing one of their partners newly-formed private equity fund. they asked if i'd 5million euro to invest. HAHA. how i wish! hence i am constantly awed by their hospitality and warmth (so much for my anti-swedish people rant) because i am nothing, for now at least, and yet they are so very kind.

was offloading with A about the semi-guilt i felt taking up other people's time and not being able to contribute much (we met at the nobel square to sit and talk till i'd to go) and she shared an interesting perspective. she said that the golden oldies probably didn't need anything from anyone (except maybe that EUR5million) and could very likely have been just happy to have a young person to share their views with, to pass it on. felt a lot less obliged and liability-esque after our last face-to-face h2h and am more determined than ever to pay it forward. that's the beauty of hospitality, especially the warm european hospitality i've been so blessed to receive on my travels. it just inspires me to treat guests and travellers who come my way as well as i can within my means :)

said goodbye to A, and the rest of the gang who'd just caught the annie leibowitz exhibition by the water, and literally ran from J's (picked up my stuff) to central, where i caught the 2nd last bus to skavsta.

lovely airport hotel, btw, and i watched family guy from the restaurant and felt connected to my kungshamra corridormates, with whom i've established a tuesday night family guy watching ritual.

skavsta in the setting sun

clean lines of the airport hotel