Rumor has it that Stockholm’s Hötorget – the Haymarket – has been a marketplace since nearly the founding of the city in the mid-13th century. It gives the place a certain charm to my American eyes, although few Swedes would find it charming I’d bet.

Intimidated by the haggling of the fruit and vegetable and flower sellers who are more likely to be from the Balkans than from Blekinge (which would be one of Sweden’s 21 counties), sniffing at the dingy cobblestones sticky with wilted leaves and smashed berries, it’s too disorderly and dirty for the typical Swedish Swede.

But I love the place.

All those strawberries, new potatoes and chanterelle mushrooms laid out in careful rows, buckets of peonies and roses and lilies, and the hawkers calling out their bargains in heavily accented Swedish. Just make sure you double check the arithmetic before you hand over any money – I nearly paid forty crowns too much when I bought a couple kilos of peaches this past Saturday.

Rowena Subido

Once you’ve gotten your fruit, go inside and down the stairs – they tore down the original market building in 1953 and built an ugly glass box to house a movie theatre and put the market in the basement – the sellers are less aggressive and even more international, selling everything from seafood terrines to Moroccan preserved lemons and merguëz sausages. My favorites are the Chilean empanadas, made fresh every day, bought from the Filipino-South American deli Kapit Bahay Katangi Tangi, in the northeast corner of the hall. You can even get a Guarana soda from the owner, Rowena Subido. Or just go with a Swedish classic, a can of Ramlösa water.

Now take your empanada, your Ramlösa and your pint of Swedish strawberries, find a clean spot – well, as clean as you can – on the steps of the the Stockholm Concert Hall and join the crowd sitting in the sun, with a great view of the statue of Orpheus on your left and the market in all its small glory in front of you.
 

Don’t you hate it when your nearest and dearest fail to appreciate your finely developed sense of humor? When it comes to funny, I firmly believe that repeating a stupid joke to the point of absurdity makes it so much funnier.

Unfortunately, my husband has other ideas.

“Don’t say that again,” he begs me, and threatens revenge. My favorite stupid joke with him was to point out, every time we walked by it, a not-terribly imposing 17th century mansion behind a gate on upper Drottninggatan.

“Spökslottet,” I’d say to him as if he’d never seen it before.

“Yeah, right,” he’d mutter.

I always rather liked the place. The name is intriguing: Spökslottet literally means the Ghost Manor. But it’s not terribly haunted looking, at least not to my American eyes. It’s a typical Stockholm yellow manor house of its time, although the gate is vaguely spooky. But it has a certain charm, and a nice set of gardens to the side which are perfect for sitting and eating an ice cream cone, gardens which is in fact are where the supposed ghost walks.

Last winter, long after I’d been forced to give up the joke, we walked past Spökslottet and continued down Drottninggatan. To our horror, a block down we saw that one of our favorite restaurants, Grill (Drottninggatan 89), had burned during the night and was a black and charred hole in the building it was in.

“Oh, no!” my husband said. “That’s so sad.”

We continued down the street, wondering who or what had caused the fire, whether it was an accident or arson, and if they would ever open again.

Interior at Grill.                                                                                                   Photo Micael Engström

It wasn’t until the other day, the restaurant now back up and running, all fixed and clean and with even more outrageous décor than ever before, that I thought about who might have caused the fire that burned down grill.

Could it have been the ghost of Spökslottet, trying to sneak something to eat during a late-night binge?

When my office moved from the outer edges of the city to the center, all my co-workers were overjoyed: so much easier to get to, tons of lunch places to choose from and endless possibilities to run errands during lunch.

For me, aside from a significantly shorter walk to work (a mere 15 minutes) probably the biggest impact on my life was the fact that Stockholm’s biggest bookstore was now just across the street.

I have a terrible weakness for books. Book lust, isn’t that one of the seven deadly sins?

Having the huge Akademibokhandeln bookstore (Mäster Samuelsgatan 28) so close hasn’t been good for my addiction. They not only stock the latest novels reviewed in the New York Times, they also have a huge English paperback section (a mere four days ago, I was unable to stop myself from buying a hardcover edition of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, which I had read about maybe a week before I bought it.)

Interior of New York Stories

Of course, I am a firm believer in supporting independent booksellers. So Akademibokhandeln isn’t my only supplier. I am also dependent on Hedengrens in Sturegallerian, which has a great collection of books on just about any subject, many in English as well as other, uh, non-Swedish languages. However, my biggest enabler is probably Margaret Patane of New York Stories, a little English bookstore with a big heart and a wonderfully eclectic selection on Odengatan across from Vasaparken, just down the street from my apartment and a couple of doors over from the children’s bookstore Bokspindeln, where I buy picture books that I use to lure my goddaughter into the murky world of book addiction.

The main reading room in Stadsbiblioteket

You might ask why I don’t just borrow books from the library. After all, Stockholm’s main city library – Stadsbiblioteket - is a 30-second walk from the front door of my apartment building. It’s not just any old library, either. It’s a masterpiece of modernism and arguably Stockholm’s greatest building, if you ask an architect. A cylinder on top of a cube, the main reading room with its soaring ceiling and books elegantly circling the walls in colored bands is sublime. Unfortunately, my particular book lust requires that I own the books, so, Stadsbiblioteket is really just something beautiful for me to look at when I need an architecture fix.

But don’t let that stop you from indulging.

Go further: Read Martin's guide to his favourite book stores in Barcelona here.
 

Photo by Bjorn Bore 

If your criteria for the perfect holiday spot are total isolation, intimacy and not the least a fresh breeze, Hotel Utter Inn is just the right place for you. The hotel is a one-room affair in the middle of Lake Mälaren northwest of Stockholm.

You show up and are paddled 1km out to the archetypal Swedish miniature house on the surface of the water. Here you are dropped off and left to yourself.

 
Photo by Tom Airaksinen

If you bring a companion make sure it is someone whom you really get along with, as the hotel’s living space is only a few square meters. Most extraordinary is the bedroom, which is 10 feet under the water. Down here in the ‘abyss’ guests can keep themselves entertained with observing the dreamlike undersea world through the big panoramic windows or by being observed by a curious fish.

Hotel Utter Inn has a tiny kitchen, but if you are on a romantic spree you should seriously consider booking the deluxe version where dinner is delivered by boat.

Written by David Rich

Find more hotels in Sweden.
 

Getting to and from the airport

The express train Arlanda Express leaves every 15 minutes from Arlanda airport and goes to the Central Station in the center. It lasts about 20 minutes and costs no less than 220 SKR (24 Euros)!

You can also take a taxi, but the trip to Stockholm is long and expensive. If you can fill up the cab and if you’re going somewhere far from the Central Station, a taxi might be a good solution after all. Several taxis have a fixed price for the ride between the airport and the center.
There are also buses that go from Arlanda to the center.

Getting around in Stockholm

Stockholm is a great city for pedestrians, so don’t forget to bring comfortable shoes if you want to explore the city on foot.

There is a good subway, “Tunnelbana”, which is an easy way to get around town.  Don't buy single tickets but get a ticket book from a newspaper store: Pressbyrån, or a weekend pass that grants you free transportation for an entire weekend.

Stockholm has an extensive network of city buses, which are in service every day from 5am until midnight. At most bus stops, there is a map of the city and all the bus routes. Tickets are bought from the bus drivers who are mostly very helpful about getting you in the right direction.

The most fabulous way to get around Stockholm is by boat. Not only does it feel right in a city connected by water, it is also an easy and time saving means of transportation. In the tourist offices, you can get information on schedules and routes.

Consider buying The Stockholm Card when you arrive in the city. The card grants you free access to a series of museums, free transportation in the Tunnelbana as well as on many sightseeing boats.

It is not always easy to hail a cab from a street corner in Stockholm. Most often, it’s better to call for one or have your hotel/restaurant/café call. Taxis are expensive. A short trip within the center can easily cost 20 Euros.
 
Links to make your stay in Stockholm a lot easier:

www.stockholmtown.se
www.aos.se
www.nojesguiden.se  - you’ll find the latest news on restaurants, museums etc here.
www.thelocal.com - on-line newspaper

By Mette Lomholdt