Time off

We've had a lazy few days back in Stockholm. I like to think we are taking advantage of the last few weeks of vacation. Watching movies, reading, taking long walks, cooking. It's been pretty great, actually! But it doesn't make for an incredibly interesting blog, with nothing new to report.

So I'll bore you with how much fun we've been having being lazy. We went for a picnic in Hagaparken yesterday. It's a huge green space in the city with a palace or two, gardens & water, whimsical buildings, a butterfly house, a museum and lots of prettiness. It is just short walk to get there from our place, and I baked bread the day before, so it seemed like a good excuse.

 (Turkish Pavilion) (Me in front of the copper tents at Hagapark)

And in the evening, we saw the movie Inception, finally going to see something at the Skandia Theater on Drottninggatan. I never want to go to another theater again! 

When we lived in DC, we liked to go to the Uptown Theater in Cleveland Park, because it was a charming older venue with balconies and a single screen. 

The Skandia blows the Uptown out of the water. 

It was designed by Gunnar Asplund in the 1920s (the same guy who designed the hat box library across the street from us.) It's unassuming from the street view, but such an interesting package inside. It has a neoclassical flavor, with sculptures on the walls and the railings, and painted niches and the most amazing balcony with private boxes.

 What amazes me is that it was designed and decorated to be a cinema and not converted from a live theater, during the time of silent films with a large open space for the orchestra in front of the screen. I couldn't find a good shot of the ceiling sculptures, but imagine them along the lines of the Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness cover. The Swedish wikipedia article has some good images, as well.

It had closed for various long lengths, with its future at times uncertain. And going to see movies in Stockholm is NOT cheap (try $15 a ticket.) But I am happy to put my movie money toward seeing shows there.