Greetings from Stockholm

Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake and I were invited a while back to attend an annual political gathering in Sweden that takes place next week on the Swedish island of Gotland, somewhere in the Baltic sea. Basically, every year all the political parties get together in the town of Visby, on a Swedish island just west of Estonia, and they hold hundreds of political panels and discussions and speeches. Jane and I were invited to talk about blogging, American style, and how blogs were used in the election and the aftermath. We're in Stockholm at the moment, just got here, and head to Visby on Monday.

This is my first trip to Stockholm, and it's a beautiful city. Wonderful vibe too. It's hard to describe, but for me at least, some cities have vibes and others do not. NY has a vibe. So do Paris and Chicago. Stockholm definitely has a vibe. Below are a few of my photos I took last night walking around the city at dusk - of course, dusk here goes from about 7pm until 10:30pm - then you get twilight, which lasts from 11PM until 3AM, then it's dawn. It never gets fully dark this time of year.



The sun is hugely important to the Swedes. They bask in it every chance they get (including a few wonderful neighbors across the way from our hotel who just love to bask on their balconies - I wont be sharing those pictures :-)



Just a building in Stockholm.



A view of the river cutting through downtown Stockholm.



A waterfront bar. Lots and lots of people out and about everywhere in this city.



Some cool window reflections. I was struck by the use of color on buildings, very reminiscent of Rome (the yellows, oranges, and reds you see everywhere in southern Italy).



Just some train tracks. Anyone who's ever been to St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) - at least for me, sometimes the sun, the buildings, evokes St. Petersburg.



More sun.



Just a neat building.



More reflective windows.



The memorial to the Iranian students.