Hello.: Stockholm

Walking Around The Old Town at Night

Over dinner in Stockholm, my friends have expected for me to bring them to explore the city at night. We were eating dinner in a Pakistani restaurant at Gamla Stan (Old Town) area, ordering chicken curry, chicken beriyani and a dish that I don't quite remember with five small plates of white rice. The total was almost 750SEK, it was really expensive.

But hey, it was scrumptious.

"Nash, the Royal Palace is just within walking distances from here, right?" Kak Maya suddenly asked. I nodded slowly, making her smile widen.

"I guess I just had enough of walking today."

"I know what you meant. It was exhausting." Sofe chimed in while checking her Iphone for WiFi. Mira and Dinie were chatting amicably without a care to their surroundings.

I started the walk from the Lilla Karachi restaurant heading towards the Royal Palace of Stockholm. It took less than fifteen minutes walk to get there.

The Royal Palace (Kungliga Slottet) is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch. The palace is located on Stadsholmen, in Gamla Stan, in the capital of the city Stockholm.

I used to spend the majority of my time exploring Stockholm with my two friends about five years ago. I loved it, and stumbled across most of my stories just by meeting strangers and striking up a conversation.

The night was cold. I only wore a dark-blue jacket, paired with a dark-blue jeans and a grey sweater. The sky was mesmerizing for a while before it decided to graced us with light rain.

"The places were beautiful."

"How could they preserve these places, I wonder."

In the first ten minutes of the walk around the place, it was like my mind was remembering the past. I felt a sense of familiarity for a moment. And damn, it did feel good.

The group has bonded beautifully. There's collaboration, there's shared knowledge about the places and also positive attitudes.

We continued getting to know each other- I knew Sofe and Dinie for a few years now (Sofe is my batchmate) but I knew so little about Kak Maya and Mira. We watched the detailed architecture of the buildings as we walked by, we talked and laughed together, watched a guy that was playing ice hockey by himself at two in the morning at the heart of the city.