Guests with grey skies

An autumnal walk around Djurgarden
with Felicity, Yan Ma and Sonia

Over the last month I've had 3 meatball dinners, taken in the view over Stockholm from various angles on multiple occasions and munched my way through about 7 cinnamon/cardamom/saffron buns; if the PhD doesn't work out I think I'm now qualified to become a Stockholm tour guide!
I was concerned that November might be a bit dull as the Swedes had frequently informed me that is the most grey and boring month here in Sweden, I needn't have feared though as I haven't had much time to dwell on the increasing lack of sunlight. So far this month there have been visits from Ben (a guy from England, hoping to start a PostDoc with Benny at Stockholm Uni next year, on a similar project to me), Steph (Lancaster housemate) and Bill and Adam (my co-supervisors for my PhD from University of Leeds) and on Tuesday, Diese from the Grocer Cafe will arrive.

Brunnsviken Lake at the light festival

Before all the visits began, we saw out October with a whole host of halloween celebrations. Simon, another PhD, is a huge fan of all things halloween, so he and his fiancee threw an impressively elaborate party, to which Feleicity and I went dressed as departed spirits, covered in spirit bottles with little bottle earrings (costume idea credit goes to Grandma!). On the 31st, celebrations continued with a department fika, which included a chocolate mousse/panna cotta/marshmallow hybrid. This was then followed by the PhD department party (again organised by Simon) with games, quizzes and copious quantities of godis (sweets).

Steph with ABBA

The following weekend, Yan Ma and I went over to Felicity's to finish off the halloween festivities with pumpkin soup, yet more godis and a viewing of 'The Omen' (luckily a fairly tame horror film).

To move away from all things spooky, on the Sunday evening, Yan Ma, David, Sebastian and myself attended the 'Brunnsviken Ljusfest', a celebration of light involving a torch lit procession, with flaming torches, from the university to the botanical gardens. Was a lovely evening for it but rather chilly, later on my app told me there was a chance of seeing the northern lights so I sat out under the stars for a while but unfortunately didn't manage to glimpse any green flickers.

Steph at the ABBA museum

 Tuesday 5th, the visits began, starting with Ben the potential Post Doc. He was coming over to check out Stockholm as he is hoping to start here next October, if he gets the funding. I know him from the EGU training school up in Scotland I went to this summer so he asked me to show him around. On the Tuesday he was mostly in meetings with Benny (my supervisor) then in the evening, Benny, Felicity and myself took him out to Meatballs for the People for the classic Swedish dish. The next day the PhDs from my research group were having an afterwork, going for American food and playing some shuffle board at a nearby bar so I invited Ben along to meet the rest of the Climate and Quaternary Science PhDs.

On the Thursday I took Ben for a rather soggy walk around Stockholm, warming up with a good coffee and cinnamon bun at Gast along the way, then head back to work, absolutely shattered.
Managed to put in a few hours of work before my next visitor arrived as Steph flew in on the Friday afternoon, ready for a great, grey weekend.
After a chilled Friday night at mine we set out into a drizzly Stockholm on Saturday morning, starting out by attempting to see the view over the city (somewhat obscured by the mist) then a stroll around Södermalm and Gamla Stan.

The classic 'Meatballs for the People'

For quite some time I've been wanting to try the fish soup at Kajsas Fisk in Hötorgshallen so we went there for lunch and it certainly didn't disappoint, it was packed with fish, mussels and prawns, I'd thoroughly recommend for a hearty lunch in Stockholm. From here we walked along the water front over to Djurgarden, where the ABBA museum is located, ready for an afternoon of singing and dancing to some of the classics. A great experience with lots of information about the band along with karaoke booths, a very creepy photo area where the morph your face onto an ABBA member and a dancing session ft. Mamma Mia and Dancing Queen. We then shimmied our way across to the Djurgarden ferry to head back into the centre for some drinks and a classic Meatballs for the People session (couldn't think of another great meatball spot off the top of my head!), I tried the wild boar meatballs this time and they were delicious as ever.

Fika at Gast

We started Sunday with a really interesting and informative 'Free Walking Tour' around the city centre then quickly made up for Steph's lack of fika thus far with a cinnamon and cardamon buns at Gast followed by a quick look in the Royal Armory before heading to Vettekatten for an almond variety. As we made our way back to mine to chill and watch a film we stopped off at the Natural History Museum to take a look at (and take ridiculous photos with) the selection of dinosaurs, past primates and Arctic animals on display.
I had to pop into work on Monday morning but was able to meet Steph for a sushi lunch in town before she caught the bus to the airport. Was so lovely to have her over and I do hope her plans of a return visit are in the not too distant future.

Steph making friends at the Natural History Museum

I had a couple of days to take stock before my co-supervisors, Bill and Adam, arrived from Leeds. This allowed me time to go to my second session of my new hobby, Innebandy. This is like indoor hockey played with lightweight, plastic sticks, two tiny goals and a hollow, holey ball. Great fun and fast paced and luckily our group is not too competitive, so I'm given the chance to actually take some shots, even if they do ping off in random directions. This is played each Wednesday lunchtime with a group of about 15 of us from the Physical Geography department, I hope to keep it up (and fingers crossed improve a little with time!).
Adam and Bill's visit was brief but packed with useful discussions. Thursday and Friday were filled with meetings discussing where my project is going and how I'm going to go about undertaking these studies. I felt a little bit like my brain had been fried but its left me with plenty to think about and a lot to get on with.

There has been one day of blue sky!!

Once we were done with the sciency talks on the Thursday, Benny and I took our guests out for dinner, this time I veto'd meatballs so we instead went to Nytorget 6 where I had a lovely lamb dish. This was followed by a couple of beers in nearby bars, one of which I did not get to drink much of before a random guy knocked into my table and topple the majority of my drink into my lap! Got a few weird looks on the train ride home :p
While Adam was showing me how to process my data on Friday I got an email from the University in Svalbard to say I'm on the waiting list for their course, so most probably haven't got a place so I'm now in the process of replanning my coming year; looks like I might be spending a bit more time in Yorkshire than I had expected, I'll keep you posted!

Now, onwards to my next and final visitor of 2018 (may have to let her try meatballs in her own time).