# [2019.01.03] Globe Trotters

During breakfast today I discovered that pickled herring was also
served. Eating herring at breakfast surprised me at first in Tallinn
and then in Helsinki, so, in Stockholm, I was already eager to have
it on the menu. Herring is all you need, just believe me:)

Then we went to the Townhall of Stockholm famous primarily by its
Blue Hall where the Nobel Prize banquet is held. In the summertime,
they also have the tower open to visitors, so, I guess, we will need
to return here once more. The Townhall is luxurious and extravagant,
its difficult to describe its interiors with words and they were
absolutely worth visiting. The only way to enter the Townhall is a
guided tour since it's an office building after all and nobody is
allowed to stroll the corridors on their own. Interestingly, there
are remarkably many women working as guards in Stockholm. Even the
guards before the Royal Palace were not only men, which is unusual
for me, grown up in Russia. By the way, the royal guards wear
incredibly rad winter high boots, and we saw the change of guard on
our first day here by chance. Another thing that stroke me was the
fact that _anyone_ is welcome to see the city council gatherings
which are held every Monday. Anyone. That is transparency of
democracy as seen by Swedish people nowadays. Our guide said that
only about ten seats of five hundred on the gallery for visitors are
usually occupied. But the simple fact that the council's gatherings
are open for ordinary people sounds exciting for me. I've also read
that _anyone_ can visit Riksdag. It's closed now, during the
Christmas and New Year holidays but maybe we will return, and I will
see how their parliament works. Because in Russia one doesn't simply
walk into the Duma building. Democracy and transparency can be done
differently you know:)

In the afternoon we decided to become globetrotters and got on the
top of the Ericsson Globe --- sports arena of unusual form equipped
with cabins going up and down as outside elevators. Well, that was
interesting but not so exciting as I expected. Probably it would be
better to go there during the light day because at night it's
difficult to understand where is what. But, of course, the view of
night Stockholm is marvellous.

And the day was finished by night shopping in the Mall of
Scandinavia, the largest such establishment in the country, and
dinner from the local Coop store:) In Russia co-ops are usually
laughter through tears located in distant, nearly uninhabited
villages. I've never been to one, to be honest. And here they're
quite decent competitors to supermarket chains. The taste of the day
was Svagdricka --- another low-alcohol malt beverage produced by many
local brands and traditionally consumed during the Christmas season.
And you know, it was really great. Svagdricka gives you swag in a
Swedish way:) By the way, on the Internet, they often write that
Julmust is similar to Russian kvas (квас), or that Svagdricka is like
kvas. No. I've tasted loads of various kinds of kvas being native
Russian, and neither Julmust nor Svagdricka are similar to kvas in
any way except you can drink all of them:)