Ikea

In the end, the clouds cleared up quite nicely yesterday. The sky is really bright again today, it’s really hot; and visibility is better as well – the far distance looks light blue, rather than dull grey. When I told people I was going to Sweden, most people’s first instinct was to say “Ikea!” Not “Ah, the home of Ikea” or “You could see what Ikea is like there.” Most people just shouted the word. I’ve never been to an Ikea before, but in a desperate search for cheap crockery, I went yesterday to what is apparently the biggest Ikea in the world. I just walked round in circles (the whole store was a giant spiral – dunno if that’s how all Ikeas are) saying, “Where are the plates? Why don’t they sell any plates? Why?” Eventually I found them, but it took aaaages. I was expecting the whole trip to take an hour and a half, but it took nearly 4 hours. Still, it was worth it for the plates/bowls/sharp knife/chopping board/cooking dish. Oh yeah, that's the other thing - I've found that in Sweden it is RUDE to pack your bags before paying, when you shop. I've been given such evil looks for doing it. The way they have the conveyer belt at the end is that there's a big wooden separator - so all of your stuff gets pushed to one half of the belt while you pack, and the stuff of the next person in line, goes to the other half. Did I explain that well? It's actually quite a good system, probably invented by someone with half a brain; I hate it when I'm at Tesco, still packing my stuff into bags after paying, and the cashier starts putting the next person's stuff through. Really, that's just asking for trouble.

On the way back, I sat on the tube opposite two Jamaican men. Now these were not your average laid-back Lilt-drinking Jamaicans. They were really aggressive; they kept talking about getting into fights, and killing people who robbed them. I guess I look like I could be Swedish, so they didn’t think I would understand most of what they were saying. But I DID understand most of it. Oh yeah, random thing – there was a vending machine at the tube station selling sweets, drinks, chewing gum, condoms... Yeah, that’s right, condoms. I thought that was mental. Should have taken a picture really. Ah well, I’ve got another 10 weeks here, and I’m sure I’ll go to T-Centralen many times. Anyway, here are some pictures I did take (click on the pictures for bigness):

Västra Skogen station - this is more what I mean about the sculptures. On the other side of those coloured... things, is the other platform.


A different part of the platform - this is a better picture showing what I mean about the walls being like caves.


Same place. The edge of the poster is, of course, a Madonna poster.


The huge Ikea. This picture doesn't do it justice.