FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'

Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas to all my faithful blog readers around the world, from a place that's Far From the Madding Crowd of Swedish Moose, Reindeer, Fir trees, Snowmen and snowmobiles -South Florida, where it'll be in the '80's today. But you all know where I'd much rather be today!


Above and below, some of my January 2013 photos at Sergels Torg, Stockholm, Sweden. All original photos below by South Beach Hoosier.  © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

Above, ground level, looking northeast towards the obelisk and Sergelfontänen, the fountain, which in the winter becomes the scene of large lighted reindeer, sans red noses.

Behind that is the large SEB building, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB, on Sveavägen, the firm I used for my currency exchange at Arlanda upon arrival and departure. 
Very friendly and professional people, unlike most banks in South Florida.













Below, earlier in the afternoon, looking east towards that same scene but from farther west on the plaza. 
In the far right, you can see the iconic revolving 22-foot neon, circular Nordiska Kompanaiet Department Store sign not too far away over on Hamngatan, which is green on one side and red on the other at night, with a clock.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tommyajohansson/4948444585/

It's not only an iconic symbol in the area, but a beacon for those for whom the fashionable life that exists in Stockholm is the only way to go. 


It's pretty amazing, which is why I have said here on the blog so many times that people who live there REALLY love it in a way that is hard to describe to people who live in South Florida, given the high percentage of people who are from elsewhere.

That's part of what gives it its palpable soul and sense of style.




Above, looking west from ground level near the middle of the Plattan towards the very popular Stadsteatern, the Stockholm City Theatre, http://kulturhusetstadsteatern.se/










The plaza is only one of my favorite places in all of Sweden and anywhere actually.

I literally spent HOURS standing and walking around it and the adjoining areas in January's cold, marveling at it all -the perfect public square. I simply couldn't get enough of it, just like when i first moved to washington, D.C. in 1988, and could spend as much time as i wanted on the steps of the west side of the U.S. Capitol overlooking The Mall, or from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, looking east towards the washington Monument.
A nexus of high-minded culture, social policy, pop culture, amazing retail shopping, very serious people-watching and the ease of well-located public transportation hubs that make everything seem more intimate and possible.

So unlike South Florida.


[OFFICIAL] Michael Jackson Dance Tribute - STOCKHOLM, July 2009.

When kids in small towns in Sweden think about what they want to do in Stockholm one day when they are older and have left their bucolic and boring life behind, one of the things they think about is being able to take it for granted that a place like this exists for them, too.

That it belongs to them as much as it belongs to people who have always lived in Stockholm.
There is nothing like this at all in South Florida.


RetardedVideos2013 YouTube Channel video: Crazy snowmobile ride in Stockholm (SWEDEN). Uploaded on December 6, 2012. http://youtu.be/j7sCpSFRKww 

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