Nonetheless, I did have lots of fun. I had three nice dinners out: Indian food at the (wait for it...) Indian Garden (with dear friends from the states), very upscale Italian on the roof of a restaurant called Perlei (with a random assortment of people from the conference), and mid range artsy place called BK Mat (with a colleague and a former student).
I went to the fabulous Marias garn yarn shop, which was very close to my lovely 17th century hotel, Hotel Anno 1647. I didn't buy any yarn, but it is a really great source for wonderful yarns, including their own label. Next time I'm in Stockholm it would be great if I can coordinate it so that I actually need to buy some yarn (which I totally don't right now).
My weirdest experience was waiting for my friend and our former student (we both taught him at different times, and now he's planning to apply to grad school. He's been living in Sweden for a couple of years and keeps a very entertaining blog about it). We were supposed to meet up in front of Kulturhuset. I had forgotten what it looks like until I got there, but of course remembered it immediately as one of the most central meeting places in the city. The odd thing is that I kind of freaked out at the scale of the open area and the frenetic human activity that filled it. I had visions of the film Vantage Point. It would be the perfect place for a sniper (here's a link to a nice black and white photograph of it on the Swedish Architecture Museum's website). I more or less hid behind a garbage can on a bench with my back to a wall. I was so relieved when they showed up to rescue me from that place!
The conference itself was worthwhile, and I met my goal of forcing myself to be social and do some networking. I even met someone who had some information that I've been needing for a project that has been stalled for a year now. He encouraged me to email him to get the exact information pinned down. It would be so great to get the project done and under review somewhere. One of the keynote presentations was on films, and the woman showed a clip from what I think was Martin Scorsese's Who's That Knocking at My Door from 1967 (not sure, her accent was hard to understand). I was totally riveted by the clip, not least because the sound track to it was Ray Barretto's "El Watusi" (according to Wikipedia it's from 1961) a song that has to be in my top five of Latin American dance songs. I could barely sit still in my seat during the lecture!
While I was away I knitted about half of a shawl using Inca Alpakka. I decided to use Mustaavillaa's Lacy Baktus variation (Ravelry link) of Strikkelise's now classic Baktus shawl (Ravelry link). I didn't want to take the ski sock along, since that requires a bit more concentration than I can muster during a conference. This pattern was perfect. The increase rows and yarn over rows are just enough to keep it from being boring, while still being mindless enough to take traveling. I'm calling it "Cavity Baktus" on my Ravelry project page, given the reference to Thorbjørn Egner's Karius og Baktus (a Norwegian children's book about dental hygiene) and, well, all those holes.
ETA: Our bed (the one we ordered six weeks ago) arrived while I was away. I am so excited to sleep on a decent mattress for the first time since December!!!
Pure bliss! It's even a Jensen like I wrote about over a year ago, when we were starting to plan our new life here...
