Well, it has been a long time. I just checked and I hadn’t been here since November 2012. Don’t worry, I did not join the coffee-aholic anonymous. I have just been busy with other things. While I kept drink coffee – a lot of coffee – in the last few months, I just did not find the time to share my new discoveries in Stockholm.
What is more important than coffee you ask? Well, first I decided to get back in shape. I am not quite there yet but I am making progress. Two weeks ago I ran the Kungsholmen half-marathon in 2h06m. If you go back a few entries on this blog, I once said that I had given up running a half-marathon under 2 hours. Well, this is now my objective for the Stockholm half in September.
More importantly, things have evolved quite positively with someone with whom I spent a long weekend in Copenhagen last September. Again, you will have to go back and read past entries to get some of the details. The result, however, is that I spent more time in the last few months writing to her than writing on this blog. I am still spending a lot of time thinking about her, but I felt like I should renew contact with this blog, if only to force me to go out and discover new cafés instead of going back to those I already know and love.
I used to be a big fan of hockey. Today I don’t really care… But tonight I was invited to a beer and pizza night to watch the Canada-Sweden game in the World Hockey Championship at friends’ who live at Sankt Eriksplan. Since the game only started at 20:15 and I got off work at 17:00, I thought this was a perfect occasion to visit a new café in that neighborhood. That would be much more productive than going back home for a nap.
If you go back to the early days of this blog, you will see that one of the nice cafés at Sankt Eriksplan was Balzac. Unfortunately, Balzac has closed down since my last visit. The good news is that Emmas has taken over. And frankly, not much has changed, except maybe the menu! The atmosphere at Emmas is just as good as it was at Balzac.
While I found the menu on the wall from a projector really cool, the reality is that it tends to block the entry with people who can’t decide what they want to have. Besides, I don’t have enough patience to study a full menu when I have access to everything I need right in front of me! Seriously, the menu looks great, with the usual options for a Swedish café and a bit more. The pasta with chicken and pesto looked (and smelled) particularly delicious.
Now, I told you that I had been working hard to get back in shape. This is partly for my well-being, but also to feel good with that special person who is taking more and more space in my life. So, I tried to be somewhat reasonable. After all, I had a pizza and beer evening waiting for me. So I only had a cookie with my cappuccino.
Unfortunately, my capacity to be reasonable is quite limited and after putting a lot of effort in resisting, I had to order something else. Because you see, this is the beauty with Emmas! While a lot of cafés in Söder close at 18:00, Emmas stays open late, and it is a perfect place to have a glass of wine or a beer!
Hvala Andy! It feels good to be back!