lady dandelion

OK. I don’t think I have revealed the extent of my deep and eternal love for my hometown – Stockholm – earlier here. I love Stockholm in that special way that you love a town that you know, where you have grown up, where you can find your way without thinking or even looking. A city that has been imprinted in me during many years – from the moment I was born – but where I don’t live now. I have memories from almost every part of the city. Since I moved away to study (and remained in exile), many memories are closely connected to my youth and my late teens – when one is almost adult, but not yet – and thus many memories are wrapped in a rather romantic shimmer of the (almost) lost youth. Paradise lost (but it is actually quite nice to live in the real world…)  It is not a matter of lacking intelligence that makes us “almost adults” in our late teens – just a matter of lack of experience and the weight  and steadiness experience gives us.  I took this photo of the very symbol of Stockholm during a walk on the heights of the southern part of the city a couple of weeks ago. It is not a master photo, but it is mine  :-) and it shows the three  golden crowns.  These three, golden crowns are mounted on the top of the Stockholm City Hall and is both the very symbol for Stockholm and for the whole nation. It is these three crowns that the TV-cameras zoom in during the Nobel festivities in December – which is sent out to the whole world. Sweden’s 15 minutes of fame – every year. The City Hall was created by the architect Ragnar Östberg (1856-1945) and opened June 23, 1923. Its modern shape – combined with classical elements – were very controversial at the time and set off a heated debate – both before and after the building was built, but today it is undisputed and maybe the most important icon Stockholm has. Again: tradition and modernity united at its best.