nedeľa 30. decembra 2012

Meeting Marilyn Manson



This entry is about meeting and hanging out with Marilyn Manson recently in Vienna.




I went to see Marilyn Manson in Vienna. My dear friend Katarina and her boyfriend gave me a lift. Me and Katarina both had VIP tickets and we had a great time. She’s an awesome concert mate, I need to say. We already started with concert “preparation”in the car – listening to MM, finishing our make up and drinking vodka (her boyfriend was the driver, so meanwhile me and Katarina were slowly getting drunk xD). Normally I would say it is too early to start drinking at 12.30, but at that day we were going to meet Marilyn Manson and we were pretty nervous xD I need to say my nervousness started to wear off a bit with the great company and the amount of booze :D

Anyways we got to the venue earlier than I expected and still haven’t finished the bottle of vodka. So we took the vodka bottle and everything else we needed with us and hurried to find the VIP que. Hurried is a funny word to use in this context, because my friend was wearing these beautiful heelless shoes (partly on my recommendation, so I’m the guilty one xD) and the vodka we have drunk plus the snow outside wasn’t making it much easier for us. I am still laughing when I remember it, sorry! :D As we came near the building, there were 2 girls walking in our direction who asked us if we were VIP. We said yes and it turned out they were VIP, too J When we got to the que for the entrance to the building for VIPs, we waited for a bit and then we were let inside. I saw a few familiar faces. At about this time I also realised I don’t have my cellphone. I must have either left it at home or in the friend’s car (it was in the car in the end). It is not the best to forget your phone, when you are supposed to get in touch with your parents and bf via the phone and after the concerts with your friends with whom you want to go clubbing. Then we were standing in the line for what seemed like forever. It was vodka and kind company, again, which helped us wait through this eternity. 

Melanie from GT, who was taking care of us, was very nice too. After a long waiting she told us she is really sorry that it is taking so long, but it’s difficult getting Manson to the venue. In the first moment, i did not think about the snow outside being possibly the reason for this, the first thing I thought was “Is he so drunk/fucked up already?” Anyway, I was hoping that’s not the case, not only I was looking forward to meet him, but I also hoped the show will be as good as the one I saw recently in Prague. When we finally met him we found out there was no reason to worry about this, probably there was just a problem on the road. Each of us got only a few seconds with Marilyn since the band arrived late.

I think all my nervousness faded from waiting so long. We greeted each other and he signed the Long Hard Road Out of Hell book for me. I told him my name is Devon, but the music in that room was so loud he probably did not hear me properly and he wrote down “Devil” xD. I told him, I’m not a devil, I’m Devon. In an attempt to repair it, at least partly, he made it “Devöl”. So anyway Devon plus devil makes Devöl I guess :D Then we hugged and he said „Don’t worry, we will hug some more later“. I did not really get at first what he meaned by that. Then all of us VIP waited in another line to take a photo with Marilyn. When it was my turn, I came into the room and said to Marilyn that I have no idea about what pose we should make. He said nevermind and just sort of grabbed me xD. I’m really satisfied with my photos, anyway. :)

When the meet and greet was over, it was time to wait for the show. We had to wait outside the concert building and it was quite cold. By this time me and my friend Katarina parted, because she had a ticket for sitting and I had one for standing. I was standing there with Mihai, whom I just got to know that day waiting for the Meet and Greet and we were kind of freezing. Then we were finally let in. We had no idea if there would be a support band or whatever...but there was actually something else. There were two djs plus a pole dancer. The pole dancer was skilled and I liked her dance, but the djs were totally out of place. I wonder who wants to hear Skrillex before a MM/Rob Zombie show. They did put on also some stuff which was all right, for example Rammstein, but for the most part we were just hoping for Manson to come on stage really soon to end this. I did check out the setlist from the previous Europe shows before the concert and Manson played the same also in Vienna and I was happy for the choice of songs because it included some of my favourites like Antichrist Superstar, Disposable Teens, The Love Song, MObscene, etc. I could go on about how amazing the concert was, because I loved it, but I won’t. :D Marilyn seemed to be so much more in shape than for example in 2009 when I saw him in Bratislava. And he did put on a better show too. The whole experience was lovely, the only slight downpoint to it was getting hit by the other fans around all the time (but at least the fans at this concert had some manners unlike some other crowds I have been in before). 

By the end of the Manson concert I felt that I will probably faint soon unless I sit down/drink something. As the last song ended and the audience moved a bit back, some of the people leaving to get some fresher air, I fell on the girl standing behind me. I apologized and for she said it’s ok and asked me if I was all right. I said that I don’t know and I need to get out…then I got through the rest of the crowd as soon as possible and walked out of the concert room/hall.

I was standing near the wardrobe for a couple of minutes, leaning against the wall since I still felt a bit like fainting and there was no place to sit. I could have sat on the floor I guess, but I did not want to :P I was waiting there to see a familiar a face – one of the Austrian girls Elen and Tina or to see Mihai, who was standing behind me at the beginning of the concert. Elen and Tina appeared moments later and asked me whether I will join them and wait with them for the backstage and then they asked me where’s my backstage pass. I had no idea that anyone got any backstage passes so I just looked at them and asked for an explanation. :D They were surprised I did not get one (Thinking back it could have happened because I sort of ran out of the room where the photo with Manson was taken right after the photo, because my friend Katarina shouted my name. I got worried she could have sprained her ankle or something wearing those amazing but dangerous shoes, so I got out of the room as fast as I could. Well, we’ll never know if that was why I did not get the backstage pass at first :D So, back to the story.) 

Elen and Tina showed me which security guy gave them the backstage access. Of course i wanted to go backstage too after the show so I got a crazy idea. I asked Elen if she would pretend I am her sister, but she said that would probably not work out, because we don’t look very similar. That’s true, so I asked her if we could pretend we are cousins and she said yeah. So we told the security guy that I am her cousin but I did not get the backstage pass and asked if I could get one. To my surprise, this crazy little plan of ours worked out, probably because the security guy was a very nice person, he smiled and said something like: “Sorry, I must have forgotten to give you one. There you go.” How sweet. Having my backstage pass and being happy and thankful to Elen, my new cousin, I went to see the Rob Zombie show, although this time from a distance unlike the Manson concert (I was standing in the second row and it was crazy but fun at the same time). 

I need to say I enjoyed the Rob Zombie concert. I don’t really listen to his music, but judging from what I heard live it sounded fairly good to me.;) I was standing in the doorway with Mihai and his friends, I was still feeling a bit too sick to go back into the crowd. There was a drunk guy trying to tell me something in German, but I did not understand him a word. Then he went on and tried to tell something to Mihai. (Don’t know if he had any more success, lol.)

After the Zombie concert I went to wait for the backstage. We have waited for what seemed like ages, it could have been an hour or so, but I don’t really know exactly. Not having my phone with me I kinda lost track of time. Not that I would care about time at that moment. Time didn’t matter. I was only sorry for not having my phone there, so I could tell my friends where I am. They wouldn’t need to be worried where I am and I would also try to get a backstage pass for them, too. Oh well. I had no phone with me so I could forget about that. After some amount of waiting, we were told to follow one of the security guys into the elevator. Standing in the elevator, the twenty of us or so, I just realized how huge were the elevators there. In that situation I think every other fan in my position would be thinking “Omg, I’m gonna hang out with Manson”, but I was thinking about the stuff surrounding me (like the elevator). But at the same time, I was happy and excited, too, of course. When we came near the tour bus, the security guy, told us that the first ten of us girls can go inside the bus and the rest should wait. We knew the rest will come into the bus a while later, but somehow I was still satisfied to be one of the first ten girls, who came in.

As we entered the bus we first met one of the security guys (the nice guy who gave me the backstage pass). He told us to keep calm and enjoy ourselves. I need to say that all of us kind of kept calm. ;) That was good, because Marilyn seemed a bit overwhelmed by us in the first moment. In a way, it was nice to know that, because then we weren’t the only ones who were a bit nervous in the present situation. On the bus there were Marilyn and Lindsay (his girlfriend), some security guys and roadies. Marilyn said hi and introduced his lovely girlfriend to us saying he loves her and that he is going to marry her one day. How sweet was that <3 Then he told us something like: “Wow, there’s so many of you.” (Now I am not sure, if some of the rest of the girls joined us already, or if the other ten girls came in all at once later on.) Anyways, the tour bus seemed tiny, so Marilyn and Lindsay found themselves surrounded with girls. Oh, not sure if I mentioned before, but there was a no guys rule on the tour bus (well, except for band members, security guys and roadies, of course :D). So that is why there were only girls. Marilyn went on to say something like: “Please take a seat. This is a rape type of situation. I am gonna put on some music, because this is really a kind of rape situation.” We all laughed at this, Marilyn put on some music and turned down the lights. 

Then each of us girls got a glass of champagne, we all said cheers to him and to Lindsay and introduced ourselves. Marilyn mentioned: “Now that you all drank it, I can tell you that there was Rohypnol in it.” First one of Marilyn’s jokes. xD Marilyn kept looking around himself saying something like: “This is like in a zombie movie and now you girls are gonna attack me.” I asked him if he thinks we are creepy or ugly. He said he doesn’t think that at all and that he thinks this is a good kind of zombie movie and that we should attack each other. I objected that we have no weapons, so we can’t. He said he’s gonna get us some knives. Some moments later I noticed that someone (could be one of the roadies) brought some plastic knives. I haven’t noticed if any of the other girls used them, but I didn’t. Sometimes I felt like I was being a bit rude, because I kept replying to stuff Marilyn said and I was the first one to ask for some more booze, etc. Manson did not seem to mind luckily. (I was already quite drunk from before, otherwise I could have behave a bit more shy and modest.:D)

After we all finished the welcome drink, I asked Marilyn what else is there to drink and whether has some absinthe around there. By this time, the rest of the girls were already inside the bus, so it was getting quite crowded. Marilyn had another welcome drink with the rest of them (and with us again). As Lindsay suggested, we all did the name thing, the introduction again. To my question about absinthe, Marilyn replied something about having some absinthe earlier on the tour. But he said that there’s no more left and that the one they had tasted like shit, anyway. “Ts ts ts, Marilyn Manson not having any absinthe, that’s strange.”I replied laughing and wanted to know what else is there to drink, then. He said that there’s some Jack Daniels for example and asked whether we would like some of that. We said “Yeah, sure.” Each of us got a glass of Jack Daniels. Marilyn Manson (and his team) were taking care of us so well. :)
 
When some of us ran out of drinks, I was the one to ask Marilyn (again!) whether there’s some more to drink. He made fun of me and said that I’m not getting any more alcohol, because I am so small. Me laughing„ So what if I am small?“He said something in the sense, that he is sure my body won’t process that much alcohol. Because it is about weight with alcohol. I replied that it’s not and I know that, because my bf is almost two metres tall and can take less alcohol than me. :D At this point Marilyn mentioned that he has no idea about our European metric system and that he is perhaps like 6 metres tall. “Yeah sure.“ Me and Lindsay and some of the girls started laughing at him. Then he said that of course I can have some more booze. He pointed to the bar and said it’s over there, so I should go there and have some. I took the glasses of some other girls, too to re-fill them with alcohol. Then I came to the bar part of the bus where the roadies were sitting and I asked one of them what kind of alcohol is left. He started making fun of me that I must be like 14 years old, that I look so young and that I am not getting any booze. When I told him, my real age, he poured me some more Jack Daniels and grabbed a plastic knife and pretended to slit my throat.

Anyways, I don’t wanna make it seem like all the conversations in the bus went on only about booze. One of the other topics were foreign languages. Marilyn remembered me and another girl seated next to me at the beginning as “the translators”. Because we spoke both decent English and German(my German is not that good, but anyway). I am sure there were more girls like that on the bus, but for soem reason he called the two of us translators. When some of the girls said something to each other in German, Marilyn said something like „don’t dick talk me“:D He was making us laugh constantly. I must say I love his sense of humour. We all began teaching Marilyn dirty words in German, because he seemed interested in that :D I told someone else that I could teach him those dirty words also in Slovak and began saying some of them just for the interest of the others xD When said the Slovak word “kurva”, Marilyn reacted: “Don’t say that to me, I can understand it.” I replied that the word is maybe a bit international. He kept repeating some ofthe dirty words in German, particularly Fotze“ the German for “cunt”.

Speaking of this, Marilyn said he liked my military cap and Lindsay said she liked it, too. I thanked them both and felt very proud for a moment until Marilyn asked if I knew how this was cap called in America. I told him I have no idea and asked him what it is called. “Cunt cap” he says. Me being quite drunk and therefor a bit stupid: “Why?” ”Because it looks like a cunt.” he added. Then I realized that the top of the cap might really resemble that, I laughed and replied something not very intelligent again: “But it’s not mine, it’s my boyfriend’s.”(meaning the cap, of course) Oh geez. Anyway, as for compliments, Marilyn complimented on my outfit in general and Lindsay said she loved the thing I had around my neck, which was a sort of black faux fur scarf. She had a similar thing on her coat, but I have no idea whether it was also faux fur or real. I didn’t ask because I did not wanna start talking about who is against and who is for wearing real fur.

Soon enough, I realized whom we all miss at this little tour bus after party – Twiggy. I asked Marilyn where is Twiggy and the rest of the band. He asked his security guy, who said they were playing some computer or playstation games, not sure what exactly, I don’t remember what he said. Anyway we all laughed at that, we are having an after party here and those guys are playing games at the other tour bus. Marilyn also looked like he would like to have the other guys from the band join us. He got this idea that some of us girls should go to the other bus with Lindsay and bring the guys there. Then he made the idea more specific by saying he wants to do a “titty parade”. His idea was that a few of us girls and Lindsay will come to the other tour bus and show the other band mates our tits. He asked Lindsay whether she would do this if we agreed to do it and she said that she will, of course. But the rest of us denied this suggestion, none of the girls wanted to show their tits to the bandmates. So then Marilyn got another suggestion for us: „Let’s do a military parade, then.“ The girl who was wearing a military uniform was automatically a part of the parade with Lindsay and Marilyn said we need one more girl. I don’t remember if anyone volunteered. I was seated comfortably and did not show much interest to go, because I had been in the cold for some time that day already and I did not feel like going back much. Besides, I thought the rest of the band would like to join us, so I will see them anyway. That’s why I had nowhere to hurry. But when Marilyn asked me to go I said ok. :)
 
When we came to the other tour bus, we said hi and at first we noticed just Twiggy. I introduced myself and told him what fun is he missing by sitting here and not at the other tour bus. Twiggy was looking cute and a bit tired.He was wearing a very comfy outfit and he looked like he was about to go to sleep soon.He was sitting with his feet on the seat only with socks on. He told me he can’t find his shoes. xD I kept repeating that it’s fun at the other bus and that he should join us and he kept repeating that he might if he finds his shoes and he asked me again and again if it’s fun on the other bus. He made me laugh. All of a sudden he lifts his hand and says “high five”. So we high fived. While we kept repeating the same stuff, I suddenly noticed Fred who heard that we were talking about the other bus and about 20 girls being there and asked if he can join. “Of course, please join us.”Then I said he should take Twiggy with him, if Twiggy manages to find his shoes. I could have stayed there and helped Twiggy find his shoes (even though I don’t think that was the reason why he didn’t wanna go to the other bus) or I could have persuaded him some more saying that it will be so much better and more fun with him, but instead me and the other girl just hurried back to Manson’s bus. Fred said he will be there in two minutes and indeed he did appear very soon.

When we returned to the bus and Fred arrived, the bus seemed already completely full. There was quite a lack of space for sitting now, so me and a girl from Poland sat on Fred. Later when we all moved around a bit (I think I perhaps went to get me and the girls around me something more to drink xD) Manson took me to sit on his lap. This may sound stupid, but since I was the only one who sat on him except for Lindsay, I felt sort of honored. :D. Marilyn was probably in a playful mood that night, since there was no zombie fight, he at least had a fake fist fight with Fred. Freddie sort of scratched him or something and then Marilyn said „Ouch, look at this“. They were so funny xD Well, anyway now that I was sitting on Marilyn he got this idea that he whispered into my ear: “Let’s attack Fred.” So I asked him how do we act him and he said I should just jump on top of him when he’s not looking. I started laughing. When Fred was not looking at us (he was sitting right opposite at perhaps one meter’s distance) Marilyn decided it’s the right moment to “attack”. “He is not looking now.Let’s attack him” he whispered. He threw me on top of Fred. I did lend on him only my head met the ceiling of the tourbus during the “attack”. I did not get hurt or anything, but when I bumped my head it made a loud “bang” or how to describe this sound and everyone stopped talking and looked at me. I held my head saying “Ouch”(or well, the military cap on my head) and was kinda confused so I looked first at Fred, then at Marilyn. It did hurt a bit, but it didn’t hurt as much as being hit into the head by other people during the show. At first everyone was silent, then Marilyn started apologizing, he asked me multiple times if I am not hurt and whether I am ok and he said he really didn’t mean to do this and that he’s so sorry. I said I was ok (and I felt much better after the apology from Marilyn :P). I told him it’s not as bad as getting hit in the head during the show all the time, I was in the second row and it was like hell (ok, it wasn’t that bad because of the music, but physically I did suffer). He replied: “I know, I saw you.”Then he sat me on himself again and this time held me around the waist, so there was no chance I would fall down and hurt myself or anything. :P So we stayed like this until he needed to go to the toilet. 

Then I sat next to my new Vienna friends – Elen and Tina. We sat opposite Lindsay and talked with her. Someone asked her whether Marilyn doesn’t mind/like it when someone calls him Brian (you can guess the answer:P). Well he doesn’t like it. :P I complimented on Lindsay’s hairstyle. Speaking about Lindsay, not only she is beautiful and elegant, she is also very nice and has a good sense of humour, too. She and Marilyn looked so happy together. They are a perfect couple. Some of the girls (don’t remember which one it was) told this to Lindsay: “You and Marilyn are the perfect couple. You are so beautiful and he is charming.” Marilyn heard this and said: “Thank you, I’m glad you think I am beautiful, you can continue to talk about me.” Everyone started laughing: “That was about Lindsay not about you.” Me:“But you are beautiful, too. :D” Marilyn seemed to be enjoying himself around so many girls. He was entertaining us all the time and I believe everyone was having lots of fun in there. He sometimes said random things like: “There’s a lot of vagina on this bus. Fred technically has a vagina.” Everyone started laughing. Then he said we should be nice to Fred, because he is a really good person. I said:”But you are a good person, too, Marilyn.”Marilyn: “I know, but he is really good. He’s just a really good person.” 

I didn’t get much time to talk to Fred since I mostly devoted my attention either to Marilyn, Lindsay or to the other girls on the bus from time to time (mostly Elen and Sarah). I only asked Fred if he likes Vienna and if he’s been there before. He replied he’s been here twice and he really likes it here. Then I told him I am not from Vienna, but from Slovakia. For no reason, just because I wanted to say it. :P I noticed he is trying to devote his attention to everyone and thought he really must be a sweet guy. Whenever someone was not talking with anyone at the moment he started a conversation with them. I also remembered he was the guy who walked past me and my friends after the concert in Prague in front of Manson’s wardrobe. We were too busy waiting for Marilyn and didn’t even notice him that time, we just greeted back, but we didn’t even look who we are greeting. Thinking back it must have been him. Stupid us.

Anyways:D to continue the story: Marilyn told us that Fred is such a good person and that it’s his birthday and that we should all kiss him on the cheek. I did not believe the birthday thing, of course :D but I asked Fred if it’s really his birthday. He said it’s not but he wants the kiss anyway, so he got one. :) While all of us were drinking, talking and just having fun, most of the time pleasant music was playing – for example Placebo (to which both Marilyn and me and perhaps some of the other girls started humming and singing a bit), Depeche Mode (I am not that much into them, but the song that was on reminded me of some parties I’ve been to, so I started sort of dancing on the seat), The Psychedelic Furs(the song Pretty in Pink was on, I mentioned I love the song Pretty in Pink then someone said it can’t be that song for sure and asked Marilyn what it was, but of course it was Pretty in Pink;)) and some other stuff. Marilyn probably also likes Rammstein. I think so because while we were teaching him dirty words in German, he firstly used the five words he already knew in German and then he says “Du hast” and I said “Oh yeah, RammsteinJ”. Anyway at some point Marilyn said he’s going to punish us girls with music and he turned on some awful rap (lol, I protested that it sucks):D Then he started doing a very funny dance to that music, we should have done a video of that. :D I believe everyone was having so much fun at this point. There were some girls kissing and I think Marilyn did a video of that on his phone (not sure). Then he asked me, Elen and I think Tina to pose and say something for a video that he was going to send to Twiggy to see what he is missing. =P He also tried calling Twiggy but with no success. Marilyn said he’s probably sleeping already.

While Marilyn sat opposite to us, someone (I think it was Elen, but I don’t remember it for sure) started caressing his hand. She told me I should do the same and I did that. Then Marilyn looked me straight in the eyes and I stopped and he said “You shouldn’t stop, I like it.”
Some of us said to Lindsay that they’re just waiting when Marilyn Manson gets enough of this fun and will be tired and want to sleep xD When Marilyn really got tired after having spend about 4 hours with us and after the whole day, so we all hugged with him and Lindsay and Fred and said our goodbyes. I remember I asked Lindsay whether she isn’t over the friend limit on fb and then I asked if I could add her and she said sure. It’s nice to have her on facebook now. She’s a sweet lady, I hope I’ll meet her again sometimes, ofcourse with Marilyn Manson and the rest of the band. When we came out of the tour bus, I still felt like partying. Elen and Sarah did not object, so we went to party some more with my friends who were at Club Duplex. We had some more fun there. All together it was a super crazy and an amazing day. 

I am sorry if I left out some interesting details from the bus part. This entry has gotten really looong and I still haven’t managed to cover everything and some things I might also want to keep just to myself. xD 

Anyway, I hope to see Marilyn Manson live soon;)

Cheers everyone, hope u enjoyed reading!
d0ll

štvrtok 1. novembra 2012

Halloween parties & Midnight Café in Bratislava





This year I planned to attend 3 parties around Halloween time in 3 cities in 3 different countries. Unfortunately, the last one did not work out, so I attended just two of them. I had three costumes on my mind this year – bat costume (which was not complete in the end, because I found out my bat wings were already damaged), (un)dead geisha (not being a very “extreme” costume this time) and my most favourite costume of this year, the dead soldier, was not even used in the end. Well, better luck next year, I guess! :D

Here’s a few pics from the Hell-o-Wien party in Vienna. The first picture is taken by Geoff Brook.




As for some more creepy fun, Wednesday 13’s concert is coming very soon, can’t wait to see them again!:) It now seems and look like ages ago when I last saw them(early November 2008). :D



I took part in a very fun series of zombie photoshoots lately, a project of the talented Agience Photography.
( http://www.facebook.com/pages/Agience-Photography/310974088964378?ref=ts&fref=ts)
 I am really looking forward to seeing the rest of the pics from it.






(c) Agience Photography


 Last, but not least, the first goth/alternative café opened in Bratislava recently – Midnight Café. Go check it out, if you’re in Bratislava, you will love it!! ;)

streda 1. augusta 2012

A lovely holiday in the North: Stockholm


I recently came back from a holiday in one of my favourite cities– Stockholm. It was my second visit to Stockholm, so apart from admiring Sweden’s beauty I also had the chance to observe what has changed since my last visit there in 2009. I spent my holiday in Sweden in the company of my boyfriend and our Swedish friends, Anders and Viktoria, with whom we stayed during our trip. They made this trip even more amazing. <3


 

From my point of view, Stockholm is an open-minded, calm city with a lot of stuff to do, whatever your interests are. Our interests included getting to know the gothic & alternative scene in the city - parties, concerts, alternative clothes shops; vegetarian and vegan eating options; sightseeing and getting to know some of the beautiful and unique places in the city.

Hopefully this journal entry could serve as a small city guide to you, if you go on a trip to Stockholm:)

Sightseeing

 
There is a plenty of lovely places to see in Stockholm, so of course we did not manage to see all of them.
One of the places you definitely should not miss when visiting Stockholm is Drottingholm. It is a wonderful castle, which must have been inspired by Versailles, but you can find there also typically Swedish elements and in addition even some Asian elements – there is a Chinese Pavilion nearby the castle which is also worth seeing. Unfortunately, it is forbidden to take pictures inside both Drottingholm and the Chinese Pavilion, so I cannot show you photos of the interior, but here are some photos of what the castle, pavilion look like from the outside. 







 
If you want to see something typically Swedish, you should visit Skansen. It is basically an open air museum where you can see traditional Swedish houses, pottery, goldsmith’s and other kinds of workshops, you can buy something tasty in the bakery and see what the buildings in a Swedish town might have looked like in the past. There is also a lot of greenery here, a lot of gardens and playgrounds, parks where you can have a picnic and you can also find a Zoo in the Skansen as well as a smaller kind of zoo with Nordic animals and a place with domestic animals such as rabbits or goats. I should mention that none of these Zoos are a typical Zoo with small cages for the animals, the animals here in Skansen have quite a lot of space here. This time we have not visited the zoo with exotic animals only the one with Nordic animals, because there is simply too much to see in Skansen to see everything at one time (unless you spend the whole day there). Here are a few pictures from Skansen.























In Stockholm you will also find several truly interesting museums, for example Nordiska Museet (The Nordic Museum) and Vasa Museet (The Vasa Museum)  - located close to each other at Djurgården, Fotografiska Museet, Ostasiatiska Museet (Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities) and The Royal Armoury located in the Royal Palace. We  have visited Vasa Museet and Fotografiska museet this time Here are a few pictures from the Vasa Museet which houses a ship from the 17th century.









One of the most charming places in Stockholm would also be Gamla Stan – the city centre.
It is the perfect place for an evening walk. Also you will find the Royal Palace (Kungliga slottet) here, in the city centre. I personally like Drottingholm much more, but if you happen to be around at noon, the ceremony of changing the guards in front of the palace may be interesting to watch. Inside the castle there is the Royal Armoury, which is also worth seeing.










 

There is so much more to see in Stockholm, I could write lots more about sightseeing, but instead I will show you a few more pictures and then provide some information about shopping ;)













Shopping

Shopping and looking for alternative shops, Japanese and Chinese shops and unique second hand shops in the places where I travel is always a part of my travelling adventures :)
In comparison with 2009, now, in 2012 a couple of alternative/goth shops unfortunately closed down – Black Moon (which used to be in Gamla Stan), Saturn Return (also used to be located in Gamla Stan at Tyska Brinken) - I think they are currently searching for a new location for the shop and also Poizen, which used to be a very nice goth shop only kept the name of the store, but they now sell souvenirs for the tourists instead of alternative clothing and accesorries =/

So far, it may seem to you as if there were alternative/goth shops left in Stockholm, but fortunately that’s not the case. You can still find some really nice alternative and goth shops. They are located mainly at Drottninggatan – Rio (which could be perhaps the cheapest of alternative shops in Stockholm), Rockzone (more rock and metal oriented, but you might find something also there), C.U.M. Clubwear (which has awesome and crazy party clothes), Beyond Retro (a unique vintage shop with lots of glittery clothes). Some of them are also situated just around the corner from Drottinggatan - at Gamla Brogatan: Blue Fox; Sko Uno – an alternative shoes store;  Mum’s Underwear – basically underwear shop, but they also have some nice platform shoes and high heels.

I also stumbled across 2 Chinese shops (there are probably much more but I was not particularly looking for them). There is one called simply China at Drottninggatan, where I bought a lovely black-red Chinese blouse and there is Xin Xin at Gamla Brogatan.

Addresses:

Blue Fox

Gamla brogatan 27
111 20 Stockholm

Mum's Underwear

Gamla brogatan 25
111 22 Stockholm

Sko Uno
(alternative shoes store)

Gamla brogatan 34
Stockholm

Xin Xin
(chinese shop)

Gamla Brogatan 
11120 Stockholm

Rio
  
Drottninggatan 28 
11151  Stockholm

Rockzone

Drottninggatan 10
 111 51 Stockholm

C.U.M. Clubwear

Drottninggatan 71b
Stockholm

China Store

Drottninggatan 88
11136 Stockholm

Beyond Retro

Drottninggatan 77
111 60 Stockholm

Sound Pollution
 (record store)

Stora Nygatan 18  
111 27 Stockholm

The Science Fiction Bookstore
(also has a selection of manga ^-^)
Västerlånggatan 48
Gamla stan
Stockholm

Rocktown




Västerlånggatan 42
Gamla stan
111 29 Stockholm





Shock
 Beyond Retro
 C.U.M. Clubwear
 Sound Pollution
 Mum's Underwear


 Blue Fox



Clubs/Events

 Unfortunately we did not really get to explore the nightlife of Stockholm much, since there were no events we were interested in during the short period when we stayed in Sweden. There was a sort of summer break for most clubs and parties at that time. But if you happen to be in Stockholm in August or later on there are some interesting upcoming events – for example a Zombie Walk on 25th August connected with an after party in Club BODY SHOP and also The Stockholm Burlesque Festival on 12th and 13th October. There will be also probably other events as well, also the club TechNoir and Club Bodytåget organize events, though not regularly. Besides there are also fetish parties organized by Dekadance (www.dekadance.se). 

Links:

 Tech Noir
http://www.tech-noir.org/

 Club Body Shop
http://www.facebook.com/bodyshopSTHLM

Stockholm Burlesque Festival
http://www.stockholmburlesquefestival.com/



Eating

The last part of my entry about Stockholm is about eating possibilites.
Both me and my boyfriend being vegetarian, we are always interested in veg-friendly and vegetarian restaurants when we travel. This time we were accompanied by our Swedish friends who are vegan, and we also got to know about some restaurants suitable for vegans.

While in Stockholm we ate twice in a vegetarian buffet restaurant called Hermitage in Gamla Stan. Most of the food in the bufet is vegan, the rest is vegetarian. The food is tasty, i tis not over-prized and the other people eating in the restaurant were friendly. So we enjoyed eating there!

Another good option for vegans and vegetarians is O'Mamma Mia. The cuisine is mostly Italian but there are some Mexican meals as well. It is not particularly a vegetarian restaurant, they also have meals with meat, but there is a good choice of meals both for vegetarians and vegans. We tried some of their vegan pizzas and they were delicious.

There’s also a Chinese vegan restaurant in Stockholm called Lao Wai, but they are closed during the summer months, so we did not get a chance to eat there. Our friends Anders and Viktoria recommend this restaurant.

Some other restaurants, where me and my boyfriend enjoyed a meal during our stay in Stockholm are not specifically vegetarian, but we could find there a good choice of vegetarian meals. We ate for example at Pong Buffet . We also tried the Mongolian Barbecue Restaurant at Drottinggatan. The restaurant has various buffets, so we ate something from the Chinese and the Japanese buffet, we could not really choose much from the Mongolian buffet though, because there was mostly meat.
A cheap option as for eating in Stockholm is Kungshallen – a building which houses 15 restaurants – some of them are fast foods. There’s cuisine from all around the world – Indian, Thai, Lebanese, Italian, Greek, Swedish, etc. It’s quite crowded and noisy, but it’s cheap and the choice of food is also good.

And last but not least when talking about eating in Sweden, do not forget to try the yummy cinnamon cookies when you are there. Some very delicious ones are sold for example in Skansen. :)

Addresses:

Hermitage
(vegetarian restaurant)
Stora Nygatan 11
Gamla Stan
Stockholm

Lao Wai
(Chinese vegan restaurant) 
Luntmakargatan 74 
Stockholm

 O'Mamma Mia
(vegan-friendly, Italian and Mexican cuisine)
 Kungstensgatan 60
11329 Stockholm



 I hope this journal entry provided some good/useful info about Stockholm =)
Have a nice day everyone! ^_^