April 2013

I’m on bus 66, the enormously frustrating, winding bus route between Sofo and Hornstull that you are sometimes tempted to take in the winter as it tends to take you from door to door (as is stops everywhere). This bus takes me places I never go to, like the hideous Magnus Ladulåsgata. Dominated by the less than charming Alexandra Hotell, a building so depressively square and dead that it hurts your soul just to glance at it, the street is the perfect example of the swift changes in ambiance that are so typical for Stockholm.

Only five minutes away from the gloomy concrete of Magnus Ladulåsgata you’ll find the beautiful scenery of Slussen, Gamla Stan and Saltsjön, or the bustling Götgatan with its cutting-edge designer shops housed in centuries-old buildings. But walking down Magnus Ladulåsgata, none of that can reach you.

As far as you’re concerned, you might as well be in pre-perestroika Eastern Europe, and the same can be said for most of the neighbouring area, including the suicide-inducing Södra Station and the dull, spiritless Bofills Båge.

Isn’t it funny that we just ignore these places when we think about the beauty of Stockholm? We rave about the scenic strolls along Skeppsbron, Strandvägen and Djurgården, but we turn a blind eye to the above-mentioned part of Söder, or lower Drottninggatan with all its knick-knack shops, or the soulless traffic chaos at Fridhemsplan.

This is of course not something that is unique to Stockholm. Most cities offer an eclectic mix of new and old, ugly and beautiful. It’s just that the contrast is starker in Stockholm, as the charming parts are so ridiculously picturesque – the narrow alleys of Gamla Stan; the wooden 19th century workmen’s dwellings in Vitabergsparken, the glittering water of Mälaren against the backdrop of Norr Mälarstrand’s neatly lined-up houses.

But it’s important to bear in mind that our capital indeed has its flaws too, especially when we are trash-talking other areas.

I recently bumped into a friend at Arlanda’s gate 62 while waiting for a flight to Newark. He asked me what part of New York I lived in, and when I said Williamsburg he replied OK with a somewhat forced look on his face. I asked if he had been there, and he said that he had been there once and didn’t really get why everyone was praising it so much; “To me, it’s just overrated.”

A third person, his friend, then jumped into the conversation and saved me: “Are you sure you went to the right places? What if you had heard people talk about how great Södermalm was, and you took the subway to Medborgarplatsen, walked out and had a look around?”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Getting out of the subway at Medborgarplatsen in search of Sofo but walking west instead of east would indeed leave any visitor wondering why the hell people were praising Södermalm so much. In the same way, walking down Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg would make anyone question how trendy this supposed Mecca of hipsterdom really was, since all the cool shops, restaurants and bars are tucked away in back streets.

Getting the most out of a city is always about finding your way to its very best parts. If you spend enough time somewhere you will start focus so much on these parts that the rest just seem to disappear. Think about that the next time you are tempted to call a city or a neighbourhood overrated, and make sure to always arm yourself with the secret, unofficial map of whatever place you visit in the world.