(1) F.’s Place: F. is a Swedish friend of mine I met while she was studying in Australia. We were lucky enough to stay at her place for a few days, a lovely house in the suburbs with a backyard and by a beautiful bay you can swim in. I can’t explain to you the simple joys of being able to sleep and eat in a nice cosy home after 2 months of communal kitchens, bathrooms strewn with other people’s toilettries and underwear, or bunkbeds and early checkouts times. Thanks times 10 million F!

(2) Modern / Contemporary Art Galleries: Of course the Swedes are famed for their design so I was keen to check out their Moderna Museet. And I was well rewarded. Not only does the museum have several rooms of famous pieces that will basically give you a comprehensive run down on modern art from the last 100 years, from Mondrian and Picasso, to Bridget Riley and Cindy Sherman – but there’s the works of current Swedish artists, a room of excellent books to flick through and a line of computers with some wacky films and video art.

I’ve come to realise that I really prefer modern art over the classics. I mean I ‘get’ the classic stuff, it’s beautiful and technically brilliant and moving – but for me modern art is about ideas, and bold statements, and exploring complex ideas and the negotiations and ethics and situations of daily, contemporary life – which is obviously far more relevant and personally inspiring and thought provoking and exciting etc.

(Also note, Stockholm has an incredible number of fantastic museums, lots of them for free. The Kulturhuset was excellent, a cultural and artistic playground!)

(3) Running into People: No joke, while walking up a street in Rome ran into Norton who some of you might know as a former blogger. He is the 3rd person I know from Sydney that I have ran into on the street without having made any plans to meet up (Jackie – teeny random little bar in Sevilla, Spain, Julian – funky shopping street in Berlin, Germany). I mean hell, when we’re only in a place for a few days it’s coincidence enough that our time in the city overlaps, but the chances of us actually running into each other, in such a big city – I swear we’re all cosmically linked.