The first period (semesters are split into two periods here, with some courses only lasting for a single period) just ended and I finished up exams, so last night I went out with Heydar to find some fun. We started at his place, making some shish kebabs and rice for dinner. Yum. Then we were talking with other folks in his corridor about going to some place in Medborgarplatsen, but we balked when we learned it'd be 100kr. just for the cover. Everywhere had a cover last night I guess, because it was just payday for nearly everyone in Stockholm. So instead we went to the Lappis pub, a little student pub in his neighborhood that was having a sort of Halloween party, to meet up with Negar.
The pub was not terribly exciting, and everyone seemed to be trying to find somewhere else to go. Heydar and I walked around a little bit, and on the way back in to the pub this girl yelled to us that we shouldn't go in there because it was terribly boring. We started talking to her, and she seemed to have a plan to go some place in the city that was fun. We both are into adventures with new people, so this sounded fun. Negar wanted to stay at the pub to wait for a friend, so Heydar and I followed this girl, Emily, and her friend Heidi. We ended up going to Stureplan, a neighborhood in Stockholm that the rich, famous, and yuppies flock to for drinking on the weekends. Heidi was not stoked about the clubs here, but Emily really wanted to go and Heydar and I were just following along.
We went to several different places and turned back either because the cover was too high or the doormen didn't know us/didn't think we looked rich enough to be let in. I've never before bothered trying to go to places where the people working the door get to decide who comes in. It's stupid. We ended up at a place called Esque, eventually, where one of the doormen did know Emily. It too was too expensive at 150kr. (~$24) with a coat check fee of 30kr. (~$5), but we said to hell with it and went in anyway. The place was packed with attractive people who looked like they had money. The boys were mostly taller and prettier than me, and so were the girls. I liked some of the decor of the place, like the color changing lighting for the downstairs dance floor:
The music was occasionally decent so we danced a little. A lot of it was pretty lame though. We had some unsurprisingly overpriced beer, and I was dumb enough to buy an outrageously expensive mixed drink.
One of the girls we came with, Emily, started making out with some guy not long after we got there, and disappeared. Heydar, Heidi, and I hung out, failing to communicate easily with each other over the music. We took some photos of each other though.
We stuck around for a little while, but it was getting quite late. Heidi seemed to be bored and took off, then Heydar and I did the same shortly after. All in all it was a really expensive evening that was fairly unsatisfying. At least it was weird sometimes, keeping the situation interesting. It seemed like people were just there to spend too much money getting drunk and trying to find someone to take home, which I think is pretty typical of clubs in Sweden (and probably most everywhere in the world). I don't think I need to bother to do that again, though I'm glad I tried one of these places once. I think I'll stick with parties and pubs where I can more easily chat with friends and new people, unless I find some place with good enough music that there's some other attraction besides the meat market.
Next on the agenda: tomorrow I'm off to Poland! Be back on Tuesday with some pictures and news.
