Settling in to the Hotel Hellsten in Stockholm

After a train, monorail, two planes, a train and a cab, I'm in my room at the Hotel Hellsten in downtown Stockholm. The temperatures are cold, but there is no snow on the streets here, but it has that feeling in the air that it's about to snow. At 3:30 pm you can see that it's already getting dark here.

After you open the main door of the hotel, you enter a strange room, it's walled in slate and there is nothing on the walls, all you see is the desk at the back facing the door. It's one of those modern hotels that's very sleek. In the bathroom, there is no shower curtain nor any sort of barrier, just this shower head and a drain, and again, the slate accessories hold the cups, soap and shampoos.

My room is high-ceilinged, and in a corner sits what looks like a Balinese armoire, and in the other corner, a carved wooden bench--but no desk. Across the large room is an old fashioned ceramic heater, the kind that used to heat buildings in Scandinavia, now a novelty and the flue is filled with cement.

Tonight we meet Tina our guide and her friends and relatives at a dinner party she's organized for us. It will be fun to chat up the locals and ask them about what makes Stockholm special, and why they live here.