Steppin' Out in Stockholm

I recently declared that I would go out every single night during my last two weeks in Stockholm. It's getting a little expensive, actually, so I might not be able to go out every night, but I've had a really fun week, despite working a ton on the Web site.

Last night I went out with my friends/colleagues Ganda and Tanja and we had cocktails, danced and enjoyed the powdery snow falling over the city. It was kind of magical, actually. Enjoying night spots surrounded by beautiful people, glittering snow, chic decor, the historical grandeur of Bern's... I snapped some photos with my iPhone just to try to capture the ambience.

First we went to a dining club called Collage, near Stureplan, where we lucked out and got a banquette table at a prime spot so we could watch all the pretty people while we drank our cocktails. We got there at about 11:30 which is very early for Stockholm, so the vibe was mellow, friendly and just-crowded-enough. The hanging our was great, but the dancing was pretty bad at Collage—even by 1 am they were playing Top 40 pop music (which was fun, mind you) and the dance floor was sparse.

So, we left while the people coming from the clubs that close at 1 am were piling in and went to Berns. Berns is a hotel and event space that spans a few different buildings, including two concert halls and a Chinese restaurant, and any number of shows, parties or musical styles could be going on there on a given night. But it was fantastic last night.

On the bottom floor there was a guest-list-only party playing very cheesy techno music, which we didn't at all mind not being invited to. Instead we had drinks in the Asiatisk hall, which is a gorgeous old ballroom with enormous chandeliers and a lot of red and gold—the fading glamor of the last century, which is so great to see preserved amidst all the austere modern decor around Stockholm. Then we headed upstairs to an extremely fun but not very environmentally correct dance party being held on a balcony under heat lamps (remember I said it was snowing?).

The DJ was playing old-school hip-hop from when I was in junior high and the dance floor was jam-packed with the most diverse group of people I've seen in Sweden yet. And, wow, when you cross other ethnicities with Swedish stock, you get ridiculous beauty. Some of the people I talked to were Swedes of Brazilian and Zimbabwean heritage, and there were a bunch of middle-eastern people as well. It was so fun and unpretentious—definitely the best going-out experience I've had in this city.