Go Find It

jsgphoto / CC BY-ND 2.0

If you walk along Årstaviken in Stockholm, which in itself is an oasis in the middle of a capital city, you’ll sooner or later come across Cafe Tubby. The coffee and the snacks are not amazing or groundbreaking in anyway so you really don’t come here for the quality of the products but you do come here for the quality of the place.

There’s no inside seating area so it’s only open in the summer, you can chill out in the beach-chairs whilst dipping your feet in the water and listen to reggae. The atmosphere can’t be explained with any other word than relaxed.

I love to sit down in those comfy chairs and enjoy the weather or have a long chat with a friend when my feet ache from a walk around Årstaviken. This is something me and one of my close friends from Sweden used to do in the summers and I must admit: I really miss it.

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Travelstar / CC BY-SA 2.0

Before I moved to my first flat I lived with my mum in the middle of Stockholm. The flat is located in an area sometimes known as little Paris just by the water. It’s a beautiful part of the city but if you look closely you’ll find places that disturb the picturesque cityscape.

A few minutes’ walk from the flat is a bridge called St Eriskbron, which takes you across the water to another part of the city. Underneath it, on the side where I used to live, there’s a dark and empty space. When you walk past, you can’t really see what’s inside and it almost looks like an open storage room.

Since there’s no chance of guessing what’s hiding in there most people rather not explore this dark corner. To be honest it took me a while before I dared to explore it myself. When I finally got enough courage to walk in I found a space that was damp and smelly but completely empty. One thing really caught my eye though: the walls were covered in graffiti from famous artists as well as unknown ones. On a door just above a rusty and broken iron ladder you can for example find a piece created by Akay, one of Swedens most famous street artist.

The feeling I got the first time I visited this place was the same one I used to have when I was a little kid and I did something that I probably shouldn’t be doing. Even though it’s legal to walk in under the bridge the feeling is quite amazing, it’s empty and quiet (except for the sound of the aeration fan). And in the middle of a capital city it feels like you shouldn’t be there.

I still walk in under the bridge every now and then when I’m visiting my mum. It’s a special place in it’s own kind of way.

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