Walking along the water in Stanley Park, I was reminded of the walk Kirke, her dog Zorro and I usually make, maybe one Sunday every other month, around Djurgården in Stockholm. It starts out among old, cute houses, but continues down to the water and eventually ends up in a forest mainly consisting of oaks. It is a beautiful walk.
And this train of thought made me realise that Vancouver and Stockholm actually have quite a few similarities. There is the ocean that makes it’s way so far into the city, there’s the universities with their green campuses and the big park. Because, Stockhlm has a big national city park as it’s huge green lung too. And many other green areas.
Stockholm is about six hundred years older than Vancouver, but then again, being old is not always a virtue. There are many areas in Stockholm that are so extremely uncharming, while there’s a sense of style to most of the buildings in Vancouver, despite them being new and modern. Both cities are really nice and easy to take walks in, and you can get to most of the important places by foot. Or by public transportation.
Overall, they are both cities that I really like and if I had the opportunity, Vancouver is certainly a city I could live in. But, as Frida and I concluded during our last evening walk in Edmonton: there’s no place like Stockholm. We both have these plans of working abroad, traveling, being citizens of the world. But we also both want to eventually end up in Stockholm. That’s something I’m slightly blind to in my everyday life, but it becomes so clear when I’m traveling. Vancouver is this super cool, beautiful city that I fell totally in love with – but still it can’t beat Stockholm.
Katja Malmborg 