Modern territory: view of the island of Södermalm with the frozen Lake Mälaren
Södermalm, the largest of all Holmi islands , has left its 19th-century proletarian past behind to become the largest natural reserve for the modern borealis, a subspecies of global hipster distinguished from the rest by its taste for moderation. Neither the Berlin crust nor the London circus are carried here. For that we are in Sweden, a country that calls itself, as proof of its attachment to discretion, the homeland of semi-skimmed milk . Another distinctive and surprising feature of the modern polar is his lack of interest in the bicycle, the king of international hipster fashion. Maybe it's because eighty-year-old ladies pedal around here, even if it's twenty degrees below zero.
Traditional wooden houses with the Sofia church in the background
Söder, as the residents call it, is reputed to be the most relaxed and informal area of Stockholm : The opposite end of Östermalm, neighborhood-sized replica of Barbie and Ken's house. Still, even in Södermalm one cannot shake the feeling that everyone in Stockholm went to the hairdresser yesterday. for their wide streets, dotted with brick industrial buildings and red wooden houses Of humble origins, Valkyries with rolled-up skinny sleeves and bearded Vikings with baby carriages parade their languor. The latter are living proof that in crisis-immune Scandinavia, salaries still allow children to procreate before retirement.
The concentration of plaid shirts and mustaches increases as one approaches the surrounding streets Nytorget, or New Square , if we get castizos. To promote the area, located south of Folkkungagatan Street, merchants They decided to name it SoFo, in a nod to New York's SoHo (South of Houston). . Criticism has rained down on the name, but the trick has worked. Nytorget has become a reference on the island, especially when the modest heat arrives and you can have a picnic. Although winter also has its charms, such as verifying that, in the right hands, even feathers and snow boots have salvation, or that the hippest babies do not push themselves in a vintage stroller, but instead drag themselves on a sleigh.
In Nytorget is one of the local temples: the Urban Deli (Nytorget 4) , that place where you can, in an environment of discreet industrial decoration, have breakfast, lunch, dinner, have a drink and shop from 150 grams of Iberian ham to a carrot grown on the neighbor's ecological terrace in front. Or even come down to reality and take a toothbrush, a couple of energy-saving light bulbs and some toilet paper with you.
Urban Deli: the local temple
If you get tired of so many metal pipes in sight, you only have to take four steps and get into any of the infinite cafes that populate the SoFo to practice the fikapaus or coffee break, a national sport despite Swedish labor productivity figures. There you can curl up with your dog on shabby wing chairs and have a coffee by candlelight. The coffee, by the way, always without sugar, although accompanied by powerful piece of homemade cake with cream.
Ilcaffè coffee shop, graffiti and rolls
If you prefer a warm and kitsch refined atmosphere, you will end up in Gildas Rum (Skånegatan 79), which offers between its wallpaper walls and its garlands of lights and fabric flowers a scandalous assortment of sweets displayed on the bar in the style of pintxos from Donostia. If you have the most street art day, you can go to ilcaffe (Södermannagatan 23), where graphic designers and the like come together to work hidden behind their luminous manzanitas while they eat a roll made with traditional yeast under the graffiti on the walls.
Cakes and pastries from Gildas Rum
Every gentrifying neighborhood looks to the past for inspiration , but perhaps no other takes it as seriously as this one. In Pärlans Konfektyr (Nytorgsgatan 38), the shop assistants look like they are straight out of the “We Can Do It!” propaganda poster. and they sell traditional toffee candies while some classic jazz diva plays in the background. The young confectionery teachers, who work next door in a kitchen-showcase facing the street, also resemble American proletarians of the 1940s.
Shop assistant at Pärlans Konfektyr
Those who are not satisfied with sweetening themselves to the period can go to Bondegatan (which literally means "peasant's street"), to complete its old-fashioned modernity with personal and household items . It is the favorite place to go on a pilgrimage through a succession of vintage clothing or furniture stores. The stop is a must Södra Skattkammaren (Bondegatan 44), shrine to last century Scandinavian design fetishists . A kind of high-end Chinese bazaar in which you push aside a Danish lamp from the 50s and three Swedish crystal glasses from the 60s appear.
Södra Skattkammaren, in Bondegatan
And in the midst of all this frenzy of pasts that are futures and futures that, if you get lost, have already passed, two timeless institutions of the Swedish capital survive . The first is the **Pelikan restaurant** (Blekingegatan 40), one of the oldest in the city. The inhabitants of SoFo turn to him, when they get tired of salads with halloumi and organic alfalfa sprouts, to rediscover the flavors of their childhood in the town, from the well-known Swedish meatball to Aunt Agneta's elk stew . The other is the sophia church , a reddish-brick Protestant temple with a patinated copper tower, which will always be there to open its doors to modern Swedes who show their regret after this life of (moderate) excess.
The Pelikan Restaurant: Swedish Meatballs and Elk Stew