urban exploring

Why not go into an old construction crane that’s just standing around littering and looking alone?

Today’s guest blogger is named Gunnar Ardelius and is born in 1981. He lives in Stockholm. He has written two novels for young people. " Jag behöver dig mer än jag älskar dig och jag älskar dig så himla mycket" 2006 and "När du blundar tittar jag" in 2007.

I walk around sometimes and think that I'm familiar with every nook of my city, and I feel bored and long to find something new and exciting, a new street or a new promenade, a new park. Anything that is new! I think, why isn’t Stockholm like Paris or Berlin, where the streets just continue ad infinitum? Where it’s not possible to see everything no matter how hard you try. But how much do I actually know about my city? What is behind all the doors and walls? On the map, I see that most of the city is not the streets we walk on, but the houses and courtyards. The places I usually only go if I have an errand. It's exciting to go into a strange building, go up the lift and pull on different doors, maybe try to get up on the roof, maybe there is a balcony or a dark room where you can make out. Going around snooping in hospital corridors. Or in office buildings. Pretending I have an errand to run. Sometimes the doors are locked, sometimes they are closed, but pulling on the doors is always a kick. Feeling like a spy. An intruder.

Being a little less adventurous, there are beautiful places to go to that are open to the public. It might be nice to visit a church you’ve passed a thousand times without actually going inside. Just sitting there, feeling the calm, looking at the beautiful windows, thinking about life and enjoying the silence. The city is full of rooms to explore.