The kings garden, kungsträdgården in Swedish, is a beautiful place, it's got a 5x5m large chessboard out in the open, surrounded by japenese cherry trees full of pink flowers falling down like snow every time a breeze comes. Oh well, the theme was making friends so I'd better get back to that. After playing a game the clock hit 19 and I decided to head home. Then a guy asked me in english about a move I did, I explained and soon we were talking about most everything, turns out he was from California and planned on working here for the summer. He asked me if I knew the way to the Östermalm subway station, I said I thought I did and I was right.
After saying goodbye and making a deal to meet at the chessboard some other day I took the tram home, there I overheard a conversation between two people of about my age discussing how stupid it looked with people wearing sunglasses on the subway, something I agreed with so I held back a smile. After a few stations something went wrong with the train, at first the loudspeakers told us in a very faint voice that we would have to change to another train at the next station. Noone really heard it clearly so we asked one another, one minute later when they said it again, this time loud enough to hear clearly I had two new friends. Our roads split at the next station and they were just visiting Stockholm for a short while but still, always fun to meet new people. Not sure if I'll meet any new today but I will meet an old friend for a walk or so. As long as we walk slowly, my allergy is peaking at the moment so I'm not in top shape, a consequence of the warm days we've had and still have here in Stockholm. I'll just have to survive it I guess. Hearthstone Fireside gathering, 300 participants