In April 1917, when the Russian Bolshevik leader Lenin traveled through Stockholm, the Swedish Communists Ture Nerman and Fredrik Ström took their comrade to PUB where they bought him a new suit so he would look good coming back to Russia.
– Wikipedia

Hundreds of thousands of Finns travel to Stockholm each year, most of them on one of the two ferry lines that have their ships go back and forth the two capitals – Helsinki and Stockholm – and one former capital – Turku, Finland.

If you take the red ferry, the Viking Line, you’ll end up on the south side of the city, a good 20-minute walk from the Old Town which most of the passengers are happy to walk. Sure, it’s windy, and yes, it seems a little longer than 20 minutes, but at the end of it, there’s the Old Town, its narrow alleys, its crooked streets, the age-old buildings, and the Royal Palace.

Oh, and a Finnish record store along the main street that cuts across the tiny island, with a Finnish flag outside, reminding the Finns that even if they’re not at home anymore, they’re still welcome.

But a lot of things are different. There’s the language, there’s the street fashion, and there’s the fact that Stockholm is twice as big as Helsinki. There are hotdog vendors on the streets. It’s just a little different, and it’s exciting to explore – even after a night of partying on the ferry.

Especially if you know somebody living there. Somebody who could give you those inside tips, let you in on how the people in Stockholm really live, and what they really do.

So when my phone rang that morning in the spring of 2002- exactly 85 years after Lenin’s visit – and an old teammate of mine said he was in town with a couple of his buddies, I immediately put my coat on, and got on the subway.

“We’re in the Old Town, call me when you get here,” he had said.

The Old Town was just 15 minutes from my apartment. Well, with the walk to the subway, and the waiting, it was a half-hour trip.

I was sitting on the subway, reading a book – this is 2002, so no iPhones, no Internet (just WAP), and the only game on my Nokia was the Snake – when my phone rang again.

“Listen, we’re moving on, call me when you get to town,” said my teammate, who I will call “Pepsi” because that was his nickname for reasons unknown to me.

Then he hung up, and I returned to my book.

Two stops later, he called me again.

“Hey man, listen, we’re trying to find a good spot to sit down, maybe have a beer or something, are you coming or not,” he said.

“I’m on my way, where are you?”

“I don’t know exactly, we’re somewhere between the Old Town and the big square where the Finns celebrated the hockey world championship in 1995,” he said.

“OK, well, keep walking and there will be lot of good spots, just let me know where you are,” I said.

“We won’t be too far from here, the guys really wanna have a beer,” added Pepsi.

I arrived at the main station, and had just got back up to the street level when my phone rang again.

“Dude, where are you?” Pepsi said.

“I’m at the station, walking towards you … I think. Where are you now?”

“Well, we’re at a square a little farther up the street where I called you from the last time. I think we’ve found a great place now, it’s the big building here at the square, where it says PUB on the roof,” Pepsi said.

“We’re going in, see you there,” he said before hanging up.

Ten minutes, and a text message, later, I met Pepsi and his buddies in a bar around the corner from the square.

“That place where it says PUB, that’s not a pub at all,” he told me. “It’s a department store.”

“I know,” I said. “It’s a pretty famous one, Greta Garbo used to work there before she became an actress. The company was founded by Paul Urbanus Bergström in the 19th century.”

“We got in all excited to see such a huge pub in Sweden,” Pepsi said, and took a sip of his beer.

He put his glass back on the table.

“Too funny. But I think they should turn it into a real pub. That’d be great,” he said.