Image by Papercut Shop

On a quiet street, parallel to the busy traffic on Hornsgatan lies a few hip boutiques, one of them being Papercut. What you notice straight away is how spacious and open the place is and the wall covered with fashion magazines of all kinds and from all over the world from floor to ceiling.

It’s an awesome place to come browse and flip through books that aren’t sold in the huge book stores like Akademi Bokhandlen. At Papercut it’s not niched to a particular kind of genre, the books here range from cook books, to autobiographies, novels, fashion and art.

In addition to books and magazines, they have have a selection of music CD’s, DVD’s and movies. It’s definitely worth a swing by to check out what you can find. If you come out empty handed, walk a few meters along the street and you’ll find three small fashion boutiques catering to both men and women. Make sure to check out Nitty Gritty, a mens boutique/salon where you can find sportswear brands, indie labels and Swedish designers.

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Papercut | Art & culture, Music, Shopping
Krukmakargatan 24 | Södermalm | +468133574
Mon – Fri 11:00 – 18:30, Sat 11:00 – 17:00, Sun 12:00 – 16:00

Image by Aaron L

In each major area or hub of Stockholm city, you’ll be able to find different indoor ‘markets’ where you can go to buy high quality meats. fresh produce, dried herbs and etc. Perhaps the most famous of them and quite popular for the tourists and locals alike is Ostermalmshallen. However, in this post I’ll be talking about the lesser known, ever-busy Hotorgshallen located right in the city center.

Everytime my sister and I shop on Drottningatan we make it a point to stop here (like many of the other shoppers) to recharge and get our dose of vitamins and minerals with the huge variety of dried fruits, nuts and berries which are free to sample and try. We used to be quite shy but now its a fight with the other curious and hungry shoppers to get the last dried Incaberry.

Along with the meat and seafood vendors you can find different restaurants, fine chocolates as well as a Finnish food store all in Hotorgshallen. It’s definitely one of the most diverse halls in Stockholm city. What’s special about Hotorgshallen and all other ‘halls’ in Stockholm is that every vendor has very high standards for the freshness and quality of what they sell or serve, so you are sure to be getting the very best without having to pay a very high price!

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Hötorgshallen | Art & culture, Coffee & tea, Shopping, Restaurants (Fresh)
Hötorgshallen, 11157 | City/Norrmalm
Mon – Thu 10:00 – 18:00, Fri 10:00 – 18:30, Sat 10:00 – 16:00

Image by Natalia Urbanska

You feel like doing something, seeing something, feel a bit cultural? Kulturhuset is the place to get inspired or just to wander around. There’s always something going on for everyone!

The bottom floor welcomes you with a café and nice library with lots of comfy sofas, here you can hang for hours.

This place really makes me happy, the exhibitions are cheap or for free and they always have interesting activities going on. They have several exhibitions, theatres, a cinema, cafés, music performances, an impressive library with lots of art-books and newspapers from all over the world, an unique library for comics, a large imaginative place for children, a creative place for teenagers called LAVA, they arrange meetings with writers and much more…

This is a big bubbling place that wants everyone to get inspired, to think for themselves and to share their big and small thoughts with each other; or just to sit down, play some chess and drink coffee.

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Kulturhuset | Art & culture, Cinemas, Coffee & tea, Music, Theaters
Sergels torg | City/Norrmalm | +46850831508
Check the website for opening times

Image by Natalia Urbanska

This museum is pure joy for photo lovers. Opened in may 2010 with the top name Annie Leibovitz. It was a big success, no doubt about it. They have lots of different exhibitions every year, so far I haven’t been disappointed.

Fotografiska is beautifully situated in Slussen, just by the water with a nice view over Skeppsholmen and Djurgården. It has really generous opening hours – everyday from 10:00 to 21:00! More museums should have these kind of opening hours! Perfect for some inspiring exhibitions before going out…

I loved the premiere exhibitions. Lennart Nilsson’s “A child is born” was really impressive and made me all nostalgic remembering his photos from my old school books. Leibovitz’s “A photographer’s life” was also impressive, beautiful, startstruck, melancholic and very personal. Speer’s “The birthday party” was beautiful (my favorite!) and Joel-Peter Witkin’s “Bodies” was uncomfortable, disgusting and absolutely beautiful.

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Fotografiska | Art & culture, Bars, Shopping, Snacks | Adult entrance SEK 110
Stora Tullhuset Stadsgårdshamnen 22 | Södermalm | +46850900500
10:00 – 21:00 daily

Image by Natalia Urbanska

Stockholm’s House of Dance is the place if you enjoy contemporary art forms and want to see something live. You can enjoy it (or hate it) without knowing a word of Swedish.

Dansens Hus has a bunch of interesting performances every season; at least 35 every year.

I guess I really started going to Dansens Hus after seeing Virpi Pahkinen dancing for free at Parkteatern a couple of years ago. She totally blew me away. I looked her up and discovered that she usually presented her work at Dansens Hus. I’ve been going there regularly since then.

Other performances at Dansens Hus that I’ve really enjoyed are by Dorte Olesen, Cullbergbaletten; and DV8. DV8 was truly outstanding a couple of years ago, got standing ovations and left the audience clapping for 10 minutes.

Dansens Hus was founded in 1991 and has two stages, the prices are low; especially if you’re a student or below 26. They also arrange lectures, workshops and show movies; often for free.

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Dansens Hus | Art & culture, Music, Theaters | Entrance student SEK 130.00
Barnhusgatan 14 | City/Norrmalm | +46850899090
Mon – Fri 14:00 – 18:00, Sat 14:00 – 19:00 (only in conjunction with performances)