Anthems

So I want to blog more frequently, I do. It's just that stuff is a bit slow right now. So instead of putting up tiny one-liners here and there I've moved into a habit of saving up and letting loose compilation blogs at least for the time being.

Last Monday I found myself back at Råsunda Stadium, Stockholm's main football arena, for a classic match against two of Stockholm's top division teams, Hammarby and Djurgården. Now, when I first moved to Sweden I was asked which team I would support and had no clue as to which teams existed. I was quickly told by a friend to support Hammarby. It stuck. They're my team. They are based on the southern side of Stockholm, an area I enjoy. And the fact that they've got an American forward, eventhough he never scores, doesn't hurt either.

So my pal Pete (American who just moved here to Stockholm) and I made our way into the stadium and into our assigned area. When we stepped up out of the stairway and saw the field and our surroundings we quickly realized that we were surrounded by a sea of blue and black. Hammarby's colors are green and white. Yup, wrong side. The areas of the opposing teams are totally segregated from each other. Eventhough Sweden is a pretty laid back country with a low crime rate I have a feeling that everything goes out the window when football is concerned. The police in their riot gear and empty vans (room for plenty of hooligans!) would prefer if the two didn't meet. So Pete, also a Hammarby supporter, and I found our place directly behind the goal (standing room only, we showed up too late for a seat, total amatuers) in the complete midst of Djurgårdens' most indebted fans. It felt like a gang war. Wear the wrong colors and you'd be fucked with. Luckily we thought of this ahead of time and were, at least in my mind, invisible.

The fans sang their teams' songs the entire game. They didn't stop once. It was sort of wonderful eventhough they weren't the songs I actually wanted to be learning. The culture and experience of being at this match is hard to put into words. I enjoyed it as much as I possibly could've. Hammarby lost 1-0 and had very few scoring chances. But worth it. Totally worth it.



Here's a little video I took while at the game. It'll give you an idea of the atmosphere there.
And on a completely unrelated note, my pal AJ put up a response post to the a-Ha "Take on Me" entry I did a couple weeks ago. He went ahead and compiled something like 10 different cover versions of the song. So if that's your style, go peek his blog Hope Sets Sail.