Once a month, everyone in Stockholm gets paid. On the days just after everyone is paid, this town is busy. There are long lines at the cash machines and long lines to get into restaurants because everyone all at once has money to spend again. (As you might suspect, the weekend before pay week is a notoriously quiet one in the city.)
But for this pay week, it seemed like celebrations started early and people were out on the town even on Tuesday. The weather was nice for this time of year, so the outdoor cafes were busy. As for Robert and I, we were out on Friday at a wine tasting and then pizza at Lo Scudetto for dinner. We did some pub hopping on Saturday and then Magasin 3 art gallery and another pub on Sunday. So I think we were also part of the pay week frenzy.
When we first moved to Stockholm, we would notice that some Friday nights were dead, while others were completely crazy. It took a Swedish friend to explain what was going on with the everyone gets paid at once and parties system. (In the US, the pay check system can vary depending on your employer – I was always paid every other week.)
This pay week was a particularly exciting one as there was an Oceans 11-style robbery at a cash depot that supplies money to Stockholm cash machines. The robbery took place at dawn and involved helicopters, guns and fake bombs and brought on talk of shortages of cash at cash machines.
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