Happy Monday. Ok, so most of us are probably a little bummed that the weekend’s over and we have to go back indoors and work or go to school for most of the day. Many of us (myself included) also take a subway or bus to get to work. And while there is the occasional musician or interesting graffiti, subway stations and bus terminals are usually pretty bland and boring, not the best thing to enliven you and get you ready for the day. Well, thankfully Stockholm, which already suffers from a lot of dark days throughout the winter, has come up with some relief for its subway passengers: beautifully painted subway stations! From Inhabitat:
Metro stations in Stockholm have been elevated to veritable art museums with stunning murals and playful art installations adorning the cave-like walls and ceilings.
The Stockholm subway system is often described as the world’s largest art museum — for the price of a Metro ticket, you can enjoy impressive works of art spanning from the 1950s to the 2000s. The Metro spans more than 110 kilometers, and 90 of the 100 stations in the system have been decorated with world-class murals and sculptures from 150 different artists.
The T-Centralen station — the city’s central subway station — which was designed by Per Olof Ultvedt in 1975, is perhaps the most iconic of them all, and it features massive blue-and-white paintings on its cave-like ceilings. With its bright red walls and ceiling, the Solna Centrum station looks otherworldly. The Kungsträdgården subway station has been designed to look like an archaeological dig, and it features the remains of Stockholm’s old Makalös palace. And the Östermalmstorg stations features art by Siri Derkert that focuses on themes that include the environment and women’s rights.
Mental Flowers 
Who knew Stockholm had an art gallery in its subway stations?!! Well, actually I knew about it, but it wasn’t until I took a tour that I realized how cool it was. When I was living in Stockholm 12 years ago, I never really paid much attention to it, and I certainly didn’t know it was a “planned” permanent art exhibition. So…during a recent trip to in Stockholm, I decided to take the Stockholm Metro Art Tour. I ended up visiting a total of 12 subway stations, of which 3 were on the guided tour.