Much like its drains Stockholm's metro is a mixture of concrete and rock blasted tunnels. The network comprises of seven lines all with sections running under and aboveground, spanning roughly 100km. Sounds good right?. However it is not easy to access, or at least not anymore.

During the early 90's Stockholm metro was an easy target for graffiti artists, so painted tunnels and trains were a frequent sight. Eventually it got so bad that workers began to be assaulted when trying to apprehend painters. The Swedish government eventually made cracking down on it their number one priority. This meant if a train had a single speck of paint it was pulled from service. But more importantly it involved the hiring of a private security firm who backed the use of plain clothed officers. Much like the RATP of Paris, they were above the law. If you were caught in the tunnels you didn't get off with a fine, you got a savage beating.

We spent whatever free time we had in the metro. Doing various sections on different lines, air vents tunnels and generally navigating around the network. But all this was a warm up for events to come.

We watched bits from a Swedish TV show known as "Beck". Long story short, a bunch of emotional Swedish crackpots decide to go battle royal on the unsuspecting patrons of the metro in an effort to gain points. Why?, well I never found out, possibly a cry for attention. Its pretty corny, but it shows lots of the metro, so unsurprisingly it has a bit of a cult following from explorers in Stockholm. One scene in particular shows the "tunnel kids" (haha) crawling under the platform overhang between arriving trains from one side of the station to the other. "This is what we will do tonight", get stuffed!

Sure enough four hours later we sat hidden in a small alcove a few meters north of the station. We waited for a while, focusing ourselves for the task at hand, several trains rushing past. "Right after this train begins to leave the station, run!". The train pulled into the station and the passengers boarded. Screw this I thought, it didn't end well for the people in "Beck" so why will it be different for us. "Ready?, Go!".

We ran for the station and ducked into the crawlspace. The next train was due in roughly 6 minutes and we had 150 meters to traverse. All this while making sure we didn't give ourselves away to those on the platform. The floor was like a minefield, broken bottles, cans, rocks and overhanging pipes shrinking the 3ft space down to two. Oh yea, and the third rail was barely half a meter to my left.

By the time we reached the halfway point, 4 minutes had already gone, snap!. We shifted into overdrive, we had no choice, if the train came and we were still in the connector space we were royally screwed. The tracks began to make that dreadfully familiar knocking sound. Less then 10 meters to go, the light from the train visible around the corner. "Hurry, get out now and run". We rolled out and ran as fast as we could, sticking to the wall to try and avoid being seen before diving into another tunnel.

I was gasping for breath, sweating, my hands and knees were bleeding, and all I could taste was blood. The train left the station and rolled past, the driver apparently non-the wiser. We punched fists and collapsed to the floor, job done. Our reward? Well that's a tale for another time.