Sweden – Stockholm

Sorry for not updating for so long, but I’ve only just gotten used to traveling with my parents, but finally I’m getting back in the swing of things.

And so the journey continues, though this is all from the beginning of September, what now seems like a long time ago, yet also feels like yesterday. I spent 4 and a half days in Stockholm, it’s quite different from what I expected, though I thoroughly enjoyed it in the end.

Day 1

Somehow in this big head of mine, I always thought Scandinavia would be very different from the rest of Europe, like not just a little different, but very different, but that didn’t turn out to be the case.

After getting a bus from the middle of nowhere airport (thanks to Ryanair), it’s already quite late by the time I got to my hostel, so I found a supermarket, made dinner, ate and slept. A little side note, this hostel has got to be one of the best, if not the best I’ve stayed in so far. Great rooms, bunk beds are arranged and half covered to give lots of privacy, spacious clean showers and toilets, small but fully equipped kitchen with free pasta, tea and coffee! A communal kitchen in a hostel tends to the social point, where people mingle, cook, chat and drink. That’s exactly what happened here, free pasta helps too, met a whole bunch of people here, ate in every night to save money and have good conversations with Aussies, Germans, Swisses and Frenchies. It’s called Skanstulls Vandrarhem, do check it out if you head Stockholm’s way, I highly recommend it, I even bothered to write a feedback on hostelworld for it.

Day 2

In almost all European cities, there’s an old town, so I headed straight to Gamla Stan, Stockholm’s lovely old town. It’s not so big, not so small, plenty of old buildings that really looked very similar to what I had seen thus far, which was a bit of a shock to me. (Remember my big head thought all these Nordic countries would be very different…) The architecture though similar, but compared to Paris, it’s so much more simpler and straight forward, yet colourful and cute.

Stockholm, if memory serves correct is built on 16 island, all connected by bridges or ferries. Being by the coast and seeing the ocean made me miss Sydney. Even right now after just seeing Venice, it’s amazing how much I miss the ocean when I finally see and smell it.

To walk from Gamla Stan back to the hostel you pass by all the shopping streets, so I had a peak. Especially at the vintage shops, local designers and of course the Acne flagship store. Stockholm would have been shopping heaven for me, with unique pieces, huge selections and reasonable prices, but alas it was hell for me. Thanks to Ryanair’s 1 bag policy I could buy nothing, in fact all I want to do is throw away things…

Changing of guards at the palace.

The Swedish royalty contains a Orlando Bloom look-a-like prince!

Great chain clothing shop on the main street.

With awesome cute graphics 🙂

Day 3

I headed to the Skansen open air museum, one of the first open air museums in the world. Situated on a nice hill top reached by the ferry, it’s a nice day away. The Skansen museum contains many traditional style Swedish country houses from all around the country, all of them real, the houses are dissembled, transported and ressembled at the museum. There are many many houses, some big farm houses, a school, cottages, blacksmith, glass workshop and pharmacy just to mention a few. Some houses date from 17 – 18th century, the most recent from the 20s and 30s. Most buildings are open to visit inside and most of them contain original furnitures and actors all dressed up in character as the houses original owners. They all spoke perfect English and most took their time to explain to me Sweden from that time and how Swedes lived at that time.

Sure it’s pretty touristy, but it’s still a good way to learn about Swedish culture, given my big head had a lot to learn about. Plus it was a nice sunny day out and a nice ferry ride away.

Ferry over to Skansen, where there’s also a fun park.

There was also a zoo in Skansen, where a woman is being “attacked” while taking a self portrait.

Grass roof! I wonder how it doesn’t collapse.

Overlooking at other islands. Those are birds, not dust on my lens I swear…

Moose! On the loose! (Oh I couldn’t resist adding that second bit.)

Caching caching!

Moulin rouge…

Day 4

I went to the national history museum and learnt about Sweden properly this day. Yes this big head of mine managed to cramp in a few things, even some about the Vikings, for example, they were mainly farmers, sure they were good on the sea and raiding other countries, but those were rare, most of the year were spent tending their farms.

In the evening I took a very long stroll around the harbour, climbed some steep stairs to reach a vantage point and took lots of cheesy sunset shots, what else does a tourist do anyway?!

Nice apartment blocks. Fancay!

Viking ornaments in the museum

Nice shadows

Viking stone carvings

Here come the sunsets!

Tunnel through buildings, it glows.

Day 5

I heard about how nice the archipelago islands were around Stockholm, so I went to one. Unfortunately it was overcast and a little cold and the island was alright for a walk, but much too boring for more. On a sunny summer day, it would be nice for a spot of swimming and sun bathing, but much too late in the year for that.

In the afternoon I headed to the trendy Södermalm which I’ve passed many times in the last few days. I did some style hunting there. Stockholm turned out to be one of the best dressed cities I’ve seen so far.Yes, better than Londoners and better than Parisians in my opinion. They are trendy, classic and unique all at the same time, I would have said such a thing is impossible, but Stockholmers seem to do it effortlessly. So the afternoon was spent pacing up and down the trendy street with an awesome break in a nice cafe, sipping a large latte and a bite of lemon pastry. It was while sitting in this cafe that I fell in love with Stockholm. The beginning of Södermalm is a pedestrian and bicycle only area, also at the beginning of the island where people come off the ferry or the bridge. So it’s always hustle and bustle, watching all the people pass by, I was totally mesmerised.

Bridge over archipelago islands

Vroom vroom. Not really.

Södermalm! Most awesome place in all of Stockholm in my opinion.

Latte and lime pastry while people watching

Next stop, Oslo Norway. You will have to wait a long time til I get the entry up I’m sure. I have a packed Canadian schedule right ahead of me for the next week and I mean packed!