So I arrived on Stockholm late Saturday afternoon. Everything was closed though, because it was Midsummer's Day, the Scandinavian celebration of the longest day of the year. It kind of sucked because Midsummer's Eve is celebrated in Sweden on Friday night and Midsummer's Night is celebrated in Denmark on Saturday night, so because of the way I arranged my trip, I actually missed out on both, but still, being in Scandinavia for Midsummer's weekend is pretty amazing, so I can't complain. Like the concert I went to at Tivoli was part of the Midsummer celebrations and stuff. Midsummer is great up there because it's daylight about 20 hours a day. In Cali, only the Playboy Mansion celebrates Midsummer's, and it's not really the same since even on Midsummer's we have only like 15 hours of daylight since we're closer to the equator. Still, it must really suck in Scandinavia in the winter when they only have like 4 hours of daylight.
I took a little walk around the center of town and I met a fellow London traveler named Johnny and we went over to TGI Friday's which was one of the few places open since it's an American restaurant. We met two other Americans who were in Stockholm on business. Both were actually from Cali, and one of the guys, Frank, is my age and from San Bernardino, which is near where I'm from, and I was just cracking up because he sounded SO SoCal and it was just nice to meet someone from home. It made me really homesick!
Me in Stockholm on Midsummer's. It wasn't so much raining as it was misty. It's a strange kind of rain that they have a lot in Stockholm.
Me and the guys at TGI.
The next morning, I woke up super early and went on a boat tour of Stockholm out to the Feather Islands. Stockholm is made up of all these islands and there's a bunch of islands out in the Archipelago. The tour guide told us that a huge percentage of Swedes in Stockholm have boats so they can sail out the islands in the summer. Sunday was just GORGEOUS and I got lots of pictures:
Me with the May Pole. On Midsummer's, Swedish girls dance around the May Pole.
The island we stopped on used to be used by the founder of Absolut as his restaurant.
Beautiful day.
I asked the tour guide where was the best place to get Swedish food. She said that Swedes don't really eat Swedish food on a daily basis, only on special occasions, other than the meatballs and that the best place was probably Ikea since it's where Swedes go to get cheap and yummy meatballs. So after the cruise, I met up with Johnny and we trekked to the outskirts of town to the HUGE Ikea.
Me at Ikea!
Johnny at Ikea!
I thought these carts were awesome. Maybe they have them in the States, too.
Swedish meatballs! They were yum. One thing about eating at Ikea that's not the same as the States was that you buy a cup for the drink machines and you get the choice of soda, juice, or BEER. Yes, free refills of Swedish beer.
We walked around Ikea, which was fun, and a good way to burn off the food. Didn't buy anything cuz I doubt I'd be able to take a bookcase with me back to London.
The Swedes are responsible for some really cool things. Like Ikea and H&M and Volvo.
Volvo dealership. I saw a Volvo limo driving around here. No joke.
Then I took a boat to another island of Stockholm, Djurgarden, to sightsee.
The Vasamuseet, which is a museum about this warship from the 1600's that sank off the coast of Stockholm, never actually even making it off to sea. But because the water is brick a brack, half salt and half fresh, the boat was able to be discovered and restored in the 1960's and now it sits in this museum. It's really amazing and the museum is just so well put together.
Me in front of the boat.
I took a lot of pictures of the boat, but because of the dim lighting inside the place, it's really hard to capture. I'll just put a couple up, but really, you have to go see this for yourself. It's really amazing how intricate the design is. War was actually really beautiful back then.
I bought this stupid pass called the Stockholm Pass that gets you into all the different sights and free transport and what not, so I just started going into everything so I'd get my money's worth, but at the end, I realized it was a rip-off because no one can do that much in a day. Also, I ended up losing the pass on my second day, so it was really a waste.
So I went on this boat museum thing because it was included and in front of the Vasa Museum.
Me on the boat.
Then I went to this place called Skansen, which is an "open-air museum" of a "miniature historical Sweden." In the guidebooks, I saw pictures of people dressed up in old-fashioned clothes and stuff, so I thought it'd be fun like Colonial Williamsburg.
BUT...there was nothing miniature about this place at all, except this miniature map. It was enormous! About twice the size of Tivoli and lots of hills. Great thing about Copenhagen was that it's so flat.
Also, by the time I got there, most of the exhibits were closed. This farmhouse was one of the few open.
And there was this lady sitting inside. And she wasn't in character. She was actually pretty dull. And she said none of the people here are in character since they aren't actors and it's not part of their job. :( I went to a couple other exhibits and same story...so I was really disappointed. I didn't come here for Swedish history lessons! I thought people would be really funny and in character. Com'on DANCE MONKEY DANCE!
So I head back and after resting, because my feet fell like there were about to fall off, I met up with Johnny and his friend to go to a bar called East for drinks.
Me and Johnny.
Me and Bronco, who I renamed Tree because he's a foot taller than me so whenever we're walking around together, I felt like a tree was following me.
The next day, I went to Gamla Stan, which is the Old Town of Stockholm.
I went to the Changing of the Guard, which was hilarious because the guards look like space robots with metal penises on their heads.
They had a marching band escort them.
Hehehe...
Alien attack on the royal palace!
Me at Kunliga Slottet (Royal Palace). I realized I'm sick of royal palaces after this. I mean, every freakin' European city you go, there's another royal palace. And really, other than Versailles, they aren't that great. I'm done with royal palaces! No more!!!
The only slightly interesting thing at this royal palace was an exhibit on the Crown Princess Victoria. She's 30 years old and is the next heir to the throne because they passed this law in 1980 saying she'd inherit instead of her little brother. Kind of sad for the little brother, but she seems like a really nice princess. She's not the typical Swedish blonde, but she's pretty in that "I play volleyball" kind of way. Better than the American "princess" Paris Hilton...
Me in Stockholm.
After the palace, I went shopping! Sweden's great for shopping because the people here are into cheap, understated clothes. Although Swedish women would probably look good in a garbage bag. There's an H&M every 5 steps, but I discovered H&M sucks regardless where you are. But there's a lot of other great shops. My favorites in Scandinavia are those useless knickknack shops they have. In Copenhagen, there was a store called Tiger where everything was about £1. I bought a T-shirt there, but Magda took it and has been wearing it all the time now. But there was a place in Stockholm called Lagerhaus that was useless crap heaven. Love it!
So that was Stockholm. I won't be traveling for awhile. I start my internship on Monday and so I'll be rooted in London for the next couple of months until I pick up and start on the Asian leg of my world tour. :D
2 comments:
did you prefer copenhagen or stockholm? i liked copenhagen better because it was more compact...
hmm...stockholm was prettier and pastellier (a word i just made up). copenhagen was so brown and dark blue whereas stockholm was pink and orange! does that make any sense? people were nicer in denmark and spoke better english (although a pretty slight difference since swedes are friendly and speak english well too.)danish men are better looking than swedish. women were prettier in sweden though. shopping is better in stockholm. copenhagen was more compact, but their public transports not as good as stockholm's. and danish beer tastes better. stockholm's cheaper than denmark (in terms of currency exchange from US). although christiania in copenhagen kicked ass...SO OVERALL, i don't really have a strong preference for either. both were great.
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