Baby, It's Cold In Stockholm

At the weekend I did more of the usual, collected my bike, got talked to in Danish, lazed around.  On Sunday I bought the Observer from the shop a few doors down my road that stocks international newspapers and magazines - very convenient - and cycled down to the lakes that seperate the city centre from Frederiksberg and Norrebro.  The weather was glorious, blinding sunshine, slight chill, but perfect for biking.  I ventured further into the city to run a few errands - bought a bell for my bell-less bike, a basket for my dirty clothes and a present for Miss Tanya Moody.  Met Charlie for a millisecond and had a catch-up.  Home for dinner and a heart-to-heart with Simon - very revealing, but also personal - not for the blog.

On Monday morning I think I pretended that I was getting ready for my trip to Stockholm with Max, Maria and Lorelai, but in reality I was mooching around wasting my life away - when it was less than 3 hours until the flight was to depart, I realised that I should probably start packing.  I met the guys at Forum station at 1.30pm and we got the metro all the way to the (END OF THE LINE) Kastrup airport.  And that was it - I was on my way to Stockholm, Sweden.

We arrived into Stockholm-Arlanda Airport around 4.30pm and went straight to the Tourist Office to buy our City-Bike cards for the next few days.  We then walked through the centre of the picturesque Gamla Stan (the Old Town) to our youth hostel Gustaf af Klint, also known as we were sleeping on a boat!

After we checked out our accomodations we headed back into the city and had dinner near the Central Station, it was ok food and ok prices so it was OK.  We then hit up ICEBAR STOCKHOLM (the original) across the street.  On our way there we saw the World Trade Centre, I thought it was pretty creepy.

It was a good experience to put on one of the ice-coats and drink out of an ice-glass and generally be surrounded by ice.  However, it's one of those things where people just go to take pictures of themselves in icy conditions (which, in fairness, is what we did).  We stayed pretty much the maximum time that you are allowed to, but then it became too cold.  This is a selection of photos, there will be more on Facebook shortly I'm sure, for those who are Facebook-enabled.

We walked back to the boat/hostel and saw some of these things.

On Tuesday we woke up, had breakfast and set out for the Vasa museum on Djurgaarden.  The Vasa was a ship sunk not far from Stockholm in the 1600s and the museum documents the history of the boat and the people who were onboard.  It was pretty interesting, here are some pictures.

LONDON

KOBENHAVN

STOCKHOLM

It was very interesting, I particularly liked the skeleton remains as they were named and someone had recreated what the people onboard would have looked like and it was eerily lifelike.  Now it was lunchtime and on the way to find somewhere to eat we walked round a courtyard that seemed to house the Museum of the History of Washing, very unexpected.

In the afternoon we went to the city hall where we saw this cool horse, and I bought a keyring.

And then we just walked around and saw some of the city.

 The next photo is for all my friends that love ROCK.

We had dinner at this lovely cafe that was a little bit like a cave (in that it was underground).  It was reasonably priced and the lady who ran it was lovely.  Afterwards we walked around the area we were staying in (Sodermalm) and had a drink.  We will not dwell on the price of my glass of red wine but I will add a section about money when I complete this blog post later today.



An interrupted sleep in our cabin (bloody Pole washing his face loudly at 2.30am) was followed by Wednesday - already our last day in Sweden.  We started slowly with a cup of tea and I bought a cool bag in an international magazine shop in Sodermalm.

Then we cycled back to Djurgaarden to Skansen Museum (an open-air affair with a Scandinavian zoo).

Skansen was pretty good, I liked being in the country, in the city and seeing the elk, brown bears and wolves.  The afternoon was juts more of the walking and exploring.  In the centre we went into an H&M so now I have been in one in the founding country.  Then we went to the boat through Gamla Stan and its narrow cobbled streets again.  So pretty, especially in the rain.  Had dinner at this Mexican place that was so warm and cosy, we never wanted to leave.  Went back to the boat and messed around.  Me and Lorelai took some great Titanic pictures on the deck at midnight, so they will appear later.

Got up at 5.40am this morning, packed, got the Swedish metro (slightly better than LDN, nowhere near as good as CPH), then the train and got our flight at 8.30am.  Got home this morning and have just done some errands and sorted out my life a bit.  There are more pictures to come from the others and below is some key points I took away from Sweden.

1. SEK vs DKK - Sweden has a reputation for being very expensive, more so than Denmark.  However, Swedish kronor is more favourable to the £ than the Danish kroner so I got more for my British £s.  It was very expensive compared to England, thats for sure.
2. Swedish people are beautiful - Max said he found the Swedish girls more beautiful than Danish girls, but us girls weren't so sure about the men.  If I'm honest I was expecting a overwhelming wall of tall, blond guys but I think after some careful consideration I prefer Danish men, on a purely looks-based level.
3. BICYCLE CITY - People do cycle in Stockholm but it is not made for cycling the way CPH is.  It is slightly hilly and rained most of the time we were there.  In CPH sometimes you feel like there are more bikes on the road than cars, but this is not the case in Stockholm.
4. The Weather - I knew it would be cold. I knew it might rain. It was consistently between 0°C and 8°C which I did not enjoy.  It also rained the majority of the time we were there.
5. Window displays - A slightly strange point to make but I will make it anyway.  Avid fans of my blog will remember the shop in CPH selling glasses and having a pasta window display.  In Stockholm I found one with a wood window display and one with a LEGO display (which is weird anyway as LEGO is Danish).

Also saw this amazing window display but did not understand what the shop was selling.



So all in all, Sweden was cool, pretty etc and I would like to go back (in the summer) but I was so pleased to return to Denmark and the city that has come to be my home in just 2 months.  I do think about all you lovely people in England more and more as each day goes by, but I also fall more and more in love with this city, which doesn't always feel like a city and which I can definitely see being my home in the future, if I am lucky enough.