Good ole Sweden. What a weekend it was in Stockholm. It started at 5 am Thursday morning, I woke up to catch my 556 am train to Turku. I was already packed and had everything I needed, the only thing I was missing was sleep. I really couldn't sleep the night before, mainly cause of excitement, which I always get when I travel. The train ride went smoothly and I hopped on my ferry to Stockholm.
The ferry ride was going to take about 10 hours, now we boarded at 845 am in Finland and was suppose to get into Sweden by about 730 am their time. The ferry is giant, has a bunch of slot machines, video game systems, a night club, karaoke bar, cafe, tax free store, and plenty of bars of course. Enough to keep you occupied for the time being. I spent most of my time either playing video games, cause i never get to in Finland, or trying to sleep. I was pretty unsuccessful sleeping so I tried to read magazines and books. Once we were in viewing distance of Stockholm I went outside to the nice, cold, and dark weather to view the city. It was pretty cool to see the city at night with the bright lights from the water.
Once I got off the boat it was time to find my hostel. Stockholm is split up into islands that are connected by bridges. The middle island is old town where the Royal Palace is located among most of the Swedish restaurants and bars. I walked through old town and caught a glimpse of Stockholm during the night time, which isn't hard to do since it starts to get dark up here in Scandinavia at about 330 pm. Continuing my trip to the hostel I went to the city hall which is a very cool sight because it lays right next to the water (dont worry i have pictures). After that I went to the hostel to get some rest and ready to meet Sean, as he was flying into Sweden at about 230 pm on Friday.
When Sean arrived we started to do some sight seeing. We went into the town central where all the shopping malls were. I had heard of a park in central city where there was ice skating, so we headed out there. We found the outdoor ice skating rink, it was pretty cool, mainly because i had never been ice skating outside, or even had seen one outside. I was a little bit rusty at first but got the hang of it, just like riding a bike. We spent about an hour skating enjoying the nice evening, but we knew we had a reservation at the ice bar that we couldnt miss so we headed out. We walked around in central city where there was alot going on. So many lights and stores. Mainly just H&M stores. Now those for you who don't know H&M is a very popular clothing store in Europe and in the U.S. It was started in Sweden, so they have these stores at like every corner, just like Starbucks but even to a further extreme. They were just everywhere I don't know what distinguished each store to the next. But anyways we went back to our hostel to make some food that we got from the grocery store. Stockholm/Sweden is a pretty expensive place, they have the Swedish Kronor for their currency. Once we finished eating we headed to the ice bar.
The ice bar was connected to this hotel. It's called the Absolut ice bar, so it belongs to the Absolut vodka company, which is Swedish for those who didn't know that. You have to make reservations in advance to get in, and it's 17 euros for entry plus one drink. Once we got in, it was pretty cool. Everything was ice. The walls, benches, tables, the bar, cups, just everything. Now they limit you to 45 mins per group, but as the time went on my hands got to be freezing cause, I mean, the cup was ice so it was holding a block of ice. Plus it is kept at -5 degrees celcius in there so its pretty hard to warm up your hands. Everything on the drink menu included vodka so we settled for the 'Absolut Cog'. It had lingonberries in it, plus there finest Absolut vodka. It was a very 'cool' experience and if you ever go to Stockholm you got to check it out.
After that we came back to the hostel to figure out what we were doing that night. We talked to a local girl that worked there and said there was places near by. We ended up choosing the Lemon bar, which was "very Swedish" she said. We waited about 20 minutes in line before we could get in but we were able to talk with some Swedish guys and girls. This is where I found out Gunther, this joke of a pop singer, was Swedish because there was a picture of him up in the bar. Once we got in we went downstairs to blasting music in Swedish. This made it a very unique experience because Sean and I could have easily been the only non-Swedish people in there. Every song was Swedish, except for two "i would walk 500 miles" and "take me down to paradise city", but other than that. We met some people and enjoyed the night. After this we made it back for some sleep, which wasnt very much, but much needed.
The next day morning we made it to our other hostel which was located in the central city and dropped off our stuff. We decided to go to a couple of museums during the day that were recommended to see. The first museum being the Vasa museum, which is the world's only surviving 17th century ship. It was preserved for 10 years before its museum opening in 1990. The boat was very detailed, there was so much craftsmenship that went into that boat. It was King Gustov and it was suppose to pick him up in Poland but it only lasted 20 minutes into sea outside of Stocholm before a large gust of wind knocked it over. Later they found out it was top heavy and not built well...But this was a nice history lesson for us about Sweden, since we had a guided tour and watched a video, we came out educated about some Sweidsh history.
The next stop was the Nobel museum. This was located in old town. By this time it was 330 and getting dark awesome...But once again inside carried a lot of information. A lot about Nobel winners, and had some important artifacts. Like Galileo's first telescope, and the document of the first patent. Plus controversial winners who didn't accept the Nobel winners, but once you have been chosen as the winner, if you accept it or not they don't change it.
After our exciting trips to the museums we made it back to our hostel for a much needed nap. We enjoyed some dinner after the nap and met some people all over the world traveling as well. A big group from Sevilla, Spain (where Sean is studying), Belgium, Australia, Holland, and even Cleveland Ohio.
We made our way out to another enjoy the night life once again, and we found a nice place to say the least. The cover charge was 16 euros...Yeah they take there clubbing very seriously in Sweden. But I will confirm the stereotype of beautiful Swedish women is true. There are lots of tall good-looking blondes. Once again in this club as well I heard the song "i would walk 500 miles" song. The Swedes love that song, so when I got back home I looked it up and the band "The Porclaimers" were Scottish. I guess they just love that song.
On my trip home from Stockholm I met these two men who made my trip home very interesting. One man born in Stockholm now lives in Finland, named Magnus, is a professor of the Swedish and Finnish language, plus a pastor in his city. He spoke 5 different languages. But that wasn't the only thing the man who he was traveling with, Originally born in Johannesburg South Africa, then lived in London for 10 years, is married to a Finnish women so he is citizen in Finland, also had lived in Portland Oregon the past year and was going back in December. Unbelievably small world. In Portland he is a pastor for a Finnish cathedral for a small Finnish community that lives in the St. John's area. There is also a larger Finnish community in Astoria. But his name was Patrick and he knew how to speak 8 different languages...Um wow...South African, English, Welch, Finnish (which tookk him 2 years to learn), Swedish, Danish, German, and Spanish. He said he could understand Estonian as well but i'm not counting that. Anyways I sat by him on the train ride from Turku to Tampere and he gave me a cultural lesson on Scandinavia and Finland. He made 2 hours go by in 15 minutes. Plus, I got to learn some Swedish and Finnish. Not much of course. But it was amazing running into these two nice gentlemen, just totally capped off my trip.
Since then I have made it back and caught up on sleep that I was deprived of the whole weekend. Sean and I agreed that Stockholm wasn't what we expected, it was that much better. Its a beautiful and elegant city that carries a lot of history I didn't know about. There is a reason why its the capital of Scandinavia. But as for me I have a test on Friday than my next trip will be to Rome, Italy on December 3rd.
I hope to be spending Thankgiving with some new friends and be eating the famous Reindeer I hear about over here. But i'm sure I will be blogging before then.
Moy Moy
No comments:
Post a Comment