Stockholm, Sweden

This last weekend, nine girls ventured all the way to Stockholm, Sweden! It was a random destination, yes, but the tickets were the right price and the fact that we knew very little about the country meant it was perfect for exploring. So, last Friday at 4am, we all started on our journey.

Literally the first thing I noticed about Sweden was that they drove on the right side of the road. I noticed this right as we were landing, and it was nice to truly know what way you were supposed to look before crossing the street! It was different though, because there were no markings saying "Look Left!" or "Look Right!" We have all gotten so used to looking the opposite way, we were in awe for a few moments.

We arrived Friday morning around 11:30 their time (they are an hour ahead of London) and went through customs. We got our first indication that we probably should have done a little more research on Sweden when we realized that none of us know any Swedish. Crap. Oh well. It didn't prove to be a bad thing as almost every single Swedish person we ended up talking to or asking for help knew English. The entire city of Stockholm (and country of Sweden, I'm assuming) seems to be bilingual! Not only are most of their signs using English right underneath the Swedish, but once vendors or store owners realized we were speaking English, they switched their English on faster than we could say "do you speak English?" At the first place we went to eat, I asked the man how to say hello, good-bye, and thank you. Thankfully he was nice enough to be my teacher and I relayed the phrases to the other girls. We all used "Tack" (Thank you) for almost everything from that point on.

We made it! Me, Banni and Mary Kate in Sweden!

Right after we stepped off the plane onto the tar we literally all stopped and smelt the air. The airport we flew into, Skavsta, is outside of Stockholm, but I think all of Sweden has incredibly crisp, fresh air, especially right now as the seasons are changing. It was a welcome difference from urban London.

We then made our way into Stockholm and found our way to our hostel. This was the first time anyone else on our trip realized that they don't speak English and that this might be a little hard to get around. Thankfully, I had print-outs of where we were going and we made it there safely.

And this is what we saw:

We were in a 30-bed coed room. Fifteen bunk beds from IKEA would definitely do the trick! (IKEA originiated in Sweden, so our beds, linens, everything was from IKEA.) You can see me, Veronica and Erica looking for which beds were ours. (Picture courtesy of Andrea.)

Friday night we met four Irish boys staying in our hostel, as well, and we ended up going out with them. It actually felt more like we were in Ireland this night than in Sweden! We ended up at an Irish bar, and around 11pm a man started playing guitar and singing songs - he even played "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz.

On Saturday morning we got up and decided to have a cheaper breakfast by getting things at the supermarket. We went in and found that we could get four pastries for a decent amount of Kroner (their money) and ended up all sharing. The croissants are so amazing in London, we didn't think they could get better, but they did. I had two really different pastries and both were fantastic. I love local bakeries. I can't wait for a croissant or baguette in France!

Stockholm is a fourteen islands connected by bridges to form the city. We realized that we really only had the entire day on Saturday to do all of the touristy exploring we wanted to do. So, we started out by heading to Gamla Stan (Old Town). This is one of the most beautiful areas. It is very old, (ha, obviously) as this is where the first settlers of Stockholm lived. The streets are all still cobble stones and the buildings are built to look like natural colors which would make it an ideal destination in autumn (see first picture.) Although, it would be a little cold. It was quite cold during the day, but got really chilly at night.

<----Here is a nice picture of me and a statue of King Gustaf III. They really seem to like the name Gustaf in Sweden. And Johan, too.

We then took an afternoon boat tour, which was a tour underneath the bridges of Stockholm. It showed all of the islands and major tourist sights while we sat and rocked away. It was a beautiful day (no rain!) and I got some really great pictures from it. I wish I could share so many more, but here are a few:



Me, Veronica, Mary Kate, Erica and Andrea before our boat tour.

Rows of houses on one of the islands.
A nice houseboat alongside fishermans boats.


After our boat tour, we ended up going to the island Sodermalm to eat. We wanted some Swedish meatballs, but apparently they are not as big of a deal here as we thought they would be. So, we ended up at a restaurant named Tiffany's for two-three hours just eating local cuisine and chatting.After eating, we walked around the island and decided to head back to Gamla Stan for the night. On our way, we found a candy vendor who was selling traditional sour rope candy, and we all got some and decided to sit by the water and enjoy our last few daylight hours overlooking the water. (Pictured are Erica, me, Andrea and Amy eating our candy.)This was our view. Not bad, huh? And yes, we climbed over that chain to sit there. Nobody said anything to us, though! (Heather, Emily, Veronica and Mary Kate.)

That night we walked all the way through Gamla Stan again, then back to the main island of Gallerian, where the bus station we needed to leave from was. We walked around this area for a while, and at some points, got a little sleepy.

These lion statues seemed to be everywhere! Along with H&M, of course.

The entire group outside of our hostel: Me, Mary Kate, Veronica, Erica, Banni, Andrea, Amy, Heather and Emily.

And then we headed home really early on Sunday morning! It was a whirlwind of a trip, but a really great one.

More updates of my week will be coming soon. This weekend I am going on another little trip, this time through CAPA, my school, so I am sure it will be much better planned than ours was. :)