Sarah, Micah and I arrived in Oslo around 5:45 this morning after taking the night bus back from Stockholm last night. We also took the night bus there Thursday night. Taking the night bus wasn't too bad. I slept better than I thought I would, but I definitely noticed myself running out of energy on Friday.
Stockholm is a beautiful city (what we saw of it in those two days). I would not be opposed to living there at some point in my life. It has the historical feel that a lot of European cities have, but it always feels way cleaner and just nicer in general than many of the cities I have visited. For those of you who don't know, Stockholm is actually a series of islands (14 in total I think). There are big, old buildings basically everywhere, but the most are found in Gamla Stan, the old town. Gamla Stan is a tiny island smack dab in the middle. It holds the Royal Palace, along with tons of history. Some of the buildings date back to the 1600's and there is a church that was originally built in the 1200's. The streets are all cobblestone (which was hard on the feet after a whole day of walking). The old town was about a fifteen minute walk from our hostel. We spent most of the second day here.
Since I like to do things in chronological order, let's go back to day 1. At nine we began our day at the Stockholm Public Library. It was a big orange building with a big circular interior lined with books. A pretty cool library I'd say.
We walked up onto a hill that held an observatory next and got a great view. The roofs reminded me of Mary Poppins because it looked like chimney sweeps could hop from house to house.
At ten we went for a tour of the City Hall in Stockholm. It is an absolutely beautiful building, and it is set right on the water, so everything about it was beautiful that day. We had great weather when we were there. It was nice and sunny both days, though it definitely could have been a bit warmer.
After the tour we grabbed lunch at a cafe. One thing we all noticed was that food was quite a bit cheaper than in Norway. Don't get me wrong though..eating out was still very expensive. The cafe we found was a great choice though. The sandwiches we got were huge!
Anyway, the place was huge. We spent three hours there and didn't cover everything, though we got pretty close. They had quite a few farmsteads, a manor where a rich family would have lived, an old church, a recreation of an old town including a shoemaker, furniture maker and glasshouse. There were a few belfries a windmill, a lot of storehouses, and a Sami camp. Overall, pretty cool.
I was pooped after that. We had a nice dinner at a London-themed restaurant. We all got fish and chips (mostly because it was the cheapest) and it was pretty good, especially the fries! Next we walked down to where the Royal Palace was. It was a beautiful time of night, just starting to get dark. It was very cold too though, so we didn't stay out too long.
It's funny. We never used the metro while we were there. Supposedly there is a lot of great artwork in the subway, but we couldn't justify spending the money on a subway ticket, just to see it. The only time we took transit was the bus and tram to Skansen. The ticket system is funny in Sweden. They give you two coupons for a one-way trip. Each coupon costs 18 kr, but one coupon will never get you anywhere (or so we are told). It just seems very silly to have to use two coupons to go anywhere. Why don't they just make one for 36 kr?
The hostel we stayed at was one of the nicest, I thought. They had a strict on alcohol policy which may have contributed. There was even a baby that was running around. I think she was German. Really cute. Saturday morning though, I was awoken to someone's alarm. First an older British man had to tell the guy to shut it off, and then when it went off again Sarah finally had to get up and tell him to shut it off. The guy just wouldn't get up!! He was still sleeping when we left that morning.
Saturday we started out at the old town. To get there we walked down a pedestrian street with a bunch of shops and restaurants. I love the old town. The buildings and cobble streets put you back hundreds of years. It's hard to imagine people actually live regular lives there. The palace is really big and nice looking, but not overly spectacular. There is a great view of the water and the rest of the government buildings from the palace though. On the way to the palace, you pass by the parliament buildings. We went on a free tour of the parliament buildings that afternoon. While the City Hall was more magnificent, the Parliament was also a very beautiful building and the tour was more interesting. We got to sit in the gallery above where the Parliament meets. In Sweden (like Norway) the parliament is seated by what area of the country they come from. There are 8 parties represented in Sweden, but the tour guide didn't even know how many there were in total. From what I understand the Social Democrats used to be in control, but now it is something called The Allies, a combination of liberals and conservatives. The tour guide was very adamant about emphasizing that it is not the government that decides things in Sweden; it's the parliament. Did you know the parliament in Sweden is split fifty-fifty between men and women? It was almost comical because once we learned that, two separate people on the tour group asked almost consecutively if this was because of a rule made by the government. It's interesting that it is so difficult for people to believe that such a thing could occur in society. Surely the Swedish government has pushed gender equality, but not so much that they had to make a rule to have parliament be equal. Interesting fact: the first "parliament" (when people met to start deciding stuff) in Sweden was in the 1430's, and in the 1500's the common men started to be included. (This achievement is only preceded by Iceland and England).
This is the church that is the oldest in Sweden. It was originally a monastery church in the 1200's. Of course, there have been additions and restorations made. This church is located on a small island that is just to the side of Gamla Stan.
One thing we didn't get to do was got to the Vasa Ship Museum. It was closed until May for construction. The story goes that in the 1600's the Swedes built a warship 5 stories tall, but it only sailed about 1300 m before it tipped over and sank. It sat in the harbor for about 300 years before someone discovered it, pulled it out, and put it in a museum.
That afternoon Sarah and I went off of the island with the old city to one further south in search of the cafe where Stieg Larson wrote parts of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was also the cafe in which his main character Mikael Blomkvist often visited. The name of it is Mellqvist Kaffebar. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting. You walk in and there is a counter to order, and when you go through another door to what might be seating, you find what look kind of like concrete lab tables that are raised, and some movie theater seats around a coffee table. There was a ton of seating outdoors and the cafe was very busy. I didn't take any pictures, but it was interesting to see. Sarah and I ended up stopping at a less crowded cafe on the way back for some hot chocolate and a snack.
At 6pm there was a free walking tour of the old city advertised by our hostel so we decided to check it out. It was led by a guy from Arkansas. Who knew! His wife is Swedish if you were wondering. They met in Australia on exchange and did they back and forth thing for a while until he could move to Sweden. I thought he sounded a bit like Tom Hanks. We also met a Canadian by the name of Shane who actually knew someone from Sarah's high school. Small, small world. The tour was good. We heard some ghost stories and learned some interesting facts. Here are some more pictures of the old town:
We had dinner at a place called Vapianos (spelling). It was almost like a fancy cafeteria. When you came in you were handed a swipe card, and what you did was go up to the different stations (pizza, pasta, salads, dessert, drinks) and order what you wanted, swipe your card and sit down. At the end you pay whatever amount you accumulated on your card. I had a pizza for only 90 SEK! That ends up being about $14-so much cheaper than Norway!
Overall, I am a big fan of Stockholm. I would definitely recommend it. Next time I go, I'll have to see the Vasa Ship Museum, and I would also like to do a boat tour around the islands.
