Sweden Part 2: Stockholm – City of 14 islands (who knew?) (2008)

After leaving on an early morning ferry from Gotland, I was sad to leave such an amazing place.  I think Visby is one of my favorite cities so far.  But 3 hours by ferry and 1 hour by bus I was in Stockholm.  I have to admit, I really didn`t know much about Stockholm or have any expectations for this visit.

For example, I didn`t know the city was built on 14 islands so it was a lot of fun to walk around and over all the islands or at least many of them.  I knew something must have been happening in Stockholm as every place I tried to book was full and that was a week in advance.  I later found out there was a KISS concert 2 days after I left, but many people came to Stockholm for the week before.  I did find a hostel to stay in for 3 nights and met some fun people.

My first day, I just wanted to walk around and explore.  The waterways were so blue and the sun was out, so everything was great for me.

 

The biggest surprise was how expensive everything was.  Even if I had a job and income, I would still be shocked by the prices.  For example, a simple dinner would have cost about $30 (like a burger and fries or salad).  A beer was about $10-12 for a local draft beer.  So like many people I was staying with, we didn`t go out as much, but had fun trading traveling stories.  This group was made up of a few fun people (3 English guys at the end of their 3 week trip, 1 Australian girl (Tegan) that was 18 years old and working in Wales, a 26 Australian (Richard) traveling the world for 18 months and was going many places around the same time as me so we may meet up again in Estonia, a French Canadian girl, another Australia guy (Mark) that was trying to move to Stockholm and get a job and was living in the hostel until he got settled, and finally a  41 year old (Julie) from Minnesota that was out for 7 weeks on her own.  I have to say, the woman from Minnesota was more organized than me as she had planned every detail, flight, hostel for the  weeks she is out.  Good to be organized, but it didn`t allow her to change plans if something else sounded good.  This group went out the first night as we were in search for a Scottish pub that another girl in the hostel was working at.  We finally found it and the bartender took care of us and gave a few extra free beers each round which was nice.  That first night we were out till 3am at the bar (yet they bar normally closes at midnight, they stayed open later as we were still buying).  How`s that for service!

 

The next morning was intended to be my big sightseeing day.  Richard and I decided to head out as we wanted to see the same parts of town and walked a long way to see the Vasa museum.  The Vasa was a flagship that sank withing minutes of being launched in 1628 and was resurrected from the mud some 300 years later and we were able to see the ship as it was still intact.  This was a great afternoon as I got to learn about the process of building this massive ship which was supposed to be the greatest war ship ever, yet if you look at the ship, you can see it wasn`t deep enough, have anything to support it if a big wind came.  I guess by today`s standards, you could tell is was doomed.  But it was very pretty as there was amazing details in each carving into the ship.  It was also interesting to learn about the sailors lives and what life was like back in the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that, Richard and I just wandered around to the old part of town, saw some silly magicians on the street, found a fancy chocolate store for me as I was craving some chocolate and cruised some museums.  Only problem, all the museums in  Stockholm USED to be free.  As our luck had it, early this year, they all started charging fees and they were really high.  Neither of us had any driving desire to see any of them so we saw the exhibits outside and continued to enjoy the day.  I have seen a lot of art and know there will be more to come.  At this point, I had seen a lot of the city and was looking to find a day trip the next day.

At times, I wonder if I look Swedish as I was stopped on the street 4 times in 3 days with people asking me for directions.  Either I really blend in as a local or people think I`m Swedish.  Regardless, it was funny as I was as much a tourist.  Maybe it since my hair is getting blonder with all the sun.

Tegan (18 year old from Australia) and I decided to take the bus up to Uppsala for the day.  An hour by bus and beautiful scenery along the highway, we were welcomed to Uppsala by the famous “pink castle”.  Tegan called it Barbie`s dream house.  This castle was so huge, you could see it from 5 miles away.  So that was our first stop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up a big hill, which made me miss San Francisco hills a little, and we arrived.  Tegan was breathing really hard and said she is not used to these hills and how was I?  From this vantage point, we were rewarded with amazing views of the city and well worth the hike up.  This castle was constructed in the 16th century for the king and queen.

After this we were off to see the prominent cathedral.  This was one of the tallest I have seen and beautiful inside.  It was time to stop for some lunch and people watching.  Lots of college kids and locals which made for an entertaining lunch break.

Now the final stop in Uppsala was going to take some work.  We had to find a local bus #2 and take that 5 km out of town (which direction…we didn`t know).  Funny part…Tegan kept asking me if I would figure it out since I know where we are going or what it`s called.  I kept laughing with her and saying…”last time I was in Uppsala…” as this was my first time too.  Anyways, we finally found the right bus and took it out to Gamla Uppsala (or the old Uppsala city).

This is home to the Royal burial grounds.  And literally there are 3 huge mounds of dirt/grass where royalty was buried.  So we walked around the mounds and learned about the history.  There was a separate mound for the women and a separate one for judges.  Interesting…. There was one mound we were allowed to climb (the judges mound) and I was up for the challenge and climbed.  Tegan wasn`t interested and stayed at the bottom but I was up for it and a little exercise to get my heart beating a little harder.  It was a nice view from the top and we could still see the pink castle from 5 km away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You will see I made friends here with a little viking.  I thought he was cute.  Overall, a great day trip from Stockholm and fun day with Tegan.

So back to Stockholm for another day.  My last day was spent seeing the changing of the guard in front of the Royal Palace and walking around the Gamla Stan (old part of Stockholm) which is very touristy but fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the way, have I mentioned how much people in Sweden LOVE ice cream?  Every place you go, they are eating ice cream and there is another stand, and my guidebooks kept telling me all the places to sample ice cream in the city.  Strange.
I was off to catch an overnight ferry to Helsinki and was warned it was an all night party ferry.  So I`ll see what happens there.