So apparently we didn’t look close enough into the details of where we were staying in Stockholm, it was the most expensive place by far so we assumed it’d be nice! Turns out our tiny room was below ground (no windows), literally just a bunk bed, no AC (again) and had a shared bathroom with the entire floor. Even our hostel in Oslo was 10x better than this “hotel” but at least it was close to the action. You live and you learn!
I don’t know why I was so surprised, but Stockholm is just like any other major city in the US (although quite empty on our walk to the train station at 4:30am this morning unlike the city that never sleeps). There are tons of US shops and fast food restaurants everywhere: H&M, Zara, Lush, Hollister, Urban Outfitters, TGIFridays, McDonald’s, Subway, etc. and a lot of places accept US dollars. If it weren’t for the street signs being in Swedish I would think we were actually in America. You could easily spend a week here doing nothing but shopping. The outskirts of the “shopping district” are where all of the really cool stuff is though!
Just like in Oslo, we bought 48 hour Stockholm Passes, which gave us free access to a lot of tours, museums, and transportation. We started off with a boat tour on the Djurgården canal to get our bearings, then took a hop on hop off bus to Gamla Stan, the picturesque “Old Town” area of Stockholm- lots of pretty, narrow alleys and cobblestone streets. Here, we saw the Nobel Prize Museum. This one was more focused on the Nobel Laureates, with lots of background stories on their lives. We also went to the Royal Palace/Royal Treasury, which dates back to the 18th century. The Swedish royal family still uses the palace for official receptions! Then we met up for dinner with Leah’s Swedish friend who goes to the University of Stockholm and got a Swedes perspective on the city.
The next day started off with the hop on hop off boat to the Vasa museum. I had never heard the story of the Vasa before, but it was the Kings ship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 and it is the first and only ship of its size and age to be fully recovered (333 years later…)! Afterwards we went to the Skansen open air museum which was so cool. It is huge and full of reconstructed farms and houses from different parts of Sweden. There were lots of “local characters” like farmers, carpenters, and bakers (major Colonial Williamsburg vibes…). The bakers made really good Swedish pastries! There were also real live Scandinavian animals, including wolverines, bears, and bison. On the property there was also the Baltic Sea Science Center, which had a lot of interactive exhibits on how to save the sea and even a mini aquarium! We spent so many hours at the Skansen museum that by the time we made it through the whole thing it was basically time for dinner. We stopped at a grocery store on our way back to the hotel and picked up food to have a little picnic in the park for our last night. We called it a night pretty early though because of our 7am flight to get back to Ireland in time for me to meet up with my program!
My scissors made it through security one last time and my passport finally got stamped by customs on our way out this morning (thank god, I would have been so sad if I didn’t get a stamp from Sweden). My passport is quickly filling and I love it!
Our room! It felt like we were on a cruise ship.
City Hall
Always so beautiful on the water here!
Nobel Peace Prize Museum
A lot of exhibits in the Noble Peace Prize Museum have artifacts and anecdotes from winners. My favorite is “When Randy Schekman was 12 years old, he saved money to buy a telescope, but his parents borrowed money from his piggy bank and forgot to pay it back. Randy went to the police and reported the crime. His father had to pick him up at the police station, and on the way home they bought this microscope.”
An alley in Old Town.
The ceiling in a room in the Royal Palace.
A pretty view of the city close to where I was staying.
Galway’s Irish Pub!!
Emily, Leah, and I at city hall.
Emily, Leah, and I in an Old Town square.
The Vasa
333 years under water but the Baltic Sea is so anoxic and brackish that it preserved this boat so well! It’s 98% the original material- basically only the rusted bolts were replaced.
Pretty view of Stockholm from the Skansen Museum.
Another pretty view 🙂
Our farewell picnic!
Keeping up with Katie 