Last Thursday, the 27th of September, was exactly one month after I left the United States for the United Kingdom. It was also the first time I left England since arriving here.
My destination was Stockholm Sweden. Now, I have to admit that I didn’t really know much about Stockholm before going there. I really booked the flight because some people I knew were going, and it was a pretty cheap flight. But for all I knew, Stockholm was a positively dreadful place to go.
Fortunately, the city is the exact opposite of a dreadful place to go. It’s built on an archipelago, so there is plenty of water. It is made up of 14 islands that are connected by a seemingly-countless number of bridges. Whoever is in charge of city planning in Stockholm also deserves a big bonus. There are stone walkways everywhere, and plenty of trees keep the city beautiful. The architecture fits in perfectly with this veritable marina metropolis. If you haven’t looked at my pictures from the city, I suggest you head over to picasaweb.google.com/rickseltzer right now.
It’s even easy to circumnavigate the language barrier. Practically every clerk or shopkeeper we ran across spoke English in addition to Swedish, and while it was tough to read menus and some signs, I never had that helpless feeling of being isolated. If anything, the different language was a welcome reinforcement of the fact that we were actually in a foreign country.
Alas, the Swedish capital isn’t without its negatives. For one thing, it might be even more expensive than the wealth-sucking vacuum that is London. I was not expecting this, since the Dollar is actually stronger than the unit of Swedish currency, the Kronor. It’s seven times stronger than the Kronor, to be specific. Unfortunately, Swedes see fit to charge hundreds of Kronor for practically anything, be it food or entertainment. It’s a little odd too see a menu listing a price as 180. A little odd and a little painful.
Now that you understand a little more about Stockholm, lets move on to the rundown of my activities.
Thursday
We started with a simple plan. Calyn and I were supposed to take the tube to the bus stop after my class at Faraday House. Deb didn’t have class on Thursday, and our flat was relatively close to the “Easybus” stop, so she was just going to walk to the stop. After we met, we would take the 2:30 bus, on which we had booked seats, to Stansted Airport, which is about an hour and a half drive from central London. That put us in the airport at four o’clock, giving us more than enough time to catch our six o’clock plane. Simple, right?
Wrong. We got out of the tube and found the Easybus stop, which had an orange minibus idling in front of it. We had about seven minutes before the bus was scheduled to leave, and Deb was nowhere to be found.
I checked my phone and sure enough, I had a voicemail.
“Hi,” Deb’s panic-stricken voice rattled from the phone. “I don’t know how it happened, but I don’t know where I am. The bus is going to leave soon, and I’m lost.”
This was not good. Deb’s sense of direction is like my father’s fashion sense in the 1970’s: nonexistent. Even worse, the bus was set to leave. There was no way she was going to make it.
Calyn went on the bus so at least one of us would be there on time. I’m not sure what she was going to do. Maybe hold up the plane by demanding to be able to leave her tray table down on takeoff. Still, it seemed like a good idea for one of us to be able to be at the airport on time. I got the exciting task of talking Deb in to the bus stop on the phone.
Oh, did I mention that I told her to spring before I realized that she had no chance of making it before the bus left?
Anyway, a very sweaty, flustered and out-of-breath Deborah arrived seven minutes after our bus pulled out, leaving us to wait for the next bus. We had to keep our fingers crossed the entire time, because while our ticket would let us on to later busses than the one we had booked, people who had booked for that specific time got priority boarding. In other words, if enough people had booked the next bus and showed up at the stop, we would have to wait another half hour, pushing our arrival at Stansted back from an already-delayed 4:30 to a more nerve-wracking 5:00.
Fortunately, we made it on the next bus. Only one person made it on after us, but we did make it. We even made through airport security and to the correct gate in time to secure spots at the head of the priority boarding line. The only thing our little drama cost us was a bit of Deb’s breath and dignity. She regained her breath pretty quickly, but please don’t mention this story to her. She doesn’t exactly like it.
Anyway, we got great seats on the airplane because we brought only one piece of carry-on luggage and didn’t have any checked baggage. That meant we could board the plane first, and since our carrier, Ryanair, doesn’t have reserved seating, we got our selection of seats. At my urging we picked sets in the emergency exit row, since it gave me plenty of legroom. It was the only flight I’ve been on where I could stretch out and not get leg cramps.
Our arrival in Stockholm at 9:10 local time was pretty uneventful unless you count a two-hour bus ride from Skavsta airport and 10 minute walk to our youth hostel as eventful.
Even at night we could tell the city was very pretty. The bus dropped us off in the middle of Normalm, on the largest landmass of the city. Our hostel was just one island away on the “Old Town” of Gamla Stan, but we could tell the city was gorgeous when crossing the bridge. The only reason I wasn’t too excited to go to sleep that night was that I was completely exhausted from class, missing the bus, and flying to a city in a new country.
Friday
This was a day of museums and touring. After grabbing an outrageously expensive cold-cut sandwich for breakfast in a café, (cold-cuts made up their breakfast menu) we headed over to the Vasamuseet. This museum, located on the museum and park-heavy island of Djurgarden, was at the top of my list of places to go. It houses the Vasa, a massive 17th century warship that sank in the waters of Stockholm just minutes after starting its maiden voyage. In the 1950’s, roughly 250 years after it sank, they raised the ship and restored it. Thanks to the particular makeup of the water in Stockholm, wood-boring worms don’t live in the waters there. That meant that the hull of the Vasa was in pristine condition when they raised it. The museum contained all sorts of insight into the history of the time when the boat was launched, but staring at the massive hull of that ancient boat was just stunning. Incredibly ornate carvings were preserved in pristine condition. I took a lot of pictures of this boat, but none of them quite capture its essence.
Next we dropped in on the Nordiskamuseet, just a few minutes away. There really wasn’t much there worth talking about, especially since half the exhibits were in Sweden. This was the most forgettable part of the day.
After that we took a 2 hour boat tour of the city. Going to Stockholm without going on the water would have been a sin. The city is absolutely beautiful from the water. I can’t name all the things we saw, but the biggest highlight was City Hall, where they select the Nobel Prize winner in literature. We were also on a lake that freezes over in the winter, allowing people to walk across from one island to another. I guess that makes the boat taxi business, which does exist in Stockholm, a seasonal endeavor.
Saturday
We took it a little easier on Saturday, partially because it rained all morning. At noon we went to see the changing of the guard at the Royal palace, which was just a 5 minute walk from our hostel. I should mention that stepping out the front door of the hostel left us staring out on the water, and we could easily walk up and down the street that ran up the east side of Gamla Stan.
Anyway, it was still pouring all through the changing of the guard, making it a very soggy affair. The new guard marched in with a lot of fanfare and a big band. The soldiers did a funny little sideways shuffle to pack closer together once they had marched in and turned to face each other. I don’t know why they did it, but it made them look like soggy ducks in the rain. It was also hard not to feel bad for the poor bloke who was left on duty at the end of the ceremony. The sky was really opening up on him.
For lunch we walked up to a bar and restaurant for our fist taste of Swedish Meatballs. They really are worth raving about. Check out my review at ricksfoodcritique.blogspot.com for a full understanding of the Swedish masterpiece.
I finally had to indulge my female companions’ wish to shop. We walked down the pedestrian streets of Gamla Stan, which is to say we perused more gift shops than I can remember. I got a moose-leather keychain as my souvenirs of Sweden. The moose is either the Swedish national animal, or people in Sweden just really love it. Either way, I needed a keychain, and this piece of moose-leather caught my fancy.
We also spent a little time in Norrmalm’s shopping district. It reminded me a little of Time Square and Oxford Street, only the spaces between the glamorous stores were giant pedestrian walks instead of car-filled streets. At any rate, we went to the great Swedish clothing chain H&M, which disappointingly was nowhere near as cheap as it is in the good old USA.
Sunday
Our last day in Sweden was perhaps my favorite overall. We went to the Skansen, a giant open-air museum and zoo. One part is a collection of old buildings with actors dressed up as Swedes from the 1700s. Another is a large fairground where two separate festivals were taking place. One was the apple festival, and it included fried apples, cider and music. The other was the autumn festival. It had everything from sheep-shearing to merchants hawking their old-fashioned products. The zoo didn’t have a lot of animals, but it did have some interesting ones. In addition to goats, cows, and wolves, there were penguins, bears and the Swedish moose. I even got to pet a mother moose!
I think we spent about six hours at the Skansen before walking back to the bus stop to take our leave. Along the way we ran into some Native American singers on the street. I have now been to two capital cities in Europe: London and Stockholm. I have now seen Native American performers in both. They seem very out of place.
We had some bus fun on the way home, too. We had bought return tickets to the airport on Thursday to save money, and arrived at Central Station secure in the knowledge that busses ran regularly to the airport. The only problem was that there is a 2 and a half hour gap in Sunday afternoon busses between 4 and 6:30. We got to the bus station around 4:15. That turned into a lot of waiting at the bus station, and it made us arrive at the airport only 75 minutes before our flight. Skavsta is a pretty small airport, (Smaller than Harrisburg International Airport, in fact) though, and the entire bus was filled with people who were taking our flight. I doubt we were in any danger of missing it.
So there you have it, 2,000 words on our trip to lovely Stockholm. Maybe now you can understand why I say it is an overlooked gem of a destination.
My destination was Stockholm Sweden. Now, I have to admit that I didn’t really know much about Stockholm before going there. I really booked the flight because some people I knew were going, and it was a pretty cheap flight. But for all I knew, Stockholm was a positively dreadful place to go.
Fortunately, the city is the exact opposite of a dreadful place to go. It’s built on an archipelago, so there is plenty of water. It is made up of 14 islands that are connected by a seemingly-countless number of bridges. Whoever is in charge of city planning in Stockholm also deserves a big bonus. There are stone walkways everywhere, and plenty of trees keep the city beautiful. The architecture fits in perfectly with this veritable marina metropolis. If you haven’t looked at my pictures from the city, I suggest you head over to picasaweb.google.com/rickseltzer right now.
It’s even easy to circumnavigate the language barrier. Practically every clerk or shopkeeper we ran across spoke English in addition to Swedish, and while it was tough to read menus and some signs, I never had that helpless feeling of being isolated. If anything, the different language was a welcome reinforcement of the fact that we were actually in a foreign country.
Alas, the Swedish capital isn’t without its negatives. For one thing, it might be even more expensive than the wealth-sucking vacuum that is London. I was not expecting this, since the Dollar is actually stronger than the unit of Swedish currency, the Kronor. It’s seven times stronger than the Kronor, to be specific. Unfortunately, Swedes see fit to charge hundreds of Kronor for practically anything, be it food or entertainment. It’s a little odd too see a menu listing a price as 180. A little odd and a little painful.
Now that you understand a little more about Stockholm, lets move on to the rundown of my activities.
Thursday
We started with a simple plan. Calyn and I were supposed to take the tube to the bus stop after my class at Faraday House. Deb didn’t have class on Thursday, and our flat was relatively close to the “Easybus” stop, so she was just going to walk to the stop. After we met, we would take the 2:30 bus, on which we had booked seats, to Stansted Airport, which is about an hour and a half drive from central London. That put us in the airport at four o’clock, giving us more than enough time to catch our six o’clock plane. Simple, right?
Wrong. We got out of the tube and found the Easybus stop, which had an orange minibus idling in front of it. We had about seven minutes before the bus was scheduled to leave, and Deb was nowhere to be found.
I checked my phone and sure enough, I had a voicemail.
“Hi,” Deb’s panic-stricken voice rattled from the phone. “I don’t know how it happened, but I don’t know where I am. The bus is going to leave soon, and I’m lost.”
This was not good. Deb’s sense of direction is like my father’s fashion sense in the 1970’s: nonexistent. Even worse, the bus was set to leave. There was no way she was going to make it.
Calyn went on the bus so at least one of us would be there on time. I’m not sure what she was going to do. Maybe hold up the plane by demanding to be able to leave her tray table down on takeoff. Still, it seemed like a good idea for one of us to be able to be at the airport on time. I got the exciting task of talking Deb in to the bus stop on the phone.
Oh, did I mention that I told her to spring before I realized that she had no chance of making it before the bus left?
Anyway, a very sweaty, flustered and out-of-breath Deborah arrived seven minutes after our bus pulled out, leaving us to wait for the next bus. We had to keep our fingers crossed the entire time, because while our ticket would let us on to later busses than the one we had booked, people who had booked for that specific time got priority boarding. In other words, if enough people had booked the next bus and showed up at the stop, we would have to wait another half hour, pushing our arrival at Stansted back from an already-delayed 4:30 to a more nerve-wracking 5:00.
Fortunately, we made it on the next bus. Only one person made it on after us, but we did make it. We even made through airport security and to the correct gate in time to secure spots at the head of the priority boarding line. The only thing our little drama cost us was a bit of Deb’s breath and dignity. She regained her breath pretty quickly, but please don’t mention this story to her. She doesn’t exactly like it.
Anyway, we got great seats on the airplane because we brought only one piece of carry-on luggage and didn’t have any checked baggage. That meant we could board the plane first, and since our carrier, Ryanair, doesn’t have reserved seating, we got our selection of seats. At my urging we picked sets in the emergency exit row, since it gave me plenty of legroom. It was the only flight I’ve been on where I could stretch out and not get leg cramps.
Our arrival in Stockholm at 9:10 local time was pretty uneventful unless you count a two-hour bus ride from Skavsta airport and 10 minute walk to our youth hostel as eventful.
Even at night we could tell the city was very pretty. The bus dropped us off in the middle of Normalm, on the largest landmass of the city. Our hostel was just one island away on the “Old Town” of Gamla Stan, but we could tell the city was gorgeous when crossing the bridge. The only reason I wasn’t too excited to go to sleep that night was that I was completely exhausted from class, missing the bus, and flying to a city in a new country.
Friday
This was a day of museums and touring. After grabbing an outrageously expensive cold-cut sandwich for breakfast in a café, (cold-cuts made up their breakfast menu) we headed over to the Vasamuseet. This museum, located on the museum and park-heavy island of Djurgarden, was at the top of my list of places to go. It houses the Vasa, a massive 17th century warship that sank in the waters of Stockholm just minutes after starting its maiden voyage. In the 1950’s, roughly 250 years after it sank, they raised the ship and restored it. Thanks to the particular makeup of the water in Stockholm, wood-boring worms don’t live in the waters there. That meant that the hull of the Vasa was in pristine condition when they raised it. The museum contained all sorts of insight into the history of the time when the boat was launched, but staring at the massive hull of that ancient boat was just stunning. Incredibly ornate carvings were preserved in pristine condition. I took a lot of pictures of this boat, but none of them quite capture its essence.
Next we dropped in on the Nordiskamuseet, just a few minutes away. There really wasn’t much there worth talking about, especially since half the exhibits were in Sweden. This was the most forgettable part of the day.
After that we took a 2 hour boat tour of the city. Going to Stockholm without going on the water would have been a sin. The city is absolutely beautiful from the water. I can’t name all the things we saw, but the biggest highlight was City Hall, where they select the Nobel Prize winner in literature. We were also on a lake that freezes over in the winter, allowing people to walk across from one island to another. I guess that makes the boat taxi business, which does exist in Stockholm, a seasonal endeavor.
Saturday
We took it a little easier on Saturday, partially because it rained all morning. At noon we went to see the changing of the guard at the Royal palace, which was just a 5 minute walk from our hostel. I should mention that stepping out the front door of the hostel left us staring out on the water, and we could easily walk up and down the street that ran up the east side of Gamla Stan.
Anyway, it was still pouring all through the changing of the guard, making it a very soggy affair. The new guard marched in with a lot of fanfare and a big band. The soldiers did a funny little sideways shuffle to pack closer together once they had marched in and turned to face each other. I don’t know why they did it, but it made them look like soggy ducks in the rain. It was also hard not to feel bad for the poor bloke who was left on duty at the end of the ceremony. The sky was really opening up on him.
For lunch we walked up to a bar and restaurant for our fist taste of Swedish Meatballs. They really are worth raving about. Check out my review at ricksfoodcritique.blogspot.com for a full understanding of the Swedish masterpiece.
I finally had to indulge my female companions’ wish to shop. We walked down the pedestrian streets of Gamla Stan, which is to say we perused more gift shops than I can remember. I got a moose-leather keychain as my souvenirs of Sweden. The moose is either the Swedish national animal, or people in Sweden just really love it. Either way, I needed a keychain, and this piece of moose-leather caught my fancy.
We also spent a little time in Norrmalm’s shopping district. It reminded me a little of Time Square and Oxford Street, only the spaces between the glamorous stores were giant pedestrian walks instead of car-filled streets. At any rate, we went to the great Swedish clothing chain H&M, which disappointingly was nowhere near as cheap as it is in the good old USA.
Sunday
Our last day in Sweden was perhaps my favorite overall. We went to the Skansen, a giant open-air museum and zoo. One part is a collection of old buildings with actors dressed up as Swedes from the 1700s. Another is a large fairground where two separate festivals were taking place. One was the apple festival, and it included fried apples, cider and music. The other was the autumn festival. It had everything from sheep-shearing to merchants hawking their old-fashioned products. The zoo didn’t have a lot of animals, but it did have some interesting ones. In addition to goats, cows, and wolves, there were penguins, bears and the Swedish moose. I even got to pet a mother moose!
I think we spent about six hours at the Skansen before walking back to the bus stop to take our leave. Along the way we ran into some Native American singers on the street. I have now been to two capital cities in Europe: London and Stockholm. I have now seen Native American performers in both. They seem very out of place.
We had some bus fun on the way home, too. We had bought return tickets to the airport on Thursday to save money, and arrived at Central Station secure in the knowledge that busses ran regularly to the airport. The only problem was that there is a 2 and a half hour gap in Sunday afternoon busses between 4 and 6:30. We got to the bus station around 4:15. That turned into a lot of waiting at the bus station, and it made us arrive at the airport only 75 minutes before our flight. Skavsta is a pretty small airport, (Smaller than Harrisburg International Airport, in fact) though, and the entire bus was filled with people who were taking our flight. I doubt we were in any danger of missing it.
So there you have it, 2,000 words on our trip to lovely Stockholm. Maybe now you can understand why I say it is an overlooked gem of a destination.
No comments:
Post a Comment