On March 11th Adam, Colin and I headed North to Stockholm - probably the farthest North we will get here in Europe. It was a comforting trip, because it was just like heading back to Wisconsin and Minnesota, the only difference being how old the buildings were, the numerous islands in the city, they have a princess, castles, huge ocean ports, a metro system, a great train system, great healthcare, snus, Swedish Krona's currency... okay well the snow and weather and welcoming atmosphere were similar.
Stockholm is a huge city with a lot more character than we expected. The old buildings and architecture alone make the city. The city is essentially several islands connected by bridges and tunnels, inland and near the East coast of Sweden. Our hostel and most of our time spent was at Old Town, a small island in the center of the City that has the old Royal Palace and town streets. We happened to stumble upon a ceremony for the Princess's birthday at the Palace Courtyard, where a Drum Corp paid tribute to the Princess and then she went around to meet the crowd. Of course we tried using our American charm to woo her, and of course the drum corp played ABBA's 'Dancing Queen' in her honor...
Duck Party at Djergarden National Park
We also spent a lot of time in a few of the National Parks that are in the city, as well as the various Modern Art Museums and the Vasa - a giant 17th Century Swedish Warship that sunk 20mins into its first voyage - the Swedes have improved their architecture and design skills since then.
Perhaps the biggest blunder of the trip came when we took the advice of some German visitors from our hostel, to go see Stockholm's Absolut Ice Bar. Lets just say its not like the Ice hotel in Norway... 1 room, 1 bar, 1 table, 1 bench, 1 Ice chair, and 1 frooty vodka drink per customer, all for the low low price of 150 Swedish Kronas - (Roughly 15 Euro). It did however make for a hilarious experience and decent funny story in the end...
Absolut Ice Bar
After Stockholm we headed to Uppsala for a night and day to see Jose Gonzalez in concert - a tremendous folk artist who is actually from Sweden, thus the concert being primarily in Swedish... Uppsala was a great small town with a fantastic cathedral, Castle, University, and student atmosphere. Plus the train to and from was the best mode of transportation we have experienced yet!
We left on Wed came back the following Sunday, without any missed trains, buses, or flights, hence a truly successful trip North. Here are the pictures from Stockholm, Uppsala, and the Jose Gonzalez concert.
-MD
Photos from Sweden
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