Stockholm, Sverige!

Just got back from Stockholm this weekend and it was amazing!  I feel like I say that every place I go to is amazing, but so far Stockholm really takes the cake.  Apparently it's built on an archipelago so there's water (and some ice for the moment) everywhere and the city is split up on a bunch of islands.  For a metropolitan city, it was refreshingly empty (and clean) relative to its european counterparts.  And for the record, Swedish has to be one of the funniest sounding languages I have ever heard, nothing sounds at all like how it's spelled.  Allie and I went to Stockholm with our Swedish friend Sofia from school, so needless to say we were spoiled, as is obvious in these pictures from the first night's dinner.

      Sweeeedish caviar + champagne

köttbullar or swedish meatballs, which are probably one of the major reasons I wanted to go on this trip. SO delicious

Sofia's dish, forget what it was called, but it was gooood! 

Allie, Sofia and I about to eat some meringue cake!

We went to Stockholm on a really good weekend because it was "culture night" on Saturday, meaning a bunch of museums were open at night (kind of similar to museum night fever in Bruxelles) and they were free. There was also a boat tour at night, which would have been very nice to see the old town lit up at night but it was freezing and the line was ridiculously long so we decided to walk around instead for a bit, before heading into a bar because we couldn't handle the cold any longer. (Btw, when I say "we" couldn't handle the cold, of course I mean Allie and myself, Sofia lived in Lapland before which is waaayyy up North, basically where Santa lives, so needless to say, she's been in slightly colder conditions before such as -40)  Despite freezing our butts off, it was really pretty to see the city at night. 

    the royal palace..look familiar?  well that's because the original burned down, and then it was reconstructed, and then it burned down again, and the last time it was built to look kind of like Buckingham palace.

so pretty

Allie, Sofia and I

Inside the museum of the Mediterranean..we got lost looking for the Medieval museum and ended up here

Some crazy terra cotta sculptures from I don't know how long ago (just imagine a very long time)

Our last full day had the best weather so it was perfect!  But don't let that sun fool you, even when it was out it was pretty chilly, the wind always gets you.  For our last day we walked around the old town, went into some tacky touristy shops as well as a viking shop where Daniel bought an actual crossbow for Sofia's brother. 

Allie, Sofia, Daniel + me!

trying to get in touch with our viking side

We also went to the Vasa museum, which is where this ship from the 1600's is on display.  It sank on its maiden voyage because they put too many canons on it, making it too heavy.  So, it sank and it was found in the 1960's (I think), and it was excavated in (near) perfect condition, but it's amazing because it's still in one piece and it was huuuuge.  Makes you wonder how they put it together, and then how much it must have sucked to know that all that hard work went to waste when it sank right away.  The ship has a very "pirates of the carribean" type feel, which was really cool and somewhat creepy, considering that there were 30 people or so who went down with it.  

Taking the public transportation to get to the Vasa museum (yes, we're on a boat)

 I don't even want to think about how long it must have taken to carve all of those intricate pieces

walking back to the center

While we were trying to waste time before our dinner reservations, we stumbled upon an open market (my favorite).  However, this open market wasn't about selling fruits + veggies and swedish snacks, it was a medieval market where rugs made from animal fur and shields and swords were for sale.

Sofia and I checking out the goods

me posing with a medieval warrior!

and to end our medieval themed week-end, we ate at this medieval restaurant! i'm guessing this was slightly more authentic than the "medieval times" chain from the mainland

eating dinner by candle light and with our hands because utensils didn't exist yet. i'm kidding about the eating with our hands part, although Daniel did try it out for about 30 seconds before deciding that it was too difficult.  

phenyl sausage, sauerkraut, mustard, bacon, apples, and some weird type of raisin.  our meals took so long to come out I swear they either went back to the middle ages to get our food, or they had to actually hunt the animals before cooking them.  We were okay with waiting but some other people in the restaurant were not very happy with how long it took!

Stockholm is kind of like Paris in the way that most of the buildings are relatively short, about 5-6 stories so any building with say 23 stories looks like a giant.  There was a posh little bar at the top of this building that we wanted to go to but unfortunately it was closed so we had to use our resources and sneak in with somebody who lived in this building and take it to the highest floor possible to see the skyline.  The view was worth being a creep walking around the residential building :)  

Stockholm by night

The view from the plane...A lot of lakes were white and still covered with ice, but I had already put my camera away because I was about to pass out..so here's what I got before falling asleep.  Good bye Sweden, hope to see you again!