Little by little, one travels far.: Stockholm Sweden

After our Polish experience we hoped on a plane for the capital of Scandinavia, Stockholm Sweden. I had many pre-conceived notions of this place, for instance I envisioned it as being the land of the snowbound winters with lots of meatballs, herring, Vikings, Volvo's, and Ikea. However my notions were both confirmed and confounded. There is so much more to Sweden than Volvos and Vikings. In fact Sweden is the sight where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. After arriving in Skavsta we caught a bus that took us through some of the Swedish countryside to Stockholm, and I was mesmerized by the pastoral beauty and visions of intense green countryside, impenetrable forests, wooden red roofed houses atop remote islands and Sweden’s famously clear blue water. That bus ride made me wish that I had the opportunity to travel throughout the Swedish countryside, but we eventually ended up in Stockholm, Sweden’s capital. Stockholm, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, a mirage of terracotta-colored buildings dotted with light in the winter. Stockholm is a vibrant, modern city, famous for producing sleek designs, edgy and trendy fashion, and world-class nightclubs. One thing to note about Sweden is that because of its high latitude on the globe it gets very few hours of sunlight in the winter and many hours of light in the summer. Thus, while we were in Stockholm the sun came up at around 8am and was down by 3pm so needless to say we had to pack a lot of sightseeing in a few hours. We arrived in Stockholm late Saturday evening and after arriving we walked down the main part of town known as Sergels Torg on our way to our hotel, which by the way was the smallest hotel I have stayed in. One thing I noticed is that Swedes love to shop in that I have never seen so many shopping centers in one city. I know that Tayler would love Stockholm since there is a five level mall next to a seven level mall next to an underground mall and H&M is literally all over the place. Sweden is a member of the European Union but has not adopted the Euro and are still on there own currency, the Swedish Kronor ( kr or :- ). So €1 will get you 11kr and a burger at Max, the Swedish version of In ‘n’ out costs about 29kr or €2,50. Max, by the way, had the best fries because they pile cheese, bacon, and jalapeños on top. Overall Sweden is a place that I want to go back to, not only to explore Stockholm more since we clearly did not have enough time or daylight, but also the countryside which is among the most stunning I have seen so far in Europe.

The Swedish countryside on our way from Stockholm to Skavsta to catch our flight back to Ireland.

Sergels Torg -Both of the high rise buildings are shopping centers and bellow the circular square is an underground shopping center.

The Gamla Stan - Meaning old town in Swedish. Since Sweden remained neutral throughout both world wars the Gamla Stan is considered on of the most in tact old towns in Europe.