| | Aug 29, 2009 - Stockholm | (click to enlarge)
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 | | show all 21 | | Gamla Stan | | another shot of old town | | heading to Djurgarden | | |
| Stockholm - the land of my peeps
Well, sort of. With a large immigrant population, Stockholm is actually pretty mult-cultural. There are a lot of different types of people here from all over. It was a bit strange at first hearing a Chinese girl speaking Swedish, after all, aren't all Swedish people supposed to be blonde-haired and blue-eyed? Well, I did meet a Vietnamese transexual, and she had blonde hair and blue contact lenses, so there you go. The other night I met a Chilean guy who came here as a refugee during the Pinochet era, more than 25 years ago. His English wasn't great, so we started off Speaking Swedish, but ended up speaking Spanish instead, which was easier for me.
Stockholm is a beautiful city, made up of a series of islands between the Baltic Sea and Lake Malaren. The oldest part of the city, called Gamla Stan, is a small island in the center, which at one time contained the entire city. It's a maze of winding, cobbled streets and colorful old buildings. Sweden hasn' t been in a war for centuries, so Stockholm's historic core is still intact, never ravaged by bombs. Walking through the streets of Gamla Stan feels like you are stepping into the 1600's.
It's been 11 years since I was last here and I felt totally lost at first. I arrived by train from Gothenburg at the central station, which is a big complex encompassing the train and bus stations as well as the hub for the subway or T-bahn as it's called here. The transport system is amazing, as it is in most European cities. I took me a day to get accustomed to where things were, but by the 2nd day, I was hopping around town like a local. Sweden, like Denmark, is pretty expensive. I saved quite a bit by staying at a hotel used by one of our tours, which gave me a pretty good deal on the room. They had a big breakfast buffet and small dinner buffet included in the price, so I saved quite a bit on food. I only spent money on lunch and my daily "fika".
Speaking of which, I do love the fika. Leave it to the Swedes to have a verb for having coffee. They have these rolls, or "bulle", which are kind of like small versions of my grandmas braided coffee bread, called "Cardamoma"(?) They are made with lot's of butter and sugar, and shaped kind of like a pretzel, and oh so good. I had one everyday. Everything here costs a lot - I spent about $21 for a mojito at a bar the other night, Ouch!.
My first few days I did some sightseeing, but not a whole lot. When your job is to go check out every tourist site, you get kind of tired of visiting museums, but there were a few I really wanted to see. One was the Vasa musuem, the other the Nordica museum. The Vasa is a large warship from the 17th century, which was the largest of it's day. It sank in Stockholm harbor on it's maiden voyage, 25 minutes after leaving port. It was discovered in 1961 almost completely intact. They raised and restored it, and today you can see it in it's own museum. 95% of it is, which is pretty amazing. The Nordica museum is a museum of everything Swedish, from folk art to architecture, and was really cool. They have an entire exhibit of Swedish houses through the centuries. From the Vikings to modern day apartments, pretty detailed and interesting. Other than these museums and walking around Gamla Stan, I didn't do a lot of tourist sights, mainly I just walked and explored the city. One day I rented a bike and rode around the island called Djurgarde, which was at one time the personal hunting ground of the king. Today, it's a forested park right in the middle of the city. I bought a picnic, rode around the island to a secluded little spot on the water and just read a book.
I spent 4 days here and although I had a good time, I feel ready to leave. In fact, I'm on a ship right now sailing through the Stockholm archipelago, which is sort of like the Swedish 'San Juan islands' only there are a lot more of them. They seem to go on and on. Lot's of small forested islands dotted with little red houses. Some are big, others quite small, and many are completely uninhabited. Others have a single red house and dock and not much room for anything else. It's dusk, and the lingering summer light on these islands is gorgeous.
Tomorrow morning I will wake up in Tallin, Estonia, where I will begin my tour. 8 days, then I come home. Hard to believe I only have a little more than a week to go. It seems like I've been gone for ages.
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