Haley: Stockholm

November 22, 2005

Stockholm

Aghhhh....Stockholm. A truly beautiful city. It's become one of my favourites for sure. I think the time of year we went, coming into the cold of winter was particularly nice because there was snow around and that mixed with the warmth indoors gave it a really nice cosy, Christmas feel. Evonne and I set off on a girls' weekend and we had an absolute ball!!!....read on for juicey details :p

Well - it all started at 0330 hrs on saturday morning. YES! That's 3 and a half hours after midnight. Lucky we had a good reason to wake up. We made it to the bus stop near home and waited for the night bus in the cold until just after four when our temperature started to rise from stress wondering where the bus was. Finally we jumped on a different bus to Angel and then cabbed it to Kings Cross Station where we got the train to Luton - about 40 mins away. It's an interesting time of the night/morning to be out when you're sober and watching others making their way home. Well...bus from the station to the airport, then our plane left at about 6:20 and arrived in Stockholm at Vasteras airport at 9:30am (with one hour's time difference). Then we took the bus an hour and a bit into the city of Stockholm. SO exciting!! There was loads of snow to be seen along the roads, it was really beautiful. Evonne and I sat up the front of the bus munching on our satsumas (they're a variety of mandarine) and pointing out the architecture as many places look like typical skiing chalets with their high-pitched roofs, and chatting away excitedly.

The bus took us to the city central train station which is really central and we made our own way as we only had small day packs, walking through the city and across a few of the many bridges to the Castle to arrive just in time to see the changing of the guard. There was also pretty impressive drumming from the band on display. From there we wandered around Gamla Stan (the old town) which reminded me somewhat of Bruges as it has man narrow rocky streets/alleyways lined with cafes and tourist shops, some buskers whose hands must truly freeze while they play their instruments in the cold, and many people wandering around, like us. We met a lady with a beautiful dog (like Daniel's) and the dog just wanted to nuzzle and cuddle, we nearly asked to take him with us. Lunch in a little cosy cafe playing spot the Aussie backpacker and gorgeous looking Swede! Truly now, Stockholm has beautiful architecture, beautiful surroundings and gosh, really beautiful people. We didn't see many of the archetypal blonde/fair looking Swedes though, many more dark hair, dark eyes (tall, dark and handsome) and Evonne and I had sore necks by the end of it! Not meaning to be shallow, but you know how in everyday life here in London or Aust (and Aust is better than London!) you might see a really attractive looking person who takes your eye oh...I don't know, every few days? Well truly - i think 8 out of 10 Swedish people are lovely! I'm not sure if it's the great quality of their water, the hot spas, the weather or lifestyle but most seem to have really nice skin and everyone we met were really friendly and down to earth aswell. From the first man we spoke to who drove our bus from the airport to on the customs check desk on the way out, they were all really approachable and polite.

I must say, I never knew till I went there that Stockholm is actually a city built on 14 islands. I had no idea! When you're there, you cross many bridges walking from one place to the next but I didn't realise that we were in fact crossing onto another island at the time. With all the water surrounding, it looks absolutely beautiful and me being me, a pisces and true water-baby at heart, the water makes me feel at happy and peaceful. Pity it was WAAAAY too cold for a dip.

Eventually, as the sun starts to descend and darkness set in around 3:30 we wandered back towards the river and over another few bridges and somehow found our hostel. We were staying at an HI hostel called the "af chapman" which is old restored ship. The accommodation is pretty basic but it's a lot warmer than it looks and the authenticity of it is awesome. Our dorm room was an old bunk room in the hull and though it lacks carpet and all those sorts of things, there was more floor space than your average dorm and besides - we didn't spend much time there. The ship is docked against the wharf and there is also another part to the hostel built on the land which has a really nice little restaurant/bar and all the other amenities, including more dorms.

We bumped into (literally) one Aussie guy from Coogee on our way out of our room and met up with him and another friend of his later and after spending some time in the restaurant/bar, meeting other travellers, chatting to the bar staff who were really nice, eating some delicious chocolate cake and attempting to remember Portuguese speaking to one guy from Brasil and then areas of BA speaking to another from Argentina, we set off for some Swedish night life. Oh so much fun!! Slipping and sliding on the icy paths (actually we were running and sliding - I swear, you would have thought Evonne Peddie had never seen snow before in her life!!) I mean, I was excited and all, but she's from Scotland! And she was ecstatic!! We found this really cool flat round area in one of the squares which was covered in snow and ice and had a big snow-ball fight there for quite some time, then made our way slightly wet and bedraggled to a place called Bernes which was pretty good with a few different dance rooms and an extremely expensive looking restaurant upstairs. Had a fun boogie, met some more English fellas (older boys on bucks' weekends who were very charming and offered us some "nakedness" and wow, thanks for the offer but a few decades our senior and um....yeah, I have to go home and wash my hair, thanks anyway!) Very funny.

The next morning we were blessed again with a fresh lot of snow and it was quite hard walking up the path from the boat. As we wandered back into the centre of town we were absolutely dumbstruck and thought it hilarious to discover that the big, flat icy/snow covered square we had been playing on was covered with kids and was, in fact, an ice rink!!! Wow!!! So that explained a lot!

Well, even though we were in a beautiful city with loads of possible places to see, including some great museums and island hopping on boats, the weather means it's almost too cold to walk around for very long so Evonne and I happily skipped into the shopping centre and had a nice lazy brunch, then a browse through the shops, then a nice lazy lunch...and another wander around, until it was night time again and time to head off. On the way, we gazed amongst the crowds of families and young children in the window of NK - the big city department store which had about 8 large windows decked out with Christmas themes, complete with dummies, dwarves, animals, running streams, xmas decorations, music and everything moves. The children love it and stare and chatter in amazement (okay....the adults too). We ventured into the shop and had a look at their Christmas decorations and bought some yummy chocolate for the long ride home. After starting our walk back to central train and bus station at around 6, we waited for the bus back to the airport, excitedly reviewing our pictures and videos playing in the snow on the way. Then our flight was delayed a little and we finally arrived back at Luton around 11:30, got another long bus an hour and a half to London, walked about 20 mins to the local bus, waited another 45 mins for the night bus and finally got home at about 3:30am!!! A very long journey home. But a fantastic weekend away.