3+2 Days in Stockholm

In the criminal city of Stockholm, the people are threatened by two separate yet equally important groups: the thieves, who perpetrate the crimes; and the tourists, who make the crimes more likely.  This is my story.  Dun dun....

Well by now, you probably know - I had my purse swiped within 3 hours of arriving in Stockholm.  Unfortunately, this little cloud followed me through the rest of the trip.  Luckily, I was with a friend when it happened, and she graciously lent me money to ensure I could make it through the weekend.  It definitely sucked, and overall probably cost me around 1k - between the value of what was stolen and the extra I had to pay to be in Sweden for longer.  It is a very expensive city.

But all in all, I did have a good time, and while, I was pretty ready to leave by the time my flight left on Wednesday morning, I saw a lot and the weather was really nice - not cold and it didn't rain.

Stockholm by boat (click to enlarge)

I took advantage of the water - Saturday, I took a historic boat tour (the tour was about history, the boat wasn't historic).  It wasn't the most interesting thing in the world, and it was hard to see any of the buildings they were pointing out since the roof of the boat was in the way.  But it was a good way to see around the city.  

And Monday, I took a ferry to one of the nearest islands in the archipelago.  It was 30 min by boat, and the day was nice and sunny.  You could basically walk the whole of the island in 5 min, it was that small.  A few little shops and restaurants.  It was a nice end to the day, as a guy and his 2 blonde sons kept me company (I mean, I wish I'd taken a picture of these kids.  They both had bleach blonde hair - one had loose curls and the other had tight, afro ringlets - a'la Sideshow Bob.  Neither had ever had their hair cut - they were 6 and 9, I think).  It was nice to have the company and a little conversation.  Even got hugs from the little boys when we were back on the mainland :).

Hand-blown glass

Just in case, gotta protect Stockholm

A view toward the city

Saturday and Sunday were spent making use of the Stockholm card (both the public transportation and the museums).  To make use of what turns out to be a $95 pass, you have to hit 3 museums and take the boat trip... so yeah you could say their museums are a LITTLE overpriced.  Not to mention, they don't have tons of stuff in them, their national gallery was relocated elsewhere, and the Abba museum wasn't included!  But still, I think I got my money worth.

• The Palace - decently large palace in the city with lots of information about the awards, dress, pomp and circumstance around royal life.  It was interesting, but not every room was complete (no pictures were allowed).
• The Spirits Museum - Absolute is from Sweden, so this museum is dedicated to smells and affects of alcohol.  You can pay for a tasting kit that has gummies of the same flavor, but you're not in Ireland, and they don't give free alcohol.  My favorite thing was the canvas "painted" with vodka ;)
• The Vasa Museum - A ginormous ship that sunk in the harbor on it's maiden voyage, and was underwater for 333 years, before being brought back up (the picture is of a mini-replica).  Pretty cool, and it was well preserved - they even have some mostly complete skeletons.
• The Museum of Modern Art - I don't think I appreciate modern art well enough, and there were no pictures allowed - but they had some odd exhibits - by Niki de Saint Phalle (The Girl, the Monster and the Goddess) and Tala Madani (Moment).
• Fotografiska Museum - This was definitely my favorite!  I really liked the Helmut Newton exhibit.  You can look that one up on your own, he did quite a bit of fashion photography, along with some fashion photos that seemed to have forgotten the fashion (if ya catch my drift *wink* *wink*).  Above are some of the ones I liked the best.

It happened to be mid-summer when I was there, but unlike the Dutch who flood the cities for their festivals, apparently all the Swedes go to their country houses to spend time with their families.  Thus, a lot of the speakeasy/cocktail bars and restaurants I'd looked up were closed through Sunday.  

I had good food, but nothing super exotic (well, I did order gazpacho that unfortunately had shrimps in it).  But on my last day, I did try one of the hot dogs in a cone!  I hadn't seen one of those since Moscow!  In Russia, they added pickles.  But this was pretty damn good - hot dog, mashed potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes, ketchup, mustard, and fried onions all in a tortilla shell.  Mmmm.  Trust me, it was so good.

I WANTED pics of the guys working the booth -
I think it must be a requirement to be cute and young to work there.

And last, I did a LOT of walking.  The US Embassy was a decent walk from my hotel and hostel and I did that walk 3 times - plus, you have to walk a long way to get around the islands.  Here are some pics from all that walking:

My hostel is the boat in the bottom left corner and also the one at the top right.
Cool, huh?

And finally on Tuesday, I was able to acquire the most precious piece of documentation ever - my passport.  With that in hand, and some help from my bestie, I was able to get a new flight out, and leave Sweden - a little poorer, but a lot wiser.  Until August...see ya Sweden!