Hello! Robert and I spent a long weekend in Stockholm, Sweden- a beautiful and large city. After living in Jyväskylä for a few months, it feels like a big change for us to be in a city that cannot be walked across in a few hours! Needless to say, there was a lot for us to see and do and very little time to do it all!
We left Thursday evening on a train to Turku, Finland. It is a three hour trip and we arrived at around 10:00 p.m. Our couchsurfing host, Maija, met us at the station and walked us around the city. We had a drink at a local bar, and went for Falafel. It is a shame that we only had a short night to spend with her, because she is a really interesting person! Her apartment is adorable- and to my great surprise- it had a bathtub! A claw-footed bathtub, at that! It was the first one I have seen in Finland and I wished so much that I had the time to use it.
Friday morning we had to be up by 6:00 to catch the Ferry for Stockholm. On the way to the dock we passed a giant castle that is open to the public, an unspeakable form of torture for us! We will have to go back soon and spend more time in the city. The boat is less like a ferry and more like a cruise ship- there is a swimming pool, saunas and a couple of restaurants. It is a 10 hour journey and a lot of Finnish people do it just to drink and dance on the boat (I find this very strange, everything is so expensive). The trip itself is less than 10 euros per person!
The ferry has to follow a small path through the Baltic Sea, as it is covered in ice! There are Finnish and Swedish Islands scattered along the way, some containing only one house! It's unimaginable that a person could live on one of those islands, as they can only be reached by boat and there would be no electricity, running water, etc. What an amazing experience it would be!
We arrived in Stockholm at around 6:30 p.m. and were thrilled to see a light mist of rain! RAIN! Rain does not exist in Finland during the winter (at least this is my impression). It meant that it was warm enough for the water not to freeze! As we walked along the canal, admiring a large cliff face, we were warm. It was above freezing and we were overjoyed to feel 32 degree weather again. The first part of the city we entered is Gamla Stan, the Old Town. What a wonderful first impression! Street lamps lit the winding cobblestone alleys and the large Medieval churches were bathed in a deep fog. We wandered around for an hour, shocked.
Eventually we made our way to the central train station where we exchanged our euros for seks. From there we located a bar where our couchsurfing host, Sergio, was waiting for us. He is an energetic International student from Spain, working on his Masters in Sweden. Unfortunately, many of his habits were that of a young student- and they surrounded going to parties and bars! It's nice for a short period of time, I suppose.. So, we spent an hour at a bar then were dragged to a student party at his apartment building. Luckily, we met a really nice Romanian guy and he joined us! The party was silly- 200 people standing in a hallway sweating in their heavy winter clothing.
Robert and I expressed that we were exhausted and Sergio was nice enough to let us go back to his apartment alone, to go to sleep! Saturday morning we woke up early and headed in to the city. Sergio showed us around Gamla Stan, and the center part of the city. He told us a great deal about the history of the buildings and some interesting facts about the architecture. In the late afternoon he had a party to attend, so we were left to explore on our own! We spent hours wandering around, and had dinner in a nice little restaurant.
After eating we walked to the venue where Beach House was playing to wait in line for tickets. We were extremely early and the second people in line, which is lucky because the show sold out! While waiting in line we met two Swedish girls and spent a long time talking with them. Once in the club we got a table together and talked for hours about movies and music. It turns out that they are both obsessed with David Lynch! It's funny, because we kept talking about our love for Ingmar Bergman and how excited we were to be in his home country.. they haven't watched a single Bergman film! Another group of people joined us (we had a very big table) and shared their wine and beer, which was so generous (because we could not afford it)!
Beach House was amazing; I was so impressed that they were able to sound so full with only three band members. The singer, Victoria, played a keyboard and a portable organ and there was a guitarist and drummer. Near the end of the night people were hopping on stage which did not go well with the incredibly intimidating security guard. We were surprised to see how popular they are in Sweden!
Sunday morning we slept in a little bit late, then had a delicious meal made by Sergio. We spent a large part of the day in the "Vasa" Museum where they have reassembled a ship that sunk in 1633! They were able to restore the boat with 95% of it's original materials, which we thought was incredible. The ship is so large that they had to build the museum around it! At the time, the King of Sweden had it built as one of the largest war ships in his legion. It was to be used to attack Poland, within a series of three similar ships. It's first trip to sea it sunk.. two kilometers from harbor! There it sat for 200 years until divers located it in the 1950's. Amazing.
The ship itself is very hard to photograph, as it was about 5 floors tall and very long!
Later in the evening we took a long walk across the city and had dinner at an Indian restaurant. On our walk we found some amazing things, such as a playground that rests at the foot of a giant castle-like building, and a travelers tent located at the top of a snowy cliff that looks out across the entire city! We were so shocked to come across the tent- we had climbed to the top of some rocks where we saw a little cabin perched. When we got to the top we noticed that all of the buildings were empty and spent some time looking around.. after climbing up another hill we came across the camp. Inside the tent a radio was playing, and we could faintly hear Russian. That person found the best spot in Stockholm!
Our last night we spent with Sergio, talking (too) late into the night. Monday morning we were up at 6:00 a.m. to catch the ferry!
We arrived in Turku just in time to miss the last train to Jyväskylä so we had to stay in a hostel. It was very comfortable and we were glad to have a cheap place to sleep!
We left Thursday evening on a train to Turku, Finland. It is a three hour trip and we arrived at around 10:00 p.m. Our couchsurfing host, Maija, met us at the station and walked us around the city. We had a drink at a local bar, and went for Falafel. It is a shame that we only had a short night to spend with her, because she is a really interesting person! Her apartment is adorable- and to my great surprise- it had a bathtub! A claw-footed bathtub, at that! It was the first one I have seen in Finland and I wished so much that I had the time to use it.
Friday morning we had to be up by 6:00 to catch the Ferry for Stockholm. On the way to the dock we passed a giant castle that is open to the public, an unspeakable form of torture for us! We will have to go back soon and spend more time in the city. The boat is less like a ferry and more like a cruise ship- there is a swimming pool, saunas and a couple of restaurants. It is a 10 hour journey and a lot of Finnish people do it just to drink and dance on the boat (I find this very strange, everything is so expensive). The trip itself is less than 10 euros per person!
The ferry has to follow a small path through the Baltic Sea, as it is covered in ice! There are Finnish and Swedish Islands scattered along the way, some containing only one house! It's unimaginable that a person could live on one of those islands, as they can only be reached by boat and there would be no electricity, running water, etc. What an amazing experience it would be!
We arrived in Stockholm at around 6:30 p.m. and were thrilled to see a light mist of rain! RAIN! Rain does not exist in Finland during the winter (at least this is my impression). It meant that it was warm enough for the water not to freeze! As we walked along the canal, admiring a large cliff face, we were warm. It was above freezing and we were overjoyed to feel 32 degree weather again. The first part of the city we entered is Gamla Stan, the Old Town. What a wonderful first impression! Street lamps lit the winding cobblestone alleys and the large Medieval churches were bathed in a deep fog. We wandered around for an hour, shocked.
Eventually we made our way to the central train station where we exchanged our euros for seks. From there we located a bar where our couchsurfing host, Sergio, was waiting for us. He is an energetic International student from Spain, working on his Masters in Sweden. Unfortunately, many of his habits were that of a young student- and they surrounded going to parties and bars! It's nice for a short period of time, I suppose.. So, we spent an hour at a bar then were dragged to a student party at his apartment building. Luckily, we met a really nice Romanian guy and he joined us! The party was silly- 200 people standing in a hallway sweating in their heavy winter clothing.
Robert and I expressed that we were exhausted and Sergio was nice enough to let us go back to his apartment alone, to go to sleep! Saturday morning we woke up early and headed in to the city. Sergio showed us around Gamla Stan, and the center part of the city. He told us a great deal about the history of the buildings and some interesting facts about the architecture. In the late afternoon he had a party to attend, so we were left to explore on our own! We spent hours wandering around, and had dinner in a nice little restaurant.
After eating we walked to the venue where Beach House was playing to wait in line for tickets. We were extremely early and the second people in line, which is lucky because the show sold out! While waiting in line we met two Swedish girls and spent a long time talking with them. Once in the club we got a table together and talked for hours about movies and music. It turns out that they are both obsessed with David Lynch! It's funny, because we kept talking about our love for Ingmar Bergman and how excited we were to be in his home country.. they haven't watched a single Bergman film! Another group of people joined us (we had a very big table) and shared their wine and beer, which was so generous (because we could not afford it)!
Beach House was amazing; I was so impressed that they were able to sound so full with only three band members. The singer, Victoria, played a keyboard and a portable organ and there was a guitarist and drummer. Near the end of the night people were hopping on stage which did not go well with the incredibly intimidating security guard. We were surprised to see how popular they are in Sweden!
Sunday morning we slept in a little bit late, then had a delicious meal made by Sergio. We spent a large part of the day in the "Vasa" Museum where they have reassembled a ship that sunk in 1633! They were able to restore the boat with 95% of it's original materials, which we thought was incredible. The ship is so large that they had to build the museum around it! At the time, the King of Sweden had it built as one of the largest war ships in his legion. It was to be used to attack Poland, within a series of three similar ships. It's first trip to sea it sunk.. two kilometers from harbor! There it sat for 200 years until divers located it in the 1950's. Amazing.
The ship itself is very hard to photograph, as it was about 5 floors tall and very long!
Later in the evening we took a long walk across the city and had dinner at an Indian restaurant. On our walk we found some amazing things, such as a playground that rests at the foot of a giant castle-like building, and a travelers tent located at the top of a snowy cliff that looks out across the entire city! We were so shocked to come across the tent- we had climbed to the top of some rocks where we saw a little cabin perched. When we got to the top we noticed that all of the buildings were empty and spent some time looking around.. after climbing up another hill we came across the camp. Inside the tent a radio was playing, and we could faintly hear Russian. That person found the best spot in Stockholm!
Our last night we spent with Sergio, talking (too) late into the night. Monday morning we were up at 6:00 a.m. to catch the ferry!
We arrived in Turku just in time to miss the last train to Jyväskylä so we had to stay in a hostel. It was very comfortable and we were glad to have a cheap place to sleep!
2 comments:
I remember that ship! And drinking mead made with honey. I am so glad you got to go and explore the old city. It is lovely, although I have to say it does not look very warm there to me...
Watch out for men named Sergio, they might treat you like a rag doll!
Ha! Ha! Bad joke.
I almost had a panic attack because there was an address I wanted you to go to if you were ever in...Switzerland...not Sweden...but I had confused myself for a second. Anyways, if you ever make it to Switzerland go to:
Château St. Germain
1663 Gruyères
Don't look it up! Just go! It will be more fun that way.
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