September 24, 2009: Stockholm

September 24, 2009
We landed in Stockholm a little after 7 local time. We claimed our luggage and made our way to the hotel. Our room wasn’t available yet, so we dropped off luggage, tried to figure out what we should lock away and what we needed, and headed on our way. We found our way to the information desk, where the little Swede luckily spoke English, and tried to figure out how to get downtown. The express train was about $80 a person. WTF? So we took the bus, which was about half the price. At some point I took out 500 Swedish Kroner. I have no idea how much money that is.


The bus was fine by bus standards, the trip was a little slow due to rush hour traffic, but we got down to City Terminal. The airport seemed really far from the city. Now, where do we go from here? Good question. And boy do I wish I had a long sleeve shirt on instead of a t-shirt and sweatshirt. We got our bearing straight and headed out on our harbor walking tour. We hit the City Hall, some statues, some parks, a few islands, probably some other old buildings. It was all pretty nice. Stockholm seemed like a pretty cool older city, however none of the sites were really historic by world standards - at least that we knew of.

City Hall on the harbor.

 The harbor was nice with some neat architecture and scenic views. A lot of people ride bikes in Stockholm, and I can see why. It’s probably no fun drive down there. It's almost as if the city was founded way before people had cars. After the first half of the tour, we stopped for some lunch. We were still pretty out of our element, tired, and had no idea where to go, so we found some cafes along a city plaza. It was probably really tourist-ey, but we didn’t know where else to go. And we’re tourists. We found a menu in English and ordered fish and chips and two Carlsburgs. The fish and chips were, well, fish and chips – no unique European flair here. The beers were delicious.

The weather was a little dreary.

These warmed us up.

After lunch we headed to the old part of town, which was pretty neat. Narrow little cobblestone streets with businesses running along the sides. We saw the palace, some museums, and some other sites. We did not pay to go in any of these at this time.

After seeing some of these sites, we paused and had a beer at a little bar, which was dead because it appeared to be a club later in the day and only lame people like us were here that early.

Apparently this is a popular club.

Checked out a few more sites after the beer, bought some candy for some odd reason, and decided it was time to head back to the hotel. The lack of sleep was really starting to wear us down and we didn’t want to be exhausted for the rest of the trip. So, we made our way back to City Terminal, hopped on the bus, promptly passed out, and arrived back at the airport in what seemed like no time at all. We each took a nice hot shower and decided to get some dinner. Naturally, since we were at the airport, our options were pretty limited. We split a bacon cheeseburger, had a couple of beers, and headed back up to the room. My body was pretty confused in terms of time and eating schedule. Shannon started looking into things to do in Bergen and I promptly passed out.

I wasn’t terribly impressed with Stockholm, but I’ll reserve judgment for when I’m in town again, staying downtown, and not jet lagged. I should note the hot dog stands look awesome. I didn’t eat at one this time, but I’d better next time. They had hot dogs in French rolls, or hot dogs and mashed potatoes on a bun, or just a hot dog lying on a bed of mashed potatoes. Yes please!