Stockholm - June 18 & 19

We left Copenhagen on a longgggg train to Stockholm on Wednesday morning, but it was really fun to get into Sweden, the countryside was beautiful. When we arrived in Stockholm, we could see our hostel from the train, on the river - a boat! We were so excited to be staying in a boat, and it was nice to see it beforehand so we wouldn't get lost on the way there. Turns out it took us a bit longer to get there anyway because we took not the best route, but these things tend to happen when you first arrive... and are carrying alllll your stuff haha. But Rygerfjord Hostel was great, our room was very cool in the front of the hull, the bunkbeds were really close together, but we had portholes and a great view of the city... and free internet!

That afternoon, we set our to walk around the city, which is so beautiful. Our first goal was to get back to the train station and get our reservations for the train to Oslo the next night. When we got to the train station, we had to take a number in the line... we were 303 and they were currently on 121. So we ended up waiting an hour to get a reservation... Kasey said she had heard that people don't mind waiting in Socialist countries, so I guess its true. But I suppose the cool thing about the whole Socialist deal, at least in our theory, is that there are basically no poor people. The city was so clean, and we saw no beggars on the street or even creepy people on the street, so that plus the fact that it barely gets light make Stockholm super safe. After the train station, we stumbled upon a candy shop and took 2 of everything that looked good, and then walked around through a few of the shopping districts and such - the whole city was just really really beautiful, and most of the candy was good! We were on a quest to find the bus we could take to the flagship IKEA, and by the time we found it, it was practically the last bus, but at least we got there! IKEA is outside the city, so they run a free bus into the city - awesome! The IKEA was huge, so we had a good time looking around and taking pictures.

When we got back from IKEA, we started looking for a place to eat where we could watch the EuroCup game, since Sweden was playing that night. There were tons of people out in the city in their pretty yellow and blue Sweden gear, and we decided to walk back across the river to an area that our hostel people had told us was good for eating. Eventually we found a bar, and although it was expensive and Sweden lost the game, it was still fun to be there and we were glad to eat! After the game we went back to the hostel, and settled in in our boat! (awesome!)

loving the rygerfjord!

The next day we took our time in the morning getting out of the hostel and then went to get lunch at another place the hostel had recommended. On the way, we walked up to a cliff behind the hostel to get a good view of the city, and then had a completely awesome meal at a restaurant... apparentely in Scandinavia lunch is a big deal, and much cheaper!

view outside the restaurant

After lunch we went and caught a ferry to the island/palace of Drottningholm, which is where the current royal family of Sweden lives (if you are confused, yes they are Socialist but apparentely still have royals as figureheads, I think). The palace was nice, and we caught the last tour of the day, which was surprisingly cheap, and the took the ferry back down the river.

Drottningholm

After the palace, we walked down through the old medieval area and went to another island where we climbed up a big hill and had great views of the city, and there was a small castle up there too. Our last item of business was to go back to the candy store to stock up on our favorites! Then we were off on a night train to Oslo, after we picked our stuff back up at the hostel.

We were a bit worried about the night train because it looked so crowded, but although our c0mpartment was totally full, three beds high on each side, but luckily we had the bottom bunks, so it was easy, and we even slept pretty well! All in all, Stockholm was pretty much the best city I've been to - beautiful and a lot of see and do, especially considering we barely did any real touristy things - we were sad to leave it!