Stockholm

Stockholm was everything I imagined it to be and more. I loved the atmosphere, culture, people, and architecture. It was freezing and it was snowing the second day. It was dark at 4 pm everyday because the sun was so low. Stockholm uses the Kroner’s instead of the Euro so I was excited to be able to use a different type of currency. But, in Stockholm everything is more expensive. The whole weekend I was extremely happy, it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I am extremely lucky to be experiencing this.

We flew into Stockholm and took the bus from the airport. I did a reenactment of Neil Armstrong jumping on the moon, except it was me jumping off the steps of the plane. It was 2 in the morning so we just went to bed after traveling all day.

We woke up early and went to the Woodland Cemetery designed by Gunnar Asplund. A professor of mine has written a book on this cemetery so I was pretty familiar with it. It is a beautiful landscape design. I enjoyed looking at all the old tombstones as well. Then we went into town and walked around the Old Town and the Royal Palace. The architecture is again, beautiful. The water is great too. We walked around all day and hit up an architecture exhibit on Swedish architecture which was nice and had an amazing architecture bookstore. That night we walked around and went into a few of the bars and talked to a lot of Swedish people. They all speak English because their education system requires them too. Everyone was so friendly, whereas in Italy, a lot of people are ornery.

Saturday, it snowed and it was beautiful. I separated from the two I went with because I wanted to go experience the land on my own. I went to Djurgarden because it is a huge landscape park. I spent a few hours there walking around and watching people. It was again, absolutely beautiful land. Then I met back up with my friends and ate Swedish pancakes, which were awesome. After that we went to a great little Christmas amusement park which was packed with locals. Then the rest of the day we shopped. That night, we went to a different area of town and met more Swedish people and had a great time.

The Swedish people look like Henrik Zetterberg, Nicholas Lindstrom, and me. The girls, since it was Stockholm, they weren’t all blond and pretty because it is a diverse city. But the amount of blond, tall, blue-eyed girls was the most concentrated amount I have ever seen in a city. So in essence, the guys were all rough and tumble while the girls were all pretty.

A Swedish guy (Peter Lindstrom) who I sat next to on the plane back told me cities, like Smaland (pronounced Schmallend), is completely blond and blue eyes. He said he’s been there and said it was beautiful. I saw a few people from Gavle, which I noticed in the genealogies is where another large portion of my ancestry comes from.

Stockholm is hands-down, the nicest city I have visited so far. It was clean, fresh, and vibrant with life, great shops, beautiful buildings, and an absolutely awesome culture. One night we were walking around we stumbled upon a skate rink which was packed with people having fun and then a great little shopping district where I had reindeer jerky for the first time. I tried hard to find lutefish and potato sausage, but no luck, I even searched through a lot of Swedish cook books.

I describe it as a constant state of ecstatic, overwhelmed, happiness. I still can't believe I am able to travel like this and experience places I never imagined I would actually experience.

By the way, I want more questions and comments or I am not going to tell you how Switzerland is next weekend ;). I'm sick of talking to myself, I want to hear your thoughts! I know I am leaving stuff out that you may have a thought about!