Hej from Stockholm

Stockholm is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited! The only unfortunate part about it was trying to figure out their currency. Everything is quite expensive and right when I was extremely used to using pounds, we had to change currencies and use euros in Germany, and then kronor in Sweden. I find it strange that in such an expensive city, their currency is actually quite weak. One kroner is the equivalent of $0.16 so there are 6.25 kronor in a dollar. Trying to do this conversion all the time was tiring. We spent three days trying to convert to dollars before realizing that there are exactly 10 krona in a pound. This would have made things so much easier because I am already so accustomed to the pound! But, such is life, we made out just fine so no harm done.

I have many pieces of advice to give anyone who is going to visit Stockholm.

1.     To get through the fact that it is so expensive, buy food at the grocery store. This can be a hassle if you don’t have a kitchen but it is still easy to buy a meal to eat in the moment.

2.     It’s possible to find cheaper food; however, not so possible to find cheap coffee. Just buy it, drink it, enjoy it because it’s so good, and move on.

3.     Waterproof boots. If it’s winter, bring them. Wear them. Every day. It is almost constantly snowing so the ground is quite slushy so my feet were wet most of the time.

4.     If you can, stay at a hotel or hostel in the middle of the city. This is something Megan and I did and we were very happy with this decision. Liz and Grace were able to stay with a friend who is studying there, but living about an hour outside of the city, and ended up spending quite a bit of money on transportation, which we all found quite confusing.

My favourite part of the city is Old Town, in a section called Gamla Stan. It is a very old part of the city, hence the name, with narrow streets and gorgeous architecture. I would definitely recommend it. 

Grace, Liz, and Megan. Liz is about to turn around to give me a "stop taking pictures, lets go" face to which I responded, "Don't give me that face, look at where we are!"  

Liz and me on a bridge leading to Gamla Stan

Me, Liz, and Grace

The streets of Gamla Stan at night

We also went to the Vasa Museum. It was a bit of a walk to get there, which was extremely cold, but totally worth it!

On our walk to the Vasa Museum

The Vasa was a very large ship that took almost two years to build! Unfortunately it was too tall and narrow to sail much more than 1300 meters. Of the 150 people on board an estimated 30 of them died. Later the ship was brought up from the bottom of the harbor and now sits in the Vasa Museum along with exhibits to teach people more about the ship. It was beautifully crafted and was once painted in vibrant colors. Although some of it had to be reconstructed, much of the ship in the museum is actually the original. 

Also in the museum are remains of some of the passengers who died below the deck. People have reconstructed the faces using the found skulls, as well as put the bones on display. I didn't take any pictures of the bones or faces, but the faces were eerily realistic looking. There is also a model of the ship so it can be more easily visualized. The scale of the model is 1:10 to the real ship. Liz and Grace's friend Jim joined us that day so we were finally able to get a picture of the four of us. 

Liz, me, Grace, and Megan in front of the model of the ship. 

More stories of the rest of our Stockholm adventure to come!

Have a wonderfully marvelous day, Hej då! ~Laura 

(Pronounced Hey da)