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the guard
It wasn't changing of the guard but still cool! Tomorrow will be the changing of the guard with more story behind who the people are. I made it! What an adventure... In my neverending drive to become the biggest cheapskate, I screwed myself again... haha You'd think I'd learn from my mistakes. Maybe this time...
I left Jerez, Spain on an evening flight to Stockholm, putting me in at 1am. It was a little cheaper so I figured, what the heck I'll save money and take the late flight. The only problem is that by the time I took the bus down to Stockholm (a nice 30-min ride) and a cab to the hostel where my friend made us a reservation, they were closed. It was 2:30 and I was standing outside the door, banging franticly, where they closed at 2. (unbenounced to me, my friend had actually been up and waiting for me until right around 2:30 when he walked to the train station to find me. How nice! It's times like those when I realize how convenient and
necessary cell phones are). So there I was riding around with a cabbie who doesn't speak english. We went to several hotels and all were booked. Now it was 3 and I was getting nervous. I really didn't have a backup plan beyond finding
My suite!
This is where I could have held all my business meetings -- notice the plasma tv! another open hotel. (by the way, in Stockholm it's almost IMPOSSIBLE to find open hotels unless booked in advance. TONS of business here I guess! That and if you come in off-season, especially mid-week, it's REALLY expensive). So just as I was about to resort to going to a bar to buy some time, one of the hotels outside of Sweden had one last room -- a suite -- in a 4-star hotel! Yikes! The guy was really nice and sympathetic though (and it was 3:30am by this time) so he gave it to me for the price of a single -- only 1500 kr! (about $210). Well, it was AN AMAZING room! At a freakin Best Western, can you believe it! I took LOTS of pictures because I was so impressed. It was a shame that my $40 a night hostel didn't work out, but what a nice alternative! The breakfast was great too. 😊
This morning, I met up with my friend at the hostel, dropped off my bags, and off we went to explore Stockholm! EVERYTHING here costs money. I'm being nickel-and-dimed to death! There's a Stockholm card though that covers most of the museums and
Ahh featherbed
This suite was so amazing it needs more than 1 pic! I\'ll spare the bathroom, but it was FANTASTIC too! attractions, but it's only 24-hours for 290 kr (about $30) so we're waiting until tomorrow for that. Stockholm is basically made up of a bunch of islands -- most are residential or not interesting. There are only a couple of interest. I'm staying on one, then we walked over the bridge to Gamla Stan where the old town is. Following the walking tour from Rick Steve's guidebook was pretty good. Saw some cool stuff in old Stockholm, the Royal Palace (missed the changing of the guard though -- that's tomorrow), a REALLY cool church -- probably my favorite in all my travels so far! Had a yummy sandwich for lunch at a cute little swedish cafe, and pretty much just wandered. For dinner we went to the produce market and bought the best looking asparagus I've ever seen, along with some mushrooms, tomatoes, pepper, and berries. The hostel we're in has free pasta. Quirky but nice!
The hostel is called City Backpackers and is well-known. Tons of people from all over the world of all ages, but mostly 20s to 30s. It's clean, very friendly, free internet, great location, lockers to store stuff, and cheap! I'm in a 6-bed
My view
I'm still not sure how far outside of Stockholm I was, so I'm not sure if the view is of Stockholm or not. room, but once you get to know the people in your room it's not bad. Like college all over again! Then you can go out at night with other people from the hostel. Tonight we went to a local irish pub -- I think it was the only one in Stockholm! Sweden is RIDICULOUS about alcohol though. It's soooo highly regulated! It's graded by % alcohol, and you can only buy liquor at the state run liquor store, which means HUGE taxes (like 25%!) and very limited hours. When you go out to drink, it's horribly expensive. They're doing to liquor what we did to cigarettes. Tax the hell out of it so people won't do it. But apparently they have the lowest rate of liver cirrhosis in Europe (I wonder if that's per capita because even though Sweden is the size of California, it's got about 1/4 as many people, if that). A beer was only 50 kr (about $7) but a rum and coke would be about 120kr! 50 for the coke and 70 for the vodka haha (about $17...this exchange rate is such a pain in the butt to figure out).
All in all it was
My view
And that's my bedroom window on the right! By the way, notice how light it is? It's about 4am! It just stayed that light the whole time. We're pretty far north and at this time of year it can stay pretty light depending on cloud cover. Just a little farther north (14hr train ride) is the artic circle with the midnight sun. Maybe on my next trip! a good day of wandering around, learning about the city, having a GREAT dinner (with free penne), meeting some cool people, and discovering an Irish pub in Stockholm, complete with a bar fight. haha (2 guys just started getting rowdy and were broken up quickly and escorted out -- no chairs being thrown this time)
Tomorrow will be the big touristy day with TONS of museums etc. There's a food festival here too starting tomorrow. That should be cool. Still haven't found a place to stay tomorrow night (they were all booked up tonight so we're gonna check tomorrow morning and see if it's changed). We may end up at a hotel here, taking a night train to southern sweden, staying at a town an hour south of here, or going on a night 2-day party cruise to estonia. I'll try to write as soon as I can!
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Henrik - From Stockholm
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Cheap beer...
Was actually looking for a friends blog when I clicked on yours. If you wanna drink cheep bear in Stockholm you´d better try Kelly´s at Folkungagatan, located at the district called Söder (largest island in Stockholm, south of Gamla Stan). Catch the subway - green line - to Medborgarplatsen. Choose the southern exit (first car if traveling from Central Station). Its just around the corner at the crossing. Might be a lot of people there at weekends... If you don´t like it - well, you´re in Söder - there are bars everywhere ;)