Beautiful city

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Well, last night was a flashback to last year’s Euro Adventure haha - sleepin’ on the bus. Although, I have to admit Swebus has three HUGE plusses on Eurolines:
• Internet. Sorry, *FREE* internet. Fast too.
• We arrived 3min. later than scheduled - and why is this a plus? We were supposed to arrive at 6am, giving me 7 hours of potential sleep time. I wanted those 7 hours… far too often last year the trip would be scheduled to last 6-7 hours and would only take 4-5 because there was no traffic. Yeah, arriving in London at 4am? Not cool.
• Toilets that actually have working lights… I will never forget that 19 hour bus ride to Berlin last year where there was no goddamn light on the bus.

Anywho, on with my day!

I lazed around the Central Station for about 30-40min. I hit up every coffee shop to see what the cheapest food and coffee mix I could get was. Their equivalency to a “Quickie” store had a coffee, croissant and this other pastry for 20 krones… so, less than $5. It seemed popular enough, so I went for it. Coffee was gross, but the food was delish.

I got a day pass for the metro and then headed off in search of my hostel - I hate when websites lie haha. “We’re 5min walk from the T-bane station” … riiiiight. Add 5min. and the fact you have to climb about 6-7 flights of stairs, and descend another 3 - I was ready to keel over with my backpack by the time I got to level ground lol. All that just to drop my stupid bag off. The left luggage was in a shack outside… uhm, great? It was locked, but I didn’t want to leave my valuable stuff, so I lugged it around with me today. Ugh, big mistake haha - my back is ready to snap in half tonight. I think tomorrow I’ll leave a bag at the reception with my important stuff.

OH! Forgot to mention the cool thing about the hostel - it’s a boat. Yep, as I write this I am floating on Lake Malaran and the Baltic Sea. Tres cool. It takes some getting used to - when I was standing in reception I was bobbing along haha, but after 5min or so you don’t notice it. The décor is very marine based - full of little trinkets, which are neat to explore. The room is tiny as hell, but that’s to be expected - it’s a cabin after all.

Anyway, back to the itinerary! The hostel is right near the Old Town, so I headed there first - not much you can really do at 8am anyway haha. The buildings are simply gorgeous to look at - even the normal ones - you can see the age in the buildings, but in a good way. I also love all the narrow alley-ways and all the great light fixtures… I spent quite awhile just roaming.

I roamed my way towards a couple churches (still closed at this hour lol) and then got to the Royal Palace, which was really cool - there are all these different Royal buildings, of course you have to pay for all of them so I’ll be back tomorrow when I have the free-entry card. I did, however, wander around the courtyard and watch some of the guards march around - ew, it must be so warm in those uniforms…

(Side note: the country is all a-buzz because the princess (next in line, I think?) just got married. I remember I was in Oslo at the time and I saw it being covered live on like, 5 different channels haha. It’s funny walking around because all the tourist shops have postcards, key chains, plates, magnets, book marks, etc… you name it, they have it with the princess and her new hubby.)

Anyway! I walked back towards the bus and train station, passing some more neat buildings on the way. I also passed an interesting statue - it’s a naked man with his arms up in a sort of “LOOK AT ME, WORLD” pose down on the walking path overlooking the city. It makes for quite the visual from behind - you have this stunning city landscape, full of all these charming old buildings, and then you have giant bum. It’s a shame the sun was in front of him - my photos don’t do it justice haha.

After that, I spent a really long time roaming around near the bus and train station - that was more by accident than by design. I was looking for the tourist info store… which is somewhat removed from the hustle and bustle of the stations. I wanted to go pick up some brochures and stuff. And a better map. I continued just randomly walking around - I love all the little water-ways and bridges everywhere you go - the city is really a congregation of many islands, it's sharp.

For lunch I found a “beefhouse” that had a lunch menu - quarter chicken, good sized serving of potatoes and sauce for about $7. Not bad. The service, for being such a nice place, was crap though. Since I have no fridge or cooking facilities here on the boat, my self-catering options are quite limited, bah… and I don‘t particularly want to resort to BK or McD’s, so my plan was originally to back there tomorrow… but after having waited over 30min for my bill, I’ll pass. There’s a popular thai fast-food place in the Central Station - I might do that, we’ll see.

(Another sidenote: McFlurries are really cheap here, and I don’t know why? They’re like, $1.25. Also, Canada is to Timmy’s as Sweden is apparently to McD’s - they, are, EVERYWHERE.)

Anyway, after that you will never guess where I went.

Actually, you might: think big, lots of little screws and bits, crazy diagrams, and Swedish. Oh, and really cheap food - might actually be another option for lunch tomorrow haha.

Yes, ladies and gents I was a super tourist nerd and went to.. IKEA! Haha. They have free shuttles to the Ikea, how could I not go?! … Omg, the SIZE of it… I honestly don’t even know what to compare it to. I walked through the entire thing (I didn’t really browse - didn’t want to get my hopes up on anything haha) and it took me an hour. One thing I did notice, the prices on their wardrobe stuff is redic cheap to what we pay in Canada. Tear.

So, that was that lol. I headed back to the boat - I sat in the lounge (only place with wi-fi) and of course the soccer game was on. I was quickly surrounded by rabid soccer fans haha. That was fun. I figured I might as well join in the fun and went to get a beer and watch the action.

I still haven’t decided what’s on the agenda tomorrow… I can do essentially anything I like in the city, since I got the Stockholm Card (free transit, free tours, free entrance to a bunch of things yada yada yada). I def want to go back to the Royal Palace though, and probably a boat tour along with something else.

And then I head off to the other hostel I’m staying at - wait until you hear about this one =)

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Photos

Gustav's Monument (I think?)
Something to do with Gustav anyway

View from my hostel
The big building to the right is City Hall