Sweden Week 5!

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Hey folks,

We are now in Gothenburg, Sweden. Tomorrow we are going to our last Scandinavian destination, Copenhagen. I am looking forward to Denmark. I heard fantastic things about this country.

I dont really know where to start. Sweden was a very unbalance experience. I love Stockholm and hate it a lot sometimes. Stockholm old city will charm you and a boat ride to the archipelago is a fun experience. However, as much as watching the sun go down after midnight is a great experience, Stockholm was annoying at time. I really dont want to pis someone off, almost everybody we met in Sweden were great and a lot nicer to us that we expect, but Scandinavia is not a backpacking destination. Most of the people we met here were hikers or European on a week-end. Accommodations and food is crazy expensive. Most of the hostel we used were not hostel or equip for our type of travel. So what did we like about Sweden? We like being in a place way less crowded that normally. We like how nice people were to us. We like swimming in the Baltic sea or walk around in the so close nature.

Stockholm is made of 17 islands. So anywhere you go, you must do a huge detour to take one of the bridges. So as you probably expect, we did a lot of walking. On our first day, we walk around the old town and the main street. On our second day, we walk even more spent a day using the free, but insanely slow laundry machine at the hostel. Something really important I should tell you: the hostel was an Internet hostel, which meant there were no staff at all...
On our third day, we visit the Vasa Museum. The Vasa is an old sweedish ship that spent over 300 years under water. It was made to impress the Polish during the Sweden/Poland war, with is double gun deck. However, was so excited about the boat that he rush everyone up to finish it as quickly as possible and he drawn after only a mile. The museum is nice. You have a free (not so free) guided visit and a 30 minutes movie to put you in context before you visit the seven floors up museum full of artifacts, skulls and point of the 95% original ship.

We then walk to the, according to the travel agent, world class modern art museum. The museum is supposed to be full of Dali, Picasso, Monet, Manet, Matisse, Miro, Etc. However, there is only one picture of Dali and six of Picasso. I still dont understand most of the modern art. I have a lot of respect for several artists of the Picasso era. I find there painting unique and beautiful. I have to admit that I think is shame to mix those artists with the one in most modern art museum.

We used our last day to visit one of the Islands close of Stockholm. We took a 30 minutes ferry to the Island. We then spent three hours walking around and swim in the Baltic Sea. The Baltic sea is one of the less salted sea in the world and the water was not as cold as I expected it. We then spent our evening on a mountain not to far from the hostel watching the sun go down.

We spent our last three days in Sweden in Gotheburg, where we are presently. For the ones that think about visiting Sweden, dont waste three days in Gothenburg. You can visit it all in a day. However, it was a nice break from the high tempo life we experience in the last six weeks and spent two days relaxing. We did not visit any museum or exhibition. All we did was walking around the city, went to the Cinema and play Ping-Pong 😊 (Chloe is getting better).

Puisque que je ne veux rien repeter de ce qui a ete dit precedemment, je me contenterai de vous donner une impression generale de mon aventure en Scandinavie. Jai percu les Scandidaves comme etant des gens pres de la nature qui les entoure. La terre est exploitee optimalement, le tri des dechets est fait de facon exemplaire et leau omnipresente est mise en valeur. Nous avons croise des hollandais qui avaient fait de la randonnee et du camping. Ils nous ont dit quau Nord dOlso la nature etait incroyable. Comme je disais la nauture est magnifique, seulement laterissage a Olso ma convaincue. Fjords, forets, archipelles, femmes (et oui elles sont belles, mais pas toutes blondes, Nic sest retourne souvent a leur passage...) valent le coup doeil. Stockholm est une ville magnifique construite sur 17 iles. Ca ete agreable de se promener le long de leau. Ce qui ma etonnee a ete de me baignee a la plage et de voir le Soleil se coucher a minuit. Hey oui des plages de sables en Suede. Je me suis donc baignee dans la mer Baltique. A Gothenburg, je nai pas tout a fait trouve ce quon pouvait y faire avec un petit budget. Si je recommande la Scandinavie? Probablement seulement pour voyageurs avertis. Beau, mais tres cher.

Copenahagen here we come!!!

Nick and Chloe

Stockholm:

ACCO Hostel: There is no staff, the payment is made online and you can make any change to your reservation without cancel it. The hostel is 25 minutes of walk away from the train station. It is fairly small and there is no common room. Really noisy and no A/C. Free Internet and laundry service. Will not go back.

Gothenburg:

HI-STF Vandrarhem Stigbersliden: Good location, nioce staff, great accomodation and really nice kitcheen (two). Only problem is there guess. Lots of group, people are in general really old or kids. Did not slept much because of the family that was in our dorm. There is also a lock out between 12h-16h. Expensive if you are not a HI member, be aware. You also need to make your room before leavibng or pay 5€.

Kville Hotel: Not far from the train station by tram, only two stops. Really quiet place with lovely staff. The area is really quiet. The beds are really good and the room is modern. Free internet and breakfast. Like the place even if you are not going to meet a lot of people here.

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Photos

The Vasa
hard to take a good picture...I tried.