Lost? Naw, I'm Just Exploring!

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Apparently Shawn leaving was reason for a gourmet, Stock-holmcooked (see what I did there ?) breakfast at the hostel. We pooled together our eggs and bacon with a side of toast and a banana, also alongside some orange juice and awful instant coffee ! That basically fillede up for the day, and on day 3 in Stockholm, I've still only bought $15 worth of groceries once... Go Nic !

We also said goodbye to a couple of British guys that we met (who had actually been to Peterborough, England... I asked if they knew where it was and they said it had a very nice church, and left it at that, aha). They were headed waaaay up north in Swedene to get the full snowy, Nordic experience.

They told us about this department store on the Drottningholm walking path, and we headed there to grab a day pack for Shawn, who's current pack had ripped.

Next to the train station where I saw him off to the track and went to Tourist Information to grab my City Bike pass, a three day card that allows me to pick up a bike at over 150 stations across the county, pretty handy and really cheap considering how much I planned on using them, and then ended up using them just yesterday!

I semi-mapped out a route to the Drottningholm palace (not the city centre palace which, in Braayden's words, is the ugliest Palace ever built).

I found a station near my hostel, grabbed the last bike available, and set off in what I was pretty sure was the right direction, but you never really know in Stockholm!

I biked for maybe 45 minutes and realized I had probably made a wrong turn, and after pedaling aimlessly around a small town called Alvik, I turned around and came back to the city centre.

Plan B was now in effect, and I headed towards the ABBA museum to get Anastasia a post card. I was going to go in and check it out, however the price was more than twice what I payed in groceries, so I opted for an also expensive post card and got out,

It was a gorgeous day, a little windy, but up to around 13 degrees, I believe. I stopped and sat down at one of the many harbours for lunch, PB and a banana, and then moved on to the Historiska Museet (the national history museum).

I wandered in, looking for a price somewhere, only to finally notice a screen displaying that entrance is free every Friday between 11-17.... That's 'just my luck' with a positive spin this time!!

I ditched my bag in a locker and headed into the first exhibit on Vikings, not really realizing how massive the building was until I entered it. There were artifacts galore in there; a bunch of jewellery, weapons, skeletons (even one that very closely resembles a whippet, a dog owned back in the day), tools, and countless stories that accompanied them. It's always really awesome to check out history in real life and help get a picture of what life was like, in other countries, hundreds and hundreds of years ago.

Next, I went down into the deep chamber that was the Gold Room, with an incredible amount of riches spread out around the room. I think it said over 100lbs of gold and 400lbs of silver, but it definitely looked like more. It was in this room that many of the highlights of the museum were housed, such as the 3 gold collars, and this golden headpiece made for some lady (I apologize on the vague details, all the names and stuff are on my camera... Ok fine, I'll look it up), Princess Elisabeth of Sweden, that's who it was made for.

Emerging from the dark, damp midst of the gold room, I proceeded to the History of Sweden exhibit that took me through the history of Sweden (imagine that!) from the year 1000 to the present year. Some highlights for me were Peter Forsbergs national jersey from the 2006 Turin Olympics and sparkling gold chalice used by royalty in fancy banquets.

Next was a Medieval art exhibit (in a large hall with unreal acoustics... Kyle if you're reading this I'll send you the voice memo I took, it's crazy!!) Then, into a textile hall and that was that.

Overall, I think I killed another 3 hours in this museum, but it was totally worth the 5 kronors I threw into the wishing well in the gold room.

I grabbed another bike and headed back to the hostel following a parade of commuters going home from work and zigzagging my way in the right general direction.

In for what I thought was gonna be a lonely night, I booked my hostel in Helsinki, and made dinner for myself. I ended up bravely asking a single man sitting with his headphones on eating his dinner what his story is and why he was here.

"My apartment is being renovated and I just need a place to stay," turned into a 2 hour conversation on travelling, why I'm here and how it's almost always best to choose hapiness over security. We shared a muffin and hot beverage together and made loose plans to make it to the palace together the next morning.

Never alone as a traveller, never alone... I just need to remember that when I start to get anxious.

- NB

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Photos

Lunch at a Harbour
My view when eating my PB sandwich.... Not bad, eh?

Bun
Slap some butter on, and she's good to go!

Golden Collar
One of the 3 featured in the museum.

Forsberg Jersey
The jersey worn by Peter Forsberg in the gold medal game in which Sweden won (they haven't since..damn those Canadians ?)