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Published: October 25th 2006
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When you think of Sweden, the first thing that I think of is ... ABBA, blondes and IKEA. Well I saw them all!!!! I will discuss each more below.
Leaving Brett and Heather's place I headed of to Heathrow for my flight to Sweden. Low and behold more delays with the flight, I am just getting to used to delays with travel and more or less expect it now, each time bringing me a reson to chuckle. The added bonus was that we flew into Stockholm at dusk and it looked sensational with the sunsetting.
After leaving booking accommodation really late, I was forced to book a single room at a hotel, but at least I had my own room and bathroom, but at a price. So that night I was staying south of the city, and headed out for a wander around. Basically I came to the conclusion that every male should make the journey to Sweden!!!! Wow!!!! When they say there are lots of blondes, they aren't kidding!!! The best way to describe this, would be as I was walking through Gamla Stan I was thinking how I would write this, then as I looked into a
Canals
Buildings by the canals - Gamla Stan area restaurant, there were 5 young blonde girls having dinner, and that summed it up for me ... they are everywhere!!! Everything you thought and probably more, its amazing!!! At the end of the day, everyone is good looking here ... and I think that is why I was able to fit in so well, I mean I was constantly asked for directions, meaning I must have really looked like a local ... fair enough too!
Stockholm looks really impressive at night, and the cobbled streets of the old area that is, Gamla Stan were very pleasant. This is also the area I spent most of my time in Stockholm wandering, with much of it remaining from years and years ago. On this island stands the Royal Palace, which I toured through, checking out the Royal Apartments, and this large collections of dresses the Queen of Sweden has worn at various occassions over the years. So obviously this room was full of women, and left many men standing around clueless.
Thanks to various people providing some information I got a Stockholm Card, which gives free access to heaps of museums, boat trips and all that jazz. So I made
Royal Palace
Sweden's Royal Apartments my way around the town, stopping in on a few museums, National Museum and Noble Museum, which is a museum dedicated to Alfred Nobel (who actually invented dynamite), who is the founder of the Noble Prize, with the 5 discplines, peace, physics etc. He is Swedish and it was in his last will and testament that he bequethed his funds to go towards an award each year to those who had done something substantial through various means in the 5 different fields. Although I knew of the prize and everything, there was lots I learnt from this museum and it was very interesting for a small place.
My final night in Stockholm I went out with some people from my hostel room. A Canadian, 2 Germans and a Dutch guy, we went out to see if the Ice Bar was open (bar that is made of ice etc) but unfortunately it was closed, so we continued onto Gamla Stan area and had a few drinks there (very expensive!!!).
Before heading off to Norway, I got up early and enjoyed the hostel's own sauna! When in Sweden you have to have a sauna, so I spent about 20 minutes
Gamla Stan
Typical streetside cafes in there, before getting ready and heading off for a river boat cruise of some of the islands that make up Stockholm. It was a great way to see the city, going through the canals and at one stage we got to a house in the parklands of Djurgarden, and there was a guy who looked like Benny or Bjorn, from ABBA (the guy with the beard), so I took some video footage of him, because he looked so much like him that I could lie and say I saw him when I got home. However as we passed the house the tour guide was talking about ABBA and saying it was owned by Benny Andersen, and as he turned around he said that was him! So I got to see ABBA (or one B from ABBA) in Sweden.
Strolling the streets a little once more, I then headed off for my train to Norway. It ended up being a 9 hour journey through lots of forests and was good viewing while it was still light out. Along the way I basically matched up two people without knowing it at the time, long story but they ended up exchanging
Gamla Stan
From Gamla Stan looking out north west numbers thanks to myself, all while being watched by this dog on the train, that was far more closer looking to a lion than a dog. But as I said long story.
After returning to Sweden from Norway, we were on the train to Goteborg. As we were heading into the main station we saw a massive IKEA store, this was a huge warehouse, bigger than anything I have even see! A lot of people walk around Sweden with IKEA bags, but the massive stores are outside the main towns. Goteborg is along the west coast of Sweden to the south and is the second largest city there. Due to deciding on Norway on a whim and forgetting I was getting in on a weekend many hostels were already booked. So as a last resort I surfed the site couchsurfing.com, and got in contact with this guy, Tony, who is a student at the university, Chalmers University in Goteborg. So he let me crash there, although he was a rather weird fella, I was just glad to not be sleeping in the train station. I went out that night within the uni and had a good buffet and a
Canals
Buildings by the canals few drinks, still expensive!
Next day I wandered around Goteborg. There aren't that many sites exactly to see there, and with the immense rain it made it pretty hard. However I made the best of it and saw the stadium where the European Championships of athletics were held a few months earlier and watched a local soccer game going on within the town. Then by the docks saw some viking ships and the opera house. Walked along their main shopping centre called The Avenyn, before walking around some gardens. With the rain it made it hard to do and see much there, but it looked like a nice city. I finished the evening passing an Aussie bar, called the Dancing Dingo, and while I wasn't going to go in, the cricket between Australia and England was on live, so I headed in for a few drinks and catch the end of the match.
Next day said bye to my weird new friend Tony, and got the train to Copenhagen. The train trip to Denmark was pretty good, as the weather had cleared and we passed a few beaches with kite surfers on them.
But my last point,
Canals
Buildings by the canals is that the women here are amazing!
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Shinz
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Come to NZ
Hey we have an ice bar here in Auckland! When you come to visit me I'll take ya :)