Blogs from Sweden, Europe - page 148

Geo: 56.6615, 16.3627Off the boat and onto the bus to Stockholm's train station. I missed the 10:15 train to Kalmar so there were two choices - the 10:40 train, which had really crappy connections, or the 12:20, in which case I could probably try and have some more of that fish soup ... I haven't been too keen on Sweden, so I decided to take the 10:40. I thought I would like Stockholm more, but so far Oslo has been the highlight of Scandinavia. The first train was full and I didn't bother with a seat reservation. The conductor told me that I would most likely have to move, but luckily it never happened. I changed trains in Alvesta, where the on-board displays showed EVERY seat as being reserved - it was all lies! I ended ... read more

Geo: 59.3327, 18.0645Before leaving the hostel this morning, had a quick chat with some of the bunkmates. Some guy from Michigan and some girl from Vancouver who is currently studying in Leiden, in Holland. There was another girl with a Scottish flag on her backpack, but turns out she's actually Swiss. Funny because I didn't think she looked Scottish, but didn't think she looked Swiss, either! She's headed to Helsinki, too, but is flying instead of taking the night ferry like I am. Anyway, that was enough human contact for me - I've been in a bit of a solo mood lately. Off to the Cathedral - pretty blah stuff. The same was true of the Nobel museum - they did have one slightly interesting exhibit called "Design 4 Science". Things viewed under an electron microscope ... read more

Geo: 59.3327, 18.0645Bad sleep, so I was up early. The top bunk was crappy and very creaky - I should've chose a better bed when I arrived but didn't think. I tried some of that liquid bandage I bought to deal with those massive splits I get in my feet when I travel, but it was pretty much wiped out after 30 minutes of walking. I used some more free internet before going out sightseeing - dreary again, today. It took me 45 minutes to find a Stockholm card for sightseeing - annoying! All the information I had indicated they sold them at hotels, hostels, news stands, and at subway stations, but none of them had them. I had to backtrack to the new town's tourist office to finally get my hands on one. I was ... read more

Geo: 59.3327, 18.0645I grabbed breakfast at the cafe located on the main floor of the hostel's building. I had Norwegian Kroner to burn before leaving, so I decided to splurge for a real breakfast. I heard a strange remake of 80s power ballad "Missing You" by John Waite. It was strange, to say the least ...Off to the Nobel Peace museum - my strategy of delaying use of the Oslo card worked, and I got in for free! Only the Nobel Peace prize is awarded in Norway; all others are awarded in Sweden. A very thought-provoking temporary exhibit entitled "Places we live" was very interesting. Some 1 billion people live in slums. Several countries were included, and five families from each country were featured in photos, along with a soundtrack of their stories. A photographer created ... read more

Hello Peter and Kif blog fans, So we got off our nice little Titanic feeling ferry ride from Riga to Stockholm. Our goal of the day was Kif's hometown of Mariestad, Sweden. Now Mariestad, or M-stad, is roughly a 3 hr train ride from Stockholm. Nice and easy right? Not so much, we tried to get the direct tickets at Stockholm central to Mariestad. However, it was Friday, apparently a very popular day to get out of Stockholm. So our only option for a direct train was at 6pm. It was 8am when we were trying to get the tickets. So we decided to take the side route via Hallsberg to Mariestad. So we hopped on the Hallsberg train and got there fine. We hopped on our smallest train of the trip to get us to ... read more