Stay Classy, Stockholm

(and I've decided I like visual aids)

So this was Stockholm weekend and it was amazing. I sort of botched the timing in an attempt to miss fewer classes but I should have just skipped Monday as well as Friday. Anyway too late now and I had a great time despite my terrible planning.

As of Thursday afternoon I had a train to and from Edinburgh but no way of getting from Skavsta Airport to Stockholm proper. Because online bus timetables are hard enough to decipher in English. So my lovely Norwegian roomie Kristine translated than deciphered them for me and helped me get tickets.
Step one and done.

So the next day I catch the 10am to Edinburgh that I had book a week in advance...it's standing room only even though I already had a prepaid ticket. SO I stand for about an hour. The earliest flight to Stockholm was at three so I gave myself some time to actually look around the city I have burned through on my way to more exotic locals several times. The Scottish National Museum and Portrait Gallery is stunning. And free. So I spent my free couple of hours there perusing Rembrandt and Singer-Sargent  (Lady Agnew might be my new favorite impressionist painting ever, sorry Renoir...you still win best overall) and wandering around the park... it was decidedly relaxing for a travel day.

I got to my gate just in time. Possibly cut it a little close but the Lady Agnew was worth it. Grabbed a sandwich at the airport party-like store that was surprisingly good (possibly because it was three and I was running on the slice of Nutella toast and I'd had for breakfast). The plane ride was bearable....my seat smelled like armpit, thankyou ryan air. But we cruised on after dark and the landscape was stunning. You could see the bright city centers of Stockholm and Nykoping  to the sides and all in between was forest cut through with wide rivers, that made me keep thinking Bayou, and the little fairy lights of houses and highways inbetween. Needless to say it made me less bitter about getting in so late.

Then the customs guy gave me the stink eye and acted like he wasn't going to let me through because my return ticket was to Scotland and not the old US of A. But he stamped it.

Now to find my bus...in the pitchdark freezing cold. Luckily I found a line that looked like it was for a bus to Stockholm and asked the last two guys in line. Turns out I was correct and we're from Penn State but we're studying in St Andrews this semester, where are you from? So at least I had someone to talk to on the hour and a half bus ride that was supposed to be 45 minutes.

We had an in-depth discussion of the Fall of Nickelodeon from it's Glory Days in our youth.
The world is just not the same without a few Angry Beavers and Real Monsters.

Not to mention the gaping hole in Televisions everywhere that Legends of The Hidden Temple left as its legacy.
But I digress...

Dad has been at the bus station since like 7 even though I told him It'd be 8 at the earliest and now its closer to 9. So he's starving and my sandwich didn't last very long so we get me a metro pass and leave in search of Beer&Pizza.

Success is had...even if the pizza's kind of crappy and the beer is Carlsburg 

(good but not exactly exotic)

The pizza wasn't bad I'm just sure we ate at the Swedish equivalent of Little Caesars.

...which actually now that I mention it sounds fan-freaking-tastic. What do you say Ma, crazy bread with the Christmas roast?

Then we walked around Gamla Stan (Old Town, where the palace is) and took the long way home so it was kind of a night tour/get you bearings for tomorrow thing.

The Metro stop for the hotel is literally across the street from the Electrolux home office, which is a retro-fitted hospital, which was kind of cool. Dad's hotel was right behind it. Ok so I have to give Swedes the prize for smartest people ever. On the walk to the hotel there was this thing to the side of the stairs that looked like a handicap ramp but with a tiny set of stairs in the middle....stroller ramp. Bam.

As soon as we get back to the hotel I turn on the TV and am done (besides a short foray into the bathroom to test out the heated towel bar) not only and I exhausted but I have been watching TV in youtube quality videos on mons 11 inch screen for 2 months...I was ready for some Minority Report and Top Gear on a state-of-the art LCD. And have one of the awesome Czech beers dad had in the fridge.

Next morning Dad and I hit breakfast which he complained was the worst he's had in Stockholm (I thought it was great, he was just whining because the best thing in the spread was yogurt and (amazing) granola). Then we hopped the subway to the museum district only to find that we had dragged ourselves out of bed at 8 in vain... the national museum doesn't open until 11. So we walk back to Gamla Stan in search of a store mom wants us to find. FAIL. Not only does it take us forever to find it... she kept telling us it was by the troll bridge wtf that means. There were no trolls on any bridges on the *entire* island. When we do find the store it's a block from this...

An enormous and epic statue of St. George killing the Dragon (that was St. George right?) and all along the street there were banners with the out line of this statue on them. But no the troll bridge was out landmark. We think we found the place but it was, unsurprisingly, closed.

The Place (we think) note the st. George banner

We made up for this fail (and how cold we were accomplishing it) with Swedish varm choklad...which is not Hot chocolate, it is warm chocolate soup.

Observe.

It's so rich they serve it with a glass of water (which you need)

Then we went to the national museum.
It was pretty cool and they had a large variety of artists and movements, saw a few more Rembrandts, some Renoir. They had a really cool statuary exhibit going on. Dad skipped the one on modernism and industrialization.

I went back to it after he left and found this.

We spent a little over an hour there then he had to go to his retreat/team building thing for work (which is international businessman speak for kindergarten games at a castle). And I saw the rest of the museum. the last exhibit on the top floor...the one he missed was a travelling exhibit on Napoleon and Alexander I of Sweden. It was really cool. The exhibit followed his career from start to exile and had the artifacts to go along with it (I will admit Josephine's jewelery was probably the best part).

After the national museum I headed to the next peninsula over for the Vassa which I could speand several hundred words telling you the amazing history of but suffice to say it was the brand new flag ship in the 1600's and never made it out of the city because they miscalculated how much extra ballast it's height and rediculous amount of decoration would need. So it stayed at the bottom until the 70's when it was painstakingly salvaged and place in the Vassa museum (which was built specifically for it and is even sort of boat shaped from the outside).

                  Then                                                                                Now

It was a very well put together museum, it followed the ship, it followed the salvage and restoration processes and lots of cool interactive displays...it would be really fun to take kids to. And it had a 25 minute movie so I could rest my aching feet. All in all I spent about 2 hours there (actually I spent about two hours in all three museums).

Next up was the Scandinavian museum. Dad had mentioned that it looked cool and it was right across the street from the Vassa so I went. There was a huge line and I couldn't figure out what was going on. Turns out I stumbled into the chocolate festival.

Needless to say I skipped lunch.

They had daily life through the ages split up by room of the house rather than time period... so that was fun. There was a tiny little hallway of terrors that was full of doll-houses. Seriously the creepiest thing I have ever witnessed. It didn't help that it was in a shadowy, empty corner of the top floor very far away from all the hustle and bustle of the chocolate conference. There was also a sample table setting from the 1600's  with a taxidermy Swan centerpiece that had a roasted swan in it....that they actually expected people to eat (not actually but they would have back then) it was gross and kind of mesmerizing.

Then more Chocolate.

Then back to Gamla Stan. Mom's store was still closed.

So I went to the metro station. And realized I was starving. This is my super classy moment (well the whole evening was pretty classy), I went to a metro station burger king and got a whopper Jr in Stockholm.

And it was perfect.

The fries where hot the burger fresh and, the crowning jewel, they had Heinz 57. Although I think the lettuce might have been sweet pickled or something. But we all know it's all about the fries.

I was actually still kind of hungry and briefly contemplated getting a Big Mac for comparison but the initial meal had kinda made me sick. So I went back to the hotel (hey it was dark out and everything was closed) flopped down with a brew and started channel surfing for the first time in months. Bliss.

Except half of the 35 channels were the same thing (some strange stage production of Bernie Madoff's life in Swedish) and the rest were game shows (in Swedish).

So I made the perfectly legitimate choice to watch "Pretty Woman"

Then I realized I was sort of hungry so I texted day and asked him to get gummies on his was home. He complied. uber-bliss.

After the movie something about WWII came on and dad and I got into an "Academic Discussion" on how Germany would have faired without Hitler screwing his generals on the eastern front. I think the conclusion was that they could have taken Europe if they had stopped Japan from trying Pearl Harbor (because the Manhattan project would have ended everything no matter what) and placated Stalin until they had a stable widespread and well organized empire in Europe (which would have never happened) but Soviet Russia and The Reich could not have lived near each other. Ever. So basically we argued ourselves into it being impossible from both our angles. So basically we did what we always do, Pinky.

The next morning I had another amazing granola breakfast and showed my class one more time by making a ham sandwich from breakfast buffet items and wrapping it in a napkin for the plane.

Then Dad and I went on an honest to goodness Sunday morning stroll (we called it an Urban Hike but it was a Sunday stroll). We found a huge park with a statue of Linnaeus...Dad thought I said he invented Taxidermy, I definitely said Taxonomy.

Then went to Gamla Stan one more time...mom's shop was still closed.

On the way to the bus station 9I had to leave at 1) we were supposed to be souvenir shopping, and Dad tried (we even walked all the way back to this one shop after lunch, I still didn't end up getting anything) but it just wasn't worth it to try to get into shopping with him waiting outside.

Then we found my bus and I was off, I actually ran into the same two boys so we compared notes on the plane home.

All in all it was a very satisfying weekend...I just wish I had gotten a Scarf (and skipped a few more classes but you know).

UPDATE: Just got a package fro Grandma Pat, it contains the last few ingredients i need to to introduce my roomates to the joys of grandma's apple pie and special-K treats. Not to mention Peanut butter, tea and dried apricots made of sunshine and amazing