If you are ever presented with the opportunity to travel, no matter how far or near it may be, always, always, always pounce on the opportunity. I believe that there is no better way to grow your knowledge than to travel!
“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller”
-Ibn Battuta
Throughout these next few posts I am going to share with you guys the good, the better, and the best moments from this trip. I was lucky enough to have my mom travel with me for these 3 weeks, and I am not kidding when I say this, I have NEVER laughed this much in my entire life. I can not wait to share with you all and I hope you find it as fun and interesting as we did!
Sweden is home to some of the most beautiful architecture in the world! Whether it is in the capitol, Stockholm, or a small town in southern Sweden, there is so much beauty to take in. We started our 7 day trek through Sweden in the largest city in the all of the Nordic countries, Stockholm. This city is stocked full of some of the most interesting history, but before I get into the best of the Sweden let me start from the beginning!
Day 1: Arriving in Stockholm
My mom and I arrive at the Stockholm-Arlanda airport after two layovers and over 24 hours of traveling. The airport, like in a lot of cities, is about 45 minutes out from the city center, therefore we have to catch the train in to central station. SO, we purchase our tickets and we lug our suitcases down to the platform to “hop” on the train. We watched not one, not two, BUT three trains go by before we finally get on the correct train. Mind you, we tried to get on every single one of those trains and got kicked off every single one of those trains. We finally got on the correct train headed for central station, and from their we changed trains and headed for our Airbnb. We hop off at our station and hike up a gravel drive to our Airbnb. Mom thinks it is a little sketch, but I think it is a cute little quaint apartment… with no air conditioning!
Day 2: A Day in Historic Gamla Stan
We headed out for out first full day and I could not contain my excitement to explore the city! We had a delicious Italian lunch at Panfresco’s roof top resturaunt before heading off to Stockholm’s historic district. Gamla Stan is one of the most well preserved medieval city centers in all of Europe. It is filled with winding cobblestone streets that are lined with little shops and cafe’s. This district is home to some of Stockholm’s most notable sights. The most well known attraction in the area is The Royal Palace, the official residence of the King of Sweden. We toured around this area for a bit before running into a sweet German woman who did not speak but 3 words of English, and wanted to know our entire life story, even though she could not understand a word we said. So, she snapped our pic at the palace and off we went and stumbled upon Storkyrkan. Also known as Stockholm Cathedral, Storkyrkan is one of the most beautiful cathedrals I have ever seen. From the beautiful groin vaults towering overhead to the wonderfully crafted pews lined along the floor. This cathedral was by far one of my favorite pieces of architecture we visited in Sweden. After wandering through the historic district we decided to pull off for a break at a quaint little cafe and “fika.” In the Swedish culture “fika” is a very important/ritualistic part of the day where you take a break from the day with friends and have coffee and a bite to eat. So, we had our fika at this adorable little cafe on the cute cobblestone streets of Gamla Stan. After having our afternoon break, we meandered back to the famous Gamla Stan Square where we went into the Nobel Prize Museum which just so happened to have an exhibit all about Martin Luther King Jr. We actually ended up meeting the woman from Atlanta who put the exhibit together. Next, we LITERALLY ran to Riddarholmen Church before it closed. We made it with just 4 minutes to race through the cathedral, snap our pics, and be on our way! We ended the day with a boat cruise which took us through the lock where the Baltic Sea and Lake Malaren meet!
Day 3: The Day of Two Dinners
We started our morning off with a ride on the hop on hop off bus before ditching the bus after about 30 minutes. TRAVEL TIP: Do not purchase more than a 24 hour hop on hop off bus pass.. it is not worth it. So, we decided to take a boat to Drottningholm Palace, which is the private residence of the Swedish royal family. We headed over to the ticket booth and grabbed our tickets! Since we had a little time before the boat came we sat at a little cafe and had mimosas and ice cream… yes at 10:30 am. But before we knew it our boat arrived and we hopped on for an hour ride out to the palace. As the boat came around the peninsula the beautiful palace was revealed and it was exactly what I imagined a royal residence would look like. We wandered our way up to the palace snapping a pic every 2 feet and took a tour of the inside. It is filled with the most beautiful statues and art work, I felt like I went back in time to the 17th century. Every room is decorated so uniquely and filled with so much history with gorgeous chandeliers, each one different from the last. Behind the palace are some of the most wonderful gardens that look like they go on for miles! We walked through the lush green gardens on our way to the Chinese Pavilion which is one of the most amazing pieces of architecture on the grounds. It is filled with an abundance of color and interesting history. Each room in the pavilion is filled with luxurious items brought from China to fuel the Swedes fascination with Chinese culture. It began to drizzle as we started our long walk back to the palace from the pavilion, but nothing can put a damper on our day because we are in Sweden!! We catch the boat back to the city center and wander around the streets until we see a hot dog stand. This is where I had my first French hot dog, and oh my goodness it was so yummy. So, we got our dogs and off we went down the streets of Stockholm. Then… we stumbled upon the most amazing little Italian resturaunt that we absolutely could not pass up.. andddd we stopped for second dinner. With no regrets I might add.
Day 4: Last Day, Best Day in Stockholm
Its our last day in this beautiful city! We decided to spend the day on the island Djurgarden, and we start with one of the most interesting museums on the island, The Vasa Museum. This is home to a huge warship that was built in the 17th century. However, this ship has a very daunting history, considering it sank after sailing for only 20 minutes! The boat was not even a mile from the shipyard when a gust of wind landed the boat on its side, and within minutes it was at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The ship remained under water for 331 years before it was recovered in 1959. It is now the most well preserved warship in the world! We found ourselves at several other interesting sights through out the day such as the Nordic Museum, Skansen Open Air Museum, and our favorite the ABBA Museum. If anyone knows me, then you know that Mamma Mia! is like my all time favorite musical and this museum is like the jackpot for any Mamma Mia! fans. The museum is filled with props, costumes, and all types of memorabilia from the musical. We laughed, we danced, and we sang karaoke. Of course mom pushes me on stage to karaoke first, so what do I do? I hop up there and dance, the worst I ever have in my life, as I belch out the words to Dancing Queen. Fret not, I made her go next. Once we were done pretending we were Meryl Streep, we hopped a train and got off at a random stop. We wandered the winding streets for atleast 30 minutes looking for food before finding a local bar. A man comes out speaking to mom and I in Swedish, and like we have done in every one of these situations, for some reason, we stood there and stared at him, like idiots, until he asked if we spoke English. He asks us if we need help and we tell him we are trying to find something to eat. He says “Come in, trust me, I can help!” So we follow the man into the bar, he gives us a menu and helps us read it, and we order fish and chips, pizza, and beer. We look around at the bar room walls and to our surprise see some familiar faces such as Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash plastered around the room. This is by far the best way to end our time in Stockholm!
Day 5: Traveling to Vaxjo Sweden
Its day 5 and we are traveling by train to a small town in southern Sweden. We board the train headed towards Vaxjo. We get off the train in a small town about 30 minutes from Vaxjo called Alvesta. Here we are literally the only people who spoke English, and we somehow had to figure out how to buy a bus ticket to get to Vaxjo. After about 15 minutes and talking to 5 different people we have our bus tickets and we are headed to Vaxjo. We were dropped off the bus at Vaxjo Central Station where we found our first fluent English speaking person! Thank God! He helped us find our hotel and told us how the transit system worked. So we walked down the little cobblestone streets to our first hotel of the trip, Hotel Cardinal. We get our keys to our room and hop on the elevator, that by the way is barely big enough to fit mom and I. We unlock our room and ahhhhhh no air conditioning once again, but we are happy to be in a nice hotel room! After settling in for our 2 night stay we head out to wander the streets. After about 0.5 seconds we discover we are in town during their high school graduation celebrations. The streets are filled with young people celebrating their graduation, and boy oh boy do they celebrate. There were parades and parties all over the city. So, we head back to the hotel for dinner, which is included with our stay?? Weird right? We scarf down our fish and chips and head up to the room for a good nights rest!
Day 6: Last Full Day in Sweden
Vaxjo is one of the greenest cities in Europe, and is on track to become net zero by 2050. Just about every bit of waste in from the city is recycled and used somewhere else. Even the local transit buses use fuel made from rotten food and sewage. We came to this small town because there is an architecture firm here, Arkitektbolaget, which is producing apartment buildings completely built from wood products. As I mentioned in my last blog post I won a scholarship to travel and study wooden architecture. Wooden architecture being one of the most sustainable building products, why not come to the greenest city in Europe? This town is home to Limnologen, an apartment building completely built from wood products. The entire apartment building is constructed out of wood from the structural frame to the lift shafts. This building is a perfect example of how to build exciting new things with wood products. The entire town of Vaxjo is filled with new construction just like this one. The same firm also built Vallen another wooden apartment building in the area. The city is so full of small gems of sustainability that we stumbled upon the construction site of the new city hall and central station for the town that is being constructed from mass timber! The building is set to achieve zero carbon due to its construction from wood. It will also have other sustainable features such as solar panels and sustainable urban drainage systems. This town is truly one of the most sustainability conscious communities in the world. We also visited the university campus here which is home to Teleborg Slot, a cute little castle that looked as if it had been pulled right from a fairy-tale. For lunch we decided to head back to the main strip of the town and stop at a sweet little Italian restaurant where we ate you guessed it.. pizza!! I know what you’re thinking “these people are eating so much Italian food what the heck!” but they are literally everywhere! I swear they probably have more Italian restaurants than Italy itself. After a tasty pizza we were wandering and actually stumbled upon the firm that actually designed the building I came here to visit, so I was able to go in and talk with a woman there and she gave me some information on the building! Super cool! Considering Vaxjo is a small town with not very much to do, we headed back to the room for a nap to rest up before dinner! We ate dinner at the hotel and headed out for a 4 mile walk around Vaxjo Lake, but first we grabbed an ice cream cone, of course, for our walk! Then, we headed back to the hotel to pack and get ready to travel to Copenhagen!
Day 7: Denmark Here We Come!
Heyoooo our time in Sweden has come to an end! We are headed off to Copenhagen, Denmark! We hop on our train and off we go! Luckily we have first class tickets so we get an entire train car to ourselves! We are ready for our 3 hour train ride. Nothing but beautiful green fields pass by as we look out the window. Once we arrive at the train station we are absolutely starving so we have our most bizarre meal yet… McDonald’s! After our lunch we head off in the pouring down rain to find our HOSTEL. Yea that’s right.. I made my 51 year old mother stay in a hostel with me!
I hope that you guys enjoyed this post and look forward to hearing more about my travels! Next stop, Copenhagen!
Chronicles of a Broke Adventurer 