Stockholm

London is getting colder by the day. You know what the smart thing to do is? Go to Stockholm. Yeah, cos you know, it's not going to be colder there...... errrrr

Checking the weather report and seeing a low of 2 degrees with a max of 7 was not encouraging. I could feel the chill in my bones and I wanted to cry. Luckily for us, the weather turned and it ended up being quite pleasant while London suffered rain.

Kt, J, SuBoo, Honda, Munabuna and I all met at Liverpool St station after work to board our train to to Stansted Airport. Here are some horrible photos of us on the train.

Given that Munabuna booked the wrong arrival airport (mental note: arrive at Arlanda and not Skavsta), we had to take an 80 minute bus ride into central Stockholm rather than a 20 minute express train. EIGHTY MINUTES. We didn't get into our hotel until about 11pm and we were all starving. Given that it was fairly late and we really didn't know where we were, we wandered the streets foraging for food. Ok, it wasn't quite that bad, but we didn't really want to eat McDonalds, hot dogs or TGIFs. Luckily we found a small cafe that was about to shut and ate there. I did take photos but they aren't very exciting, hence no posting.

The next day, we all visited the Vasa Viking Ship Museum. Ok, that doesn't sound all that interesting but think about it. This is a viking ship from the 1600s and it is the only one of it's kind. Like, wow. Think about it. Yeah. Think about it real hard. Ok, so I'm a geek who appreciates these kinds of things.

The museum isn't large but we managed to lose Kt for about an hour or so. A few of us watched the movie on why it sank. I am sorry but even though I'm a nerd, it was so frigging boring, I nearly fell asleep. Once we found Kt, she was exclaimed "Wtf?! Where have you guys been? How can you NOT have seen this entire museum yet!?" So we forced her to tour the museum again. Hehe.

These pictures were painstakingly difficult to take as it was actually very dark indoors.

J joining the medieval Swedish maid.

So how did the Vasa ship sink? The wind blew and it fell over. No sarcasm here. Ok, there was a bit more to the story. The wind made it sway and water filled in via the gun ports. So much for Swedish design.

Starving as we left the museum, we made a pit stop for hot dogs. Must take sausage photos with Kt milking, milking the tomato sauce from it's dispenser.

Next on the tourist list was the Skansen outdoor museum, a somewhat lame Sovereign Hill-esque recreation of a traditional Swedish town. Except that I didn't see any traditional Swedes walking around and all the houses were locked. Given the cold climate and grey skies, it resembled a ghost town. I'm sure it's nicer in the Summer and it's a great place to take your 2 - 7 year old. Not really a place for people pushing their (eek!) 30s. There was also a funpark there (closed) and a zoo with some very active animals, which compensated for the rest of the park. No siree, no sleepy animals here.

Clockwise from top left: A wolf. Some Swedish animal which I have never seen in my life and have no idea what it is, probably similar to a badger. A very happy, lazy seal. The three bears - who were very funny and kept wrestling with each other.

I also insisted we see the reindeer. Can you believe that Kt had always thought reindeer were imaginary animals? WTF. Rudolph got his revenge when he charged from the shelter and made her freak out. Hahahaha. The look on her face was priceless.

By now, it was about 2pm and we were starving once more. We headed back into the city cetnre for a cheap eat at the Ostermalms Saluhall. I do have to say, while it wasn't all that large a food hall (but big enough) this was my food highlight. It was like a huge deli with the option of having some of the ready-made food nuked in the microwave for you. Of course, when in Sweden, eat as the Swedes do, so here is my Elk and reindeer meat:

Elk casserole with mash and Rudolph mixed with horseradish. Tasty! No distinctive or horrible aftertaste. Sweet revenge for Kt with the Rudolph meat.

After a bit of rest we all prepared for a dinner out. Being the unresearched tourists that we were, none of us really knew where to go. This is where the story of Michael BoyBand *sigh* begins. With 7pm looming and no idea where to eat, Kt and I approached the reception desk to ask for a recommendation. The nice guy at the desk also recommended us a bar to go to and booked our dinner reservation for us. (Ok, ok, so it's his job to do that). While from first impression, he wasn't anything overly special in the physical sense, we did find him extremely helpful and the more Kt and I looked at him, the better he got HAHAhahahahaha. See? Being nice helps.

We both walked away from desk saying 'hey, he was cute' - girlish giggles followed. I said 'yeah, he's got that Boy Band look about him'. He wasn't a typical blonde Swede, but rather with dark hair and fair features. We pointed him out to J and SuBoo who didn't think much of him which upset both Kt and I. ANYWAY, off we went to dinner.

Us girls in the hotel lounge before leaving.

Dinner was on the Old Town Gamla Stan island and we wandered around a bit and had a tipple before finally getting to the restaurant.

Oh look! It's the Bao Bab Store!

Dinner was at Fem Sma Hus, a traditional Swedish restaurant. I do have to ask the question - what the hell is Swedish food anyway? They can't eat Ikea meatballs all the time. I figured out it's a lot of herring, dill, seafood and Santa's sleigh runners. I still can't determine if eating Santa's helpers is the equivalent of eating kangaroo at home. In other words, people don't really do it.

Top to bottom: The entrance to Fem Sma Hus. J doing her best batwoman. Kt being a mum. The rest of the table.

Given that I'd had my fair share of antler-meat, I opted for some fish.

After dinner, we headed back to the main town and walked past the suggested 'bar', which was more like a large lounge/club. There was a queue outside which was encouraging but we decided not worth the wait. And it was clearly a beautiful crowd and here we were, standing in our scarf, hats, puffy jackets, while the Swedes pretended it wasn't cold. In the end, J and I were pooped and went back to the hotel, while the others partied on in an 80s bar.

Personally, I woke up the next morning exhausted. Kt nearly had to pull off my blankets. Luckily she took note of my warning that if she did that, I would totally crack the shits.

Our second day in Stockholm was 'take the Stockholm cruise' day. Ignorant me didn't know that Stockholm is a collection of several islands. Again, being dumbasses, we didn't know where to catch a ferry. Kt and I figured that Boyband Guy worked last night and would not be on shift today. So imagine our glee to see him at the desk *ROFL*. By now, Kt was getting offended that I kept referring him to Boyband Guy. She insisted "He has a name, you know!" "Fine, he's now Michael Boyband". Michael of course, being the name on his tag.

After realising we really didn't have any idea, I took the map and said "I'm gonna go ask Boyband Guy". For anyone who knows Kt will know that she doesn't believe in the gym. But upon her ears pricking up, she leaped out of the chair like a superhero, "I'm coming too!". So there we were, me with a huge map in hand, giggling and running to desk together. We saw a gap at the desk but two people - Michael Boyband and a girl. Uh-oh. Yippee for us when MBB offered his help to two grinning idiots. He circled the dock our map *sigh*. After we left the desk, we both said "I wanted to tell him that he gave us a good recommendation last night". Cue the girlish glee.

Alright, enough. Here's some stuff about the cruise.

Munabuna & SuBoo surround J with a Swedish rum ball covered in pistachio something or other. I'm not even sure it's Swedish but we kept seeing it everywhere.

I was SO happy to walk past a souvenir store with viking hats. If I didn't take this photo, I would regret it for life. Look, a hat with horns! And a reindeer!! Yay for cheesy tourist shots!

Erm, I did take a few photos of us on the cruise but none were good. It was a 1 hour 50 minute boat ride and I was quite glad to see it come to an end. It was interesting but the soothing waves made me very sleepy indeed.

The view of the Vasa Museum from the cruise.

The rest of the day was spent on the Old Town Island, trying to do enough touristy stuff to justify our Stockholm tourist card purchase. We saw the Crown Jewels, visited the Nobel Prize Museum (very small) and Jade and I had Swedish soft serve with a jam or something like that.

We had a quick afternoon meal in a cafe which had the oldest city wall. Then a romp around the Old Town to search for a cannon embedded in the footpath and cannon balls stuck in buildings. It was quite silly as we had walked past this cannon a billion times and not realised what it was.

The view of Stockholm on the way back to the main city centre from the Old Town. Aaah tranquil.

Walking back to the hotel, Kt and I were discussing how MBB wouldn't be at the hotel upon our return. He started in the morning as early as 9.30am and it was nearing 6.30pm. A long shift indeed. We had settled in the idea that we wouldn't see him again. Imagine our glee as we looked through the window to see him at the desk! As I walked through the revolving doors, I looked behind only to see Kt in a fit of giggles. *grin* I insisted that we take a photo with MBB before our departure which Kt flatly declined. To this day, I regret not forcing her. Dammit!! He will live on in our memories, she insists. Hmmph!

Stockholm was definitely quieter than London (what city isn't?) and it would be quite a nice place to visit in the Summer. Hmmm, so what else did I discover in Stockholm? Kt likes to sleep a lot.

Clockwise top left: Kt upon our arrival in the hotel. Kt in bed after our Friday night munchies. Katie and I on the cruise - such an intelligent conversation we had. Finally my view of Kt on the cruise - ooh, watch the dribble.