thats Sweden….in Swedish 
so, I’m coming toward the end of my stay in Europe, but I just had to take one last trip before I board my flight to America on Wednesday. It didn’t take me long to figure out where I wanted to go……..I have a little bit of a Sweden obsession, even though I’ve never been there before now. Its kind of funny, but when I think of Scandinavia, I think of things like fairy tales with trolls, Pippi Longstocking, and my Swedish American Girl doll, Kirsten. its a child-like place, a happy place.
yeah, so Sweden might be a little out of the way for most travellers, but I just had to check it out and see what it is about.
Even though I know better, I’m still a little disappointed in the lack of trolls and Vikings and rockstars I’ve seen on the street (ok, so maybe I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up about running into ABBA or Crashdiet or Europe or whoever while here…), but overall this has been a nice trip. Stockholm probably isn’t a place for everyone though, and I can imagine that for some tourists, it seems a little boring. Although to be fair, its also a holiday weekend so a lot of things were closed, and apparently all the Swedes went to denmark because the drinking is cheaper there. But regardless, I’m pretty low-key and quiet myself, so it is an alright place for me
Yesterday I went to 3 museums and took a boat tour around the island. My favorite was the Vasa museum. It was absolutely incredible. A must-see world wonder for anyone. So, basically, all the Vasa is is a boat…but its a special boat. It was built some 330 years ago or something, but was sunk in the harbor of stockholm on its maiden voyage. Somehow, due to the brackish water not being suitable for whatever waterworms that eat wooden boats to live in, the ship was preserved until today. It was discovered again about 50 years ago, they were able to bring it to the surface, and it was made watertight enough to float to the drydock. Kind of amazing, huh, that a ship that spent 300 years on the bottom of the ocean could still be able to sail. They brought it into the harbor and built a state-of-the-art museum around it….All I have to say is that it was really, really, really cool. they’ve managed to piece it all together again, its got over 90% of its original parts, lots of statues of mermaids and things on it, they’ve even got the original sails…plus its ENORMOUS…probably 4 stories tall from the bottom up to the deck…and they’ve built these viewing platforms all around so you can walk up and see it up close, from top to bottom.
I wish I had some pictures of it, but they keep the museum very dark and cool to help preserve the boat, so my camera wasn’t able to pick up enough light to take a pic. And besides, I forgot to bring my camera cable so i can’t upload anyway…argh, I meant to do that!! But anyway, if you’re interested, here is a link that tells about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)
Today not much happened, I went to the old part of town and piddled around until lunch. Its very nice…quiet, shady, lots of cobblestone streets…it kind of reminded me of Savannah, actually. Stockholm is actually built across a series of islands, so there is water everywhere, everyone in town has a sailboat that they’re riding around in, people fishing or laying out by the water, even swimming in the water, its apparently really clean…I liked it. Swedes are a very chilled-out, relaxed, close-to-nature kind of people, I think. After lunch I went to the Nobel museum, which is about the Nobel Prize (Alfred Nobel was a Swede) and it had displays on people who had won it, etc etc…it was more interesting than anticipated. After that I didn’t really know what to do, so I decided to get on a tour boat and see where it took me…ended up going to some little island a ways out of town, not much there, but it was kind of relaxing…I got some icecream and sat on a rock and watched sailboats until my boat came back to pick us up. It was nice.
thats about it. I really haven’t done anything at all, but I enjoyed Sweden. I don’t really feel like I’ve gotten to know it though, there wasn’t enough time. I really want to take a week or two and cover all of scandinavia…from norway to sweden to finland, take the viking tour, see the countryside, buy some of those painted wooden horses…One day I will. This was a nice taste though
oh, and I ate swedish meatballs, for real. SO much better than the Stouffer’s variety 
Will be home soon!!! XOXOXO
