Stockholm (Oontz, Oontz, Oontz, Oontz)

I’ve always wanted to travel to Sweden, especially after I had read the Girl with the Dragon Tatoo series, and it was finally happening!

We got into the airport about 6pm, and we had to figure out how to get to our Airbnb in Nacka district. We managed to talk to a kind woman at the information desk, and she helped us get setup with the 3 day bus/train pass. Also, thank you to Katelin for mentioning it to us!! It was so helpful. You could ride basically any city or train bus unlimited for 3 days.

Getting our use of it early on, after two buses and a train, we got to Maria’s pool place in Nacka district east of city center. We were warmly greeted and put to work peeling potatoes for her famous potato salad for her son Kevin’s birthday party the next day. We peeled, drank beer, and discussed her life as a touring musician, love of art, and current events. After all potatoes were peeled and additional magic thrown into the bowl, we got to enjoy the fruits of our labor. I’ve never personally cared for potato salad (I know, I’m a traitor to my southern heritage), but I could get on board with this. Potatoes, olives, onions, dijon, vinegar, and olive oil. I’m definitely going to steal this one for future holiday parties, thanks Maria!

We passed out from our travels, and the next morning headed into city center. We actually caught up with Kevin our host on the bus, and he gave us some suggestions on good places to eat (this blog is slowly turning into a food blog it seems). Haha. Herman’s was a vegetarian/vegan buffet at the hill above the bus station, and it was veg-heads dream.

We indulged to my leaf-eater heart’s delight and Morgan’s satisfied “purchase cost to portion consumed ratio”, and then we ventured through Gamla Stan district, or the city’s “Old Town”. Touristy, expensive, but beautiful. The Royal Palace and other interesting buildings are located here. Also, any given time, you were probably no further than 200 ft to the nearest ice cream, waffle, or pizza place.

We were actually in town partly for a two-day electronic music festival called Summerburst, and it was just on the other side of Gamla Stan in the 1912 Olympic Stadium. Committing an apparent party foul, we walked in starkly sober at 4pm, no glitter makeup or loud outfits to boot, and with our backpacks, we looked really out of place. Luckily, there was pop-up promo stand for a reputable local hairstylist with a team doing hair and makeup for free. They called us in, and they worked some serious wonders!! They were so kind, and we left feeling ready to get our boogie on. #SPACEBUNSFOREVER #PINKHAIRANDGLLITTEREVERYWHERE

It was a long night (especially getting there at 4pm like a couple of old fogies), but we rode it out to the end. We saw Tiesto along with some other goodies. I personally enjoyed a couple of djs playing funk mashups (no surprise here, I’m sure), and they had some fun stage dancers. Theme was apparently colorful leotards and safety goggles? Either way, it worked. Haha.

After a long night, we didn’t budge from our place until probably noon the next day. We decided to try to sweat out some of remnants from the night before and go on a jog. There was a super cool park with central lake and surrounding trails next to where Maria lived called Hellasgarden. The weather was really nice, and this is a popular spot for folks to sunbathe, pick berries, hike/bike, kayak, you name it.

One thing we really enjoyed was a trail-side biking themed coffee shop. This shop was inside of a working greenhouse and was part of a farm on the property. Folks could walk through the gardens, go say hello to the resident ducks, or do some maintenance on their bikes (they even had bike washing stations set up!)

The coffee/run combo managed to help bring some life back into us, thankfully. We got ready and headed back into town for day two of the festival.

On the way, Morgan specifically wanted to try some Swedish meatballs, so we found a place called Pelikan (once again, food blog theme is forming). I got some sweet potato dumplings filled with mushrooms and lingonberries and spinach on the side. Fo sho going to try to recreate a bastardized version of this at home because this is a holiday meal waiting to happen for veggie-loving folks, and of course the veggie curious types. Ha.

After stuffing ourselves to the gills, we grabbed a couple beers and headed back to the festival. Granted we learned from our first day to not be the first people there, it was wild the difference in the crowd behavior from night one to the second. It was 8 pm, and these people were acting like they spiked the Heineken (which is essentially the strongest thing they served). Regardless, it was a good night seeing Calvin Harris and some other folks.

For the next and final day in Stockholm, we wanted to check out a museum. We went to the Vasa Museum dedicated to the ship Vasa built in 1628 which sank in the Stockholm harbor on its first voyage. It may not seem like much to go visit, but this was definitely worth it. This ship had sunk and was in the harbor for over 300 years before it was recovered and rehabbed. It was extremely well preserved. I won’t ruin all details here, but if you ever go to Stockholm, we really are glad we went.

After we left the museum, it was nice and rainy, so we opted for grabbing a 7-11 pizza and heading back for an early night. Just FYI- 7-11’s are surprisingly nice in Europe??? I’m still pretty baffled at people going in to legitimately grocery shop, sit down and eat meals, and not just go in for cigs and lotto tickets (that happened too, but it definitely had a different overall vibe).

Anyway, we enjoyed the pizza, went home and passed out early. It was a quick and fun chapter of the trip, and hopefully someday we can visit again if able.

*Cue Poland now cause blog-poster Jaime is out*

*Ok, I’m back for a second because I forgot to mention electric scooters. These things were everywhere, and you could just pick one up at the corner, ride as long as your heart or budget intended, and then park it for the next scooter driver. I’m in the middle about these things, but it was a welcomed change for tired legs after a few days of lots of walking. You can also go VERY fast on these dudes which was exciting and equally terrifying. Haha.*