Hej,
Ah, Scandinavia, the place where a Danish pastry is called "Vienna Bread" a hotdog is French, and the PUB is a department store...
Anyway... a flip of a coin sent me via night bus from Copenhagen to STOCKHOLM! Yay!
First impression of Stockholm was the magnificent array of light illuminating the whole city even at 6am when I arrived by overnight bus. In fact all the towns I passed in the night were brightly lit up by thousands of lights... I hate to see the electricity bill in these parts...
Stockholm is a very beautiful city indeed, with bright earthy yellow, red and orange coloured buildings in the old town amid narrow cobbled streets; large baroque townhouses along the several waterfronts; period romantic old villages and houses in the green open-air museum of Skansen park with the Nordic zoo containing wolverines, reindeer, bears and seals; Christmas markets abound selling xmas paraphernalia and candy amid outdoor ice skating rinks filled with children... including me, not the most graceful ice skater mind you, but I survived unscathed...
The hostel I’m staying at is pretty cool. Located close to the centre of Stockholm, it has a free sauna, free pasta, and free internet! How can you go wrong with that? Met some pretty cool people here too; to name a few: - Daan, a funny 19yo Dutch guy who likes watching MTV with a talent of sweet talking his way through anything - then there's Zoe, a funny 23yo funky Aussie chicky who makes jewellery;
Lorna, a Maltese 30yo woman with a beautiful singing voice; Holly and Jasmine, pretty Aussie sisters 19 and 15 years old who we somehow managed to smuggle into all the clubs and bars we went to even though you needed to be 20 or older to enter (thanks to Daan)...
Watched the Noble Prize winners and participants from all over the world entering the Concert hall where the awards ceremony takes place every year in Stockholm on December 10th. Was uneventful but still nice to be part of such an important global occasion.
Also was there for the Lucia light festival, where a very beautiful girl is crowned St Lucia, who, with her crown of candles, is paraded around Stockholm and then sings with her choir at Skansen, and finalised by fireworks (which were pretty dismal apparently). it was funny how all the guys at the hostel were saying how hot she was until someone mentioned she was only about 14! Whoops!
Anyway, to embrace Swedish culture, guess where I went? That's right, IKEA!! The first designer furniture store they ever made right here in Stockholm! And, to further immerse myself in the Swedish experience, I ate Swedish meatballs in their restaurant! Swedish meatballs are nothing special actually, but still something one has to do...
Didn't get the chance to eat Reindeer though, so I guess I won't feel guilty for having eaten Rudolph this Christmas...
Sweden/Stockholm has a few downsides. One is that you can only go to clubs when you're 23 or older, and even some bars won't let you in unless you're at least 20! Also, you can only buy decent "cheap" alcohol at government run bottle/wine shops called "Superbolaget" (which, following Aussie culture of abbreviating everything, I call it the "SysBo"). Otherwise you would have to pay extortionate prices (12-20 AUD) just for a beer in a bar! Stockholm is very expensive, comparable to London...
Did manage to have a very cheap Saturday night clubbing with hostel folk however. Firstly we bought many bottles of wine from the "SysBo", then made our way to a "cheap" bar in the south of Stockholm. Then somehow, Daan managed to sweet talk the security guard at a very popular Swedish nightclub to let us straight in past the queue for free, and then have her look after our coats
all night! (Because the cloakroom was full) Not sure how he did it but we were all very impressed!
Anyway, I’m writing this in a very tired state having just arrived in Copenhagen from overnight bus (so hope this email makes sense), in order to catch another bus to Lubeck, Germany, later today. Then I’ll go to Hamburg, then Bremen, then Xmas in Hildesheim...
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