Scenic Stockholm

We arrived in Stockholm late Saturday evening.

"Generator" Hostel is one of the best hostels I've been in. Highly recommend!

Our private room with private bathroom :)

After dropping our stuff off, we searched for something for dinner.  We settled on this tiny hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant:

Again, Melanie's Spanish skills came in handy! (The men spoke better Spanish than they did Swedish or English). 

Melanie and I decided to go out late Saturday night to explore the city. It was fairly easy to get around, and I'm glad we did it together because it helped me familiarize myself with the city. This was helpful because I ended up spending both days in Stockholm somewhat isolated from the rest of the girls....

This building served as a good landmark (several times!) to remember the way to Central Station. 

 On Sunday, I spent the day with Sarah, a girl in Koinonia who happened to be in Stockholm for the weekend for a Christian conference. I joined her and her friends for the day, and it was really neat to meet other international girls.

Claire, Sarah, Me at dinner at one of the restaurants in the Mall of Stockholm,

I had a little bit of difficulty following all of the conversations at dinner. At one point, in reply to Natalie, a girl from Germany, I said, "Oh, gotcha!". She said, "'Gotcha?' Is that an American thing?" Haha, I suppose it is!

Trying to figure out the kiosk thingy at the mall...

I left the mall area around 9ish...quite proud of myself for finding my way across a foreign city by myself! (I only cried twice) If there's one thing I've learned this semester, it's how to ask the right questions to the right people. I've discovered that public transportation is actually not out to trick me :)

Fun fact: 'Kort tag' means that the train is 'short'. In other words, it won't span the entire length of the platform. So standing in the middle of the platform is a must! (Learned this from two bundled up Swedish ladies in their mid-70s) And I thought figuring out "Stockholm C" was indeed "Stockholm Central" was impressive!

The next morning, the other girls had plans to take a horseback riding tour outside the city. Rather than set myself up for hives and a runny nose (I'm allergic to horses), I spent the day exploring the city:

I made my way to Gamla Stan, the "old town" of Stockholm, where the city was founded in 1252. The girls had visited it on Sunday, and highly recommended it! I was quite proud of myself for finding the way by myself without using the metro (Stockholm is expensive enough without train tickets!)

Gamla Stan consists of an island, so I had to cross a large "pedestrian only" bridge to get there. Immediately after crossing the river, I saw for myself why it is one of the largest and most preserved medieval cities in Europe! 

 It was really way too cold to take my gloves off and use my phone, so I didn't take many pictures. Honestly, though, it was nice to just walk around and soak up the history. Past the governmental buildings, I found myself in a very busy retail area:

Okay, this doesn't look busy. But I promise most of the roads were bursting with people ;)

SO many shops:

A lot of stores weren't open yet, so I did some window-shopping (probably better for my bank account!) Below left: I had forgotten that TinTin was a European comic! (Below left) There were lots of antique stores...this one (below right) I was honestly afraid to go in...there was hardly any room to walk!

 

I happened to walk by this tiny Anne Frank museum. It had free admission and opened at noon, so I decided to hang out around the area for a bit (thinking it was probably a good pre-Krakow experience to have). Further down the road, I noticed these construction workers "paving" the road (middle). The upkeep of these European cobblestone roads must be something else!

I am so glad I stayed for the museum. I love spontaneous hidden gems like this was!

Visiting this museum marked a first in that none of the exhibits were in English. Thankfully, the front desk had a translated manuscript of all of the text. Not quite the same, but an interesting experience nonetheless. 

Far right: 7/Eleven's are everywhere! 

Speaking of which, here's a picture of my early on-the-go breakfast Sunday morning:

At the 7-Eleven, I had so many different currencies in my wallet I had trouble finding the right change. The cashier had me dump out all my change and he separated each currency for me. He said in a thick Swedish accent, "You been traveling, I see?"

And on that note...stay tuned for Helsinki, Poland, and Shropshire

Weekend Outing (Part Two: Saturday)

After breakfast, served in courses by Liz, we set out for some sightseeing.

Liz's husband, Andy, told us to check out this spot several miles from their house:

A short walk (barely a hike) gave us this gorgeous view:

Grandma took the above selfie!

 Here's her stopping to talk to two dog walkers: "They are all so friendly here!" 

One guy on the trail gave us a few suggestions for where to go next...so we headed back to the car and hit the coast:

I had never been to a rock beach so that was a cool experience. I thought of you, Grandma Audrey, and thought about all the rock collecting we like to do...but then I realized it's not quite as fun to look for rocks when that's all there is!

We wandered around a little town, where we saw an Elvis impersonator. Grandma and I both took a video of him, while Grandpa stood across the street (I don't know if he wanted to associate with us two nuts!). The man was raising money for 'Stand Up To Cancer', but we didn't have any change...so Grandpa and I went to a bakery to buy something yummy  get change. 

We then discussed how smell is deceiving and sometimes pastries aren't as delicious once we actually eat them.

 So we went to a restaurant for lunch to test that theory... ;)

Next stop-white cliffs:

The Seven Sisters

We decided to trek up the cliff to the Belle Tout lighthouse (left), a fairly famous lighthouse because it had to be uprooted and moved further in to the land (due to cliff erosion). This, as one local told us, may be common for America, but is not at all common here. Moving buildings is normally "unthinkable".

The way up was slightly terrifying because there were no fences. (In America, I feel like they most definitely would have signs of fences...it's an over 300 ft straight drop!) But it definitely made the experience more real...there was nothing obstructing the view! Above: Grandpa pretending to teeter on the edge.

The lighthouse is actually a private bed-and-breakfast (I wonder how much that costs??). It's really beautiful. 

The lady who took our picture insisted we also take one with "the better view". I'm glad we did. 

We ended up talking with her for awhile and she told us a little bit more about the town (She lives in London but visits frequently). Apparently Sherlock Holmes came here to retire [in the fictional books that is! I forget he's not actually real!]. 

When we got back down to the parking lot, Grandma and I went to the small gift shop/museum.

We discovered that the building (right) was once double it's length. Due to cliff erosion, parts of the house have fallen into the sea. The picture (left) is from the exhibit. In the museum, a jagged line on the floor showed where the cliff was predicted to be in 2040. That was definitely strange to think about. 

I haven't taken this cliched picture in London...but seeing this telephone booth outside of London was cause for a picture!

Home Sweet Home

We drove on for a while (correction: Grandpa drove. I slept). Then we arrived at a little farm...I have the feeling it is a pretty large attraction for city-dwellers to bring their kids for "rural" experience:

It felt a bit contrived but it was neat to walk around. 

A mid-dinner snack at the cafe at the farm. Yes we like food!

For dinner, Liz recommended this hotel:

 We think their was a wedding going on downstairs (the chef had his hands full!), but the upstairs was beautiful and private, the food was delicious, and the meal was affordable:

Also, the bathroom was adorable!

I'm probably weird, but I think bathroom decor shows so much about the character of a building :)

And then we went to see "fireworks" in an early celebration of "Guy Fawkes Night". It's basically a celebration of the arrest of Guy Fawkes, a man who was plotting to destroy parliament with gunpowder. (Kind of a strange thing to celebrate with fireworks--something not happening--but I guess that's what you do in Great Britain, when you don't really have any sort of independence day to celebrate!) Andy from the Rosehill B&B was marching in one of the parades, but we didn't see him. 

This was the parade...a bunch of sticks with fire on them. They place the "firestick" in garbage bins to make a loud gunshot noise as they march. It was definitely an interesting parade to watch...much different than our parades!

We left for Rosehill around 8:30, well before the festivities ended, achy from walking around all day. But it was a Saturday well spend!