Stockholm, Sweden

Written on 30/12 (That's how they mark it in Europe)

I am currently sitting in the Frey Hotel in Stockholm. We could not get our sleeper train tonight because of the Holiday. (Not Told, Sorta Pissed) So we have a 6:20am train booked for tomorrow. We were originally just going to sleep in the train station but then Pat offered to pay for a hotel for the night, and I personally am cool with it. No, but really, I don't have to sleep in a train station so that is awesome. (Below is a picture of Central Station)


Yesterday we got in to Stockholm and left Central Station (really big and awesome) Stockholm is much bigger than I thought it was going to be, apparently it is the biggest city in Scandinavia.

We got to our hostel by way of the T. We bought a 24 hour pass for trains and buses which was a very good deal. The hostel was pretty good, free internet and the room was nice.

We had two major goals for the first day, go eat reindeer and go to the Absolut Ice Bar. We left the hostel and went to find a cafe that sells reindeer. We took a T to Old Town which was really cool. It has very old buildings, obviously, and small quaint streets. It was sort of like walking through history, but cooler. So we went into this restaurant that was too fancy for us but whatever. Alex and I got some great beer and Pat got wine because again, he's on Vacation!



Reindeer was delicious, pricey, and totally worth it cause let us be honest here, I ate a god damn reindeer. Blitzen is my bitch.

Then we headed over to the Ice Bar. We had to make reservations earlier, but still worth it. The place was completely made of ice including the cups that were more like shot glasses with expensive liquid. We all had to put on Parkas to walk inside the actual bar area. The inside of the bar had to be kept at -5 degrees Celsius at all times.





After that we went back to the hostel and met some people in the common room. We drank a bit (Absolut oddly enough) We met some girls from Vienna who were cool as well. I might marry one of them, so that is pretty sweet. Eventually after some walking around trying to find and open bar we ditched the girls and came back to go to sleep. (Tiny bit drunk) We set our alarms for 8am but that didn't happen. We all slept till 9:50am or so, packed up and then checked out. At this point we were still going to sleep in the train station so we kept our backpacks at the hostel to hold. We then hopped on a bus to the Vasa Museum. I honestly had no idea where we were going and my head hurt a bit from the night before so when we walked in I was in for a surprise. I was looking down at the ground as per usual and then I heard "woah" and looked up to see the biggest Scandinavian war ship that is inside a building I had ever seen. Apparently it was in the water for 20 minutes then sunk which I find to be hilarious. They got it out from the sea bed sometime in the 1960's and now it is a museum. We saw a short movie about it which was very Museumish, no real actors, just pictures and that slow zoom they do on all of them with the booming voice over. We then went back and saw the ship from every angle possible. No pictures came out well of the real version so Google it or something. I'll just post this one of Alex and Mike talking with a wooden dude.

Then we headed to 7/11. I bought an apple and some citrus stuff. That was lunch. Then we went through town on our way to see Stockholm City Hall. On the way we saw a 37 meter tall glass obelisk. No biggie. Tall, Glass, Lit up, pretty straight forward. I'll post a picture of how it looked at night cause it looks cooler.





Lots of Spires in Stockholm as well, they really like spires. Then we got to the city hall, which apparently took 8 million bricks to make. It might been one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. It is right on the water which makes for fantastic picture opportunities.









After that we walked back to the Hostel to get our bags. While we were there we saw the Austrian girls and said goodbye. We might call them while in Austria. Maybe. (Didn't Happen) Then we went to the train station and we figured out we should not sleep there. (score) Alex and I checked out bags at the station because we only got a 2 person room. Now we're just watching TV and getting to sleep early for our train to Copenhagen and the new year.

PS: The sun went down at 2:30pm today.

PPS: I stole the pen I am currently using.