Of course, we arrived in Stockholm super excited about our trip. Where should we go… what should we see… what should we EAT?? After some issues with my ‘international’ cell phone trying to contact our airbnb host, we finally reached her using Skype with a wifi connection on my iPhone. Skype saved the day…
Our apartment was a cute place in the Östermalm neighborhood. Though to our surprise, no wifi. No worries… airbnb lesson learned, and it turned out to be quite refreshing to be disconnected.
Our days in Stockholm were pretty decadent. It was a time for us to reflect on the recent changes in our lives (my last day at DDC, packing like crazy, moving out of the City, and moving into my parents’ house all happened within the preceding week), and explore a vibrant city with so much amazing culture, food, art, and new experiences. No doubt, it's a beautiful city... The pictures below: flowers at a stall in Gamla Stan, a traditional spread of pickled herring, Gamla Stan seen from the bay, a random selfie of us, and a fountain in a park near our apartment.
We had some really great meals. My favorite was a lunch we had at the Vasa Museum restaurant. This wasn’t any run-of-the mill museum food… super fresh salad buffet, amazing bread, a nice salmon salad dish for Alexandra and roasted pork loin for me, plus delicious coffee. The kicker was the amazing views… We sat outside on a patio overlooking the bay. The weather, water, the city – it all looked so perfect. So we took a selfie:
At the fotografiska museum, we saw an exhibit featuring different Swedish photographers. One of them focused his work on capturing the daily lives of refugees from the war in Syria. The kids in these pictures really stuck with me...
Other Stockholm impressions:
- Everyone looks like a model. Pretty much everyone. “All the men look like Ryan Gosling hummanah HUMMANAH!!” -- insightful commentary from Alexandra Thurston Hsiao, a married woman.
- People and wait-staff can be a bit rude and sarcastic at times. Cutting in line happens, seemingly by accident. Yeah, Europe.
- They take certain things very seriously, including: coffee, fika (Swedish snack-attack), cleanliness, and taking their sweet time to open shops on Sunday mornings.
Next up, Frankfurt to start our 15-day tour of Central Europe, including visits to two concentration camps. Things are going to get pretty heavy...