Hej Hej

Getting to Stockholm was another series of tubes, buses, and planes. And slight immigration struggles. 

Not being an EU Citizen in the EU has its disadvantages which were made more apparent by spending part of the trip with an EU Citizen. A lot of entry fees are waived and lines can be skipped when you are an EU Citizen.

I had been trying to make do without a printer, so I downloaded all of my plane tickets to my phone. This helped me avoid some lines and printing fees. This sometimes caused issues considering my phone had a giant spiderweb crack in it taking up half the screen which makes barcodes difficult to scan. This also caused issues because some airlines had rules requiring non EU Citizens to have printed tickets. Having struggled with this in Hungary, I was on alert for this. There were signs in the airport directing Non EU Citizens traveling to an EU Country to a special line. The signs read something like "NON EU CITIZENS ABSOLUTELY ARE 100% REQUIRED TO GET A VISA STAMP ON THEIR TICKET".

"I only have my ticket on my phone, it's not printed," I explained to the man at the counter and handed him my phone and my passport.

"Oh that's fine then, you don't need a stamp," he told me. 

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?" It didn't seem to make sense that I absolutely needed a stamp on a paper ticket but not on an electronic ticket. I didn't want to be sent back through the line. 

"You don't need a stamp." 

"But are you sure? Can I print my ticket here and have you stamp that?" 

"You don't need a stamp," he told me condescendingly. 

Not having a stamp turned out to be a problem at every single point I passed through after this. 

"The guy at the desk told me I didn't need a stamp," I mumbled pitifully to the lady scanning tickets at security, to the flight attendant checking passports, and to the angry Swedish immigration officer at the border. He was behind thick glass and couldn't hear my answers to his immigration questions so I had to shout them back multiple times. Eventually they let me into Sweden.

I don't know why I was surprised by this when I got to Stockholm, but it was very, very cold. I flew into a tiny airport about 45 minutes from the Stockholm City Center. There were only two tiny planes on the tarmac. Even though I landed at 2pm it was already dusk. I managed to make it on a bus to the city center through some guessing and luck. I enjoyed the view on the ride into the city of the Swedish countryside. I'd love to come back someday and explore more of Sweden.

I had picked my hostel with proximity being a priority again. Due to an egregious navigational assumption when I exited T Centralen, the central train station, I got to go on a much longer trek than necessary to find my hostel. I thanked the Stockholm city planners in my head for including city maps on metal posts on every couple blocks. Using those, I was able to reorient myself and find my hostel.

The hostel was really cute and very clean. The front desk agent instructed me that it was Swedish custom to take off your shoes before entering a house and they adhered to that policy in the hostel as well. Everyone respectfully followed this policy and left their shoes in the cubbies by the door. All the guests shuffled around in socks and it gave the hostel a very homey feel.

Bet you can't guess which shoes are mine

I had originally looked up this hostel based on a recommendation from a backpacker I met in Edinburgh. It turned out to be a great recommendation. The hostel included free unlimited pasta, free saunas, and free wifi (now a basic necessity along with water and electricity).

I went to the grocery store and picked up some food. I went back to the hostel and took advantage of the free pasta. There was a huge bin in the kitchen full of penne. I cooked up a bunch and dumped pesto sauce and Parmesan into the pot. I intended to try out the sauna during the couple hours it was open in the evening, but ended up sharing my pasta with a new hostelmate because I vastly overestimated how much pasta I could consume. We ended up talking until it was too late to use the sauna.

I was struck by a few things when I first arrived in Stockholm. In Paris, I felt like every person I saw was smoking a cigarette. In Stockholm I think I saw a grand total of two people smoking a cigarette while I was there. The city is very calm, clean, and cold. 

Another one of the first things I noticed was how difficult and expensive it is to buy alcohol. After 9 hours of traveling, I was exhausted, and I decided that I wanted a glass of red wine. When I was at the grocery store, I looked for some (I also had my eye out for Rekorderlig Winter Cider, a Swedish cider I had when I was in Scotland two years ago that I really liked). The grocery story I went to only sold alcohol free drinks. There were alcohol free bottles of wine, alcohol free bottles of beer. No hard alcohol either. It struck me as weird but didn't really think too much about it. 

I never occured to me that Alkoholfritt Rott Vin existed.

I went to the hostel reception. "Hi, is there a place around here I could buy like a wine or cider or something?" 

"No," he told me. I thought he was messing with me. "The stores have stopped selling alcohol for the day." I looked at my watch. 

"It's 8:30," I said, confused. It didn't seem that late. Yeah, it had already been dark for four hours, but if anything I thought that might increase alcohol consumption (it seems to do so in Scotland at least). 

"Stores stop selling alcohol at 7. On Friday and Saturday stores stop selling alcohol at 3. On Sundays you cannot buy alcohol," he explained. 

"Do bars sell alcohol?" I asked, genuinely curious as to how this worked. 

"Yes, but it is very expensive," he explained. 

Now driven more so by stubborness, I asked directions to the nearest bar, which happened to be an American themed bar. There were signs advertising comedy night at the bar. I walked in and the tables were almost all filled up. I sat on a stool at the bar. There were a bunch of hooks under the bar to hang coats and purses which seemed novel to me.

The comedy show consisted of a few acts. All the comedians were Swedish, of course, so all their comedy was in Swedish and I understood none of it. I pretended to pay attention and took my cue to politely clap from those around me so I didn't appear rude.

I sat at the bar sipping my red wine and pretending to listen to comedy. A young hipster Swedish man sat next to me and ordered a pint of alcohol free beer.

In between acts he said something to me in Swedish. "I'm sorry," I apologized. "I don't speak Swedish." 

"Ah, so you don't understand any of the comedy?" he said switching to flawless English. "What are you here for then?" 

"Um... the alcohol?" I guessed.

"I'll translate for you!" he then proceeded to translate the next comedian for me. It was a story about a Japanese hooker. He quickly kept up with the translation, and even explained jokes that might not have translated well because they were puns or specific to Swedish culture.

"I have to go back to my film festival. Enjoy your stay in Sweden! It was nice to meet you," he shook my hand and left. I finished my wine and went back to the hostel.

Shannon's friend from high school, Sarah, was studying abroad in Stockholm. She heard that I was traveling and offered to let me stay with her.  Sarah had Facebook messaged me a list of suggestions of things to do in Sweden categorized by areas to walk and explore, restaurants, and museums.

I decided to start off by exploring Gamla Stan, per Sarah's recommendation. With a map from the hostel reception, I set off on foot toward the old town. I walked around for a bit and tried not to get lost in the narrow, intertwining cobblestone walkways. There were stores and apartments in cute old Swedish style architecture.



I found a square and went to a cafe.

Sweden was outrageously expensive. Everyone told me that. I figured that made sense with their high tax rate and strong economy and overall high quality of living. But I didn't really understand how expensive was expensive. The UK is expensive. Sweden is on a whole other level. For example I bought a keychain. It was 12 dollars. Swedish Krone to USD is approximately 8 to 1. 8 is a very difficult number for me to divide by. You can't just pretend the exchange rate is roughly equal to make yourself feel better about what you're spending (like I did for Euros to Dollars). Even the Hungarian exchange rate was easier to divide by. 250 Hungarian Forint to 1 USD. So a lot of the time I didn't even know how much I was spending because I couldn't figure out the conversion in my head. Luckily I didn't have to buy much while I was there.



The cafe was small and dark and lit by tea candles. The tables and benches were unfinished wood. Sarah told me the Swedes are known for their coffee and pastries. I ordered a slice of chocolate cake and a coffee. A frequent connoisseur of both chocolate and coffee, I was completely unprepared for this afternoon snack. The coffee was the strongest, most bitter coffee I've ever had in my life. I even diluted it a bit with some milk but that was not enough. The dessert was the densest, sweetest, most cocoay chocolate cake I've ever had. The glop of cream alone was too much for me to handle. Not usually one to ever leave chocolate or coffee unfinished, I attempted to put a dent in both the coffee and the cake, but I was unsuccessful. I had to turn down the friendly waiter's frequent offers to top off my handleless mug extremely bitter coffee.. It made me feel sick.

 I decided to keep walking around the city somewhat aimlessly. I love just walking around cities. I think it's one of the best ways to get a feel for the city and cover a lot of surface area. When you just go from sight to sight you miss a lot of the in between. Especially if you just take public transportation or taxis from tourist attraction to tourist attraction. Your view of the city is limited to the few sights you go to and the inside of an underground metro. That way of traveling is what some people are looking for. It's just not my preferred method of seeing a city. I like seeing the tourist sights that you kind of have to see if you go to a famous city. But I like even more learning my way around the city, seeing how people in that city live, where they eat, where they hang out. I feel like I can appreciate a city more that way.

"Hi, could you take my picture please?" I stopped an older Swedish man on the bridge. 

He took my photo. "Where are you from?" he asked me. 

"California. It's a bit colder here than I'm used to," I joked. The guy gave me a weird look like he couldn't tell if I was kidding or not. 

"The weather is beautiful today. This is the best weather we've had in awhile. It's so sunny and warm," he said to me seriously. 

"Oh, haha, yes, this weather is lovely," I agreed even though I couldn't feel my fingers.

Sarah was returning from Poland that afternoon and I arranged to meet her at the central train station. She then took me to a cafe that served the biggest cinnamon rolls I've ever seen. Sarah explained to me the Swedish concept of fika, which I really liked. It essentially means coffee break. It's a broad concept for when you go out for coffee and pastries and talk with friends.

 So Sarah and I had fika.


 Sarah and I split this giant cinnamon roll and a giant chai tea latte and I still couldn't finish it.



Sarah was an awesome host. She borrowed an extra mattress from a friend and set me up a bed in her dorm room. She took me grocery shopping. She and her friend from her dorm made tacos one night and shared with me. We even did laundry together! Sarah had messaged me the week before saying she was doing laundry Tuesday night so we could do laundry together. I thought that seemed very specific. Personally, I don't plan out specifically when I'm going to do laundry, I just do it whenever I have enough clothes to fill the washer.

It turns out though that you have to schedule your time to do laundry. Your key card won't open the laundry room except for during your laundry time slot. Laundry is free to do, but you can only go when you sign up in advance. "People are very orderly here," Sarah explained.

Stockholm seemed very orderly to me. For example, in Isla Vista if someone went running down the street naked and singing songs, I would be very unfazed and not think twice about it. However I feel like that would have been extraordinarily unsettling in Stockholm, and not just because it was freezing outside.

Sarah had class, so I decided to go to the ABBA Museum. I had purchased a card that gave me unlimited rides on any public transportation for 72 hours. Public transportation included buses, metros, and even ferries. I took all three to get to the ABBA Museum. I was pretty amused that ferries counted as public transportation and I had no idea how to use them. I had trouble reading the timetables because I don't speak any Swedish. Eventually through some bold guessing I got on a ferry along with two other people. The ferry putzed across the water to another island.

I got made fun of quite a bit for going to the ABBA Museum, but I actually had a really fun time. The museum played ABBA music throughout the whole thing. It was very interactive. There was a Rock Band style karaoke sing along. You could remix the songs on a soundboard. You could virtually try on costumes. There were electronic quizzes. The museum ended very abruptly though with a single room saying the band broke up that played "Thank You For the Music" in the background. After that, there was only an exhibit on the musical, Mamma Mia, which coincidentally is a great musical.


Walk in. Dance out.

I then went over to Slussen, which Sarah described as the hipster district of Stockholm. I walked around for a bit and admired the views.



Many people in Stockholm greet each other cheerily with a "hej hej!" (which sound like hey hey!). It sounds very cute and happy no matter who's saying it.

I met up with Sarah for fika at her favorite cafe in Slussen. The floor of the cafe was packed with mismatched tables and chairs. The coolest part was that the narrow window ledge also had tables and chairs wedged precariously on them. At first I thought they were just for decoration. When I realized you were allowed to sit up there, I immediately moved my coffee and brownie up there.

It got dark so early and it was very cold, so Sarah and I went back to her dorm and hung out.

My last day in Stockholm I went back to the hostel I had stayed at my first night and rented a bike. Per Sarah's recommendation, I biked through the city down to the island of Djurgården. It was cold, so I biked with gloves and my nose buried in my scarf. I biked from the hostel, through the city, over a bridge to the island. I took a lap around the island. It was very pretty. The island was very rural with some residential homes. I biked along the water the whole way. There were views of the city from across the dark, fast moving water. On the very end of the island is the ABBA museum and a very creepy abandoned amusement park. There is not much creepier than an abandoned amusement park. 

When I dropped off my bike I asked for best places for views of the city. I hiked up along a path behind some buildings along the hills ledge. From the path I could see a few of Stockholm's islands. It was still early afternoon, but it was getting dark quickly. The buildings were all lit up along the curve of the edge of each island, reflecting into the water. The buildings are all very minimalist, straight lines, no frills, painted pale colors. There aren't really any skyscrapers so the city has a small feel to it.

I was sitting on a bench overlooking the glowing city and two guys speaking English walked by, pausing in front of me. I recognized them as my hostelmates from the first night. I had run into them repeatedly and randomly throughout my trip.

"Maybe I'll see you around again someday," I laughed.

"Yeah, that's usually how that works, right?" he replied.

I set my camera for a slow shutter speed to get the lights from the city. This was taken about 4 in the afternoon. However, with the slow shutter speed it didn't capture how fully dark it was, so I took one with a flash too. The picture below was taken within a couple minutes of the picture above.

I would like to go back to Sweden someday. While there are not endless things to do in the city, I would like to check out the Rikjstag. I would also like to explore the countryside.

I reluctantly shoved my clothes haphazardly into my backpack and flew back to the United States the next day.