How to see Stockholm in 24 hours

It's about time I got around to writing about my whirlwind trip to Sweden. Between 3 major essays, one hell of a syntax exam, working at Informatics, volunteering, getting ready for Christmas and trying to stay in some sort of decent physical shape, this blog was the last thing on my mind. But, now that my crazy December is over and the aftermath of Christmas and New Year's has died down, I can finally get writing again!

We knew that conquering a major European city in the span of about 30 hours was, to say the least, insane, but we were determined to fill our time with as much Swedish-ness as possible and to have at least some memory of it. Not only was time against us, but so was hours of daylight: we had all of 7 hours of sunlight in which to see Stockholm (by day, anyways), so we had to make the most of the time we had to see as much as we could.

In the evening of Dec. 2, the four of us caught the AirLink shuttle to Edinburgh Airport and boarded our Ruinair Ryanair flight to Stockholm, entertaining ourselves on the 3 hour flight with wordgames, listening to the cabin crew attempt to sell everything from phonecards to calendars, and laughing as Dylan was forced to delete a picture he took of the plane's interior by a flight attendant...just in case, you know, you happen to show someone what the inside of a horrible Ryanair flight looks like...

We arrived at Stockholm's Stavska airport, which is a huge misnomer because the airport is actually a 2 hour bus ride away from Stockholm. Damn you, Ryanair! We arrived in Stockholm close to 1 a.m., and met Tuesday's friend Bryan, who we would be staying with. We took the subway (called the "T-bana") to his tiny student-residence apartment and stayed up chatting awhile before finally hitting the sack around 3...only to be woken up some hours later by Dylan's very loud sleep-talking.

We woke up the next morning fairly early to try to make the most of our precious limited daylight. We started with a very tasty Swedish breakfast of coffee and kanelbullar (aka cinnamon buns) at nearby Café 60.

kaffee och kanelbullar!

Feeling more energized, we headed to the centre, walking by the Kulturhuset and wandering through an indoor market featuring a variety of goods. We marvelled in particular at the masses of candy and odd assortment of goods:

Kulturhuset (the culture house)

onesies?

We continued through the centre, taking in views of the majestic buildings and architecture and stopping for a photo op at an outdoor ice rink:

no skating for us!

We continued on to the little island of Skeppsholmen, enjoying the view of one of Stockholm's many harbours along the way:

On Skeppsholmen was the Moderna Museet, a fabulous modern art museum that housed a fine collection of modern art and photography - it was huge! And luckily there was an amazing exhibition on Monet and Turner - what a deal! We wandered through for a couple of hours, enjoying the incredible artwork - and some weird stuff as well.

nothing like a bit of French Impressionism to make your day!

Tuesday and I checking out the collection of some very bizarre photography

We concluded our visit to the museum by playing with the three way mirror outside:

say cheese! From left to right: Bastiaan, Dylan, Bryan, Me, Tuesday

who's arm is whose?!

trying to be artsy... I doubt this one will make it into the museum anytime soon

With daylight fading fast, we headed to Södermalm and grabbed lunch at a great café...it was so nice to get decent, non-bland food! (sorry Scotland...you don't have much going for you in the gastronomy department):

NOM!

Afterwards we walked through Gamalstan, taking in the sights of the Royal Palace, City hall, Christmas Markets and twinkling Christmas lights:

checking out the wares at a Christmas Market vendors stall. Tuesday and I bought straw reindeer

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Dyl enthusiastically showing off his love for Sweden

We headed inside the large department store NK to warm up for a bit. Us girls split from the guys to have a better look at things that would interest us. The store was beautifully decorated for the holidays, including one hell of a big Christmas tree:

oh Tannenbaum!

We took the subway back to Bryan's to relax for a bit and freshen up before heading out for dinner downtown at Vapiano, an italian restaurant chain. We then headed to a friend of Bryan's who was having a party at her flat with many Swedes and Australians. After a couple hours we all headed out to a club to see a well known Swedish DJ (or, at least well known to others, not including me), Mike Snow. It took quite awhile to get into the club (we thought we were on the guestlist...apparently not), and after paying the ridiculous 18,000 krona cover (aka $30), we could finally enjoy the show! Mike Snow was amazing and we had a great time rocking out.

Mike Snow!

After the show was over and a crappier DJ came on, we headed outside for a breather (or a smoke-break, for others), when Tuesday got hauled to the side by a bouncer and was told she had to leave because she was too drunk. (FYI, we hadn't been drinking). I followed to see what was going on, and he suddenly decided I was too drunk too. Judging by the huge lineup of people waiting to get into the club and the ridiculous cover charge, we realized that we were getting the boot so they could get more people in. Wanks! So we had to wait outside in the cold for our coats to be retrieved by another bouncer, and all of us left, slightly pissed off but happy at least we had gotten to see a great show and had at least planned on leaving soon anyways.

We finished off the evening with a trip to Max, the Swedish alternative to McDonalds. Onion rings, mmm...

enjoying your meals there, guys?

After a short sleep, we awoke early to get some time in before we had to catch our train to the bus station, and thanked Bryan for being such a gracious host and showing us around the city! We grabbed another brekkie at Cafe 60 before catching the bus back to the airport in Stavska.

sugar-coated chocolate ball...breakfast of champions!

We had a couple hours to kill before our flight, and decided a trip to Sweden wouldn't be complete without some time in the great outdoors. Since the airport was essentially in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by forest, we decided to take a tromp through the woods!

to the woods!

proper trekkers

After playing around the woods, we got our flight back to Edinburgh. It was definitely a drive-thru travel experience, and although there's still so much to be done and seen in Stockholm, I'm so glad we got to go and get a taste of it. We had a fantastic time and packed a lot of activity into just 24 hours - and more than that, it was just fun travelling with friends! I can't wait to go back and explore more of Stockholm and the rest of Sweden - I'll just add it to my ever-expanding list of things to do and see!

Ja Sverige!!