The first night and day in Stockholm

My hotel/hostel is a good ways outside of the city center, but the tourist information was very helpful and I bought a 7 day pass to use the subway and tram. I require one transfer when going to/from the city center. The main subway runs every 3 minutes probably. The other tram runs probably around 5 an hour. Wait times are small and it makes getting around so easy.

Tuesday, August 20, Stockholm
So on Tuesday night I went into town and had dinner at a not very good sushi place. But hey, felt fine afterwards so no complaints! Then I just started walking down a main drag. Lots of shops and restaurants with menu items I can't read. I saw these signs that said "PING", "PONG", and "C.U.M" and I was like... What the heck...? I think the last one was some equipment company. Must have just been an unfortunate acronym.



I wandered to the end of the street and came across a small bridge over a water way. It was absolutely beautiful out there. I could see some of the city as the twilight was fading. I think I had a view of city hall, but I'm not sure. This picture is decent, but of course, you had to be there!


I stood on that bridge for probably just five minutes, amazed that I was actually in Stockholm, Sweden and shocked by the beauty. I wandered a little further and found another bridge. This one had a repeating decoration in the metal that made up the edges and there were tons of little locks secured around the little cutouts. It was like carving your name in a tree. Different locks (although I saw no combination locks) of different sizes and age. Some had dates written on them. I saw one all the way back to 2005 and one from just this year. Let's see if this picture catches it.



Then I looked up. The moon was coming up over one these old brick buildings. Oh man, it takes your breath away!



From there I made it to a building with guards in a square and I wasn't exactly sure what it was. But it was a huge square and had a nice little park attached to it with neat little fountain that had small lights under the water and big big trees around it. It butted right up to the water and it was amazing that this tidy little park was right in middle of the city.

Wednesday August 21, Stockholm
On Wednesday I took the subway into town and a guy came on with an electric accordion and played some awesome subway smooth jazz. I have a short recording of it. I saw him the next day, so I'm assuming he's a regular!

The only thing I did for the rest of Wednesday was go to the Vasa ship museum. The guide book I have fave it a 3 out 3 for interesting sights, rating it a "must see". Bullshit. It is a must travel to Sweden the soonest you can JUST to see this museum. If that's the only thing you do in Sweden, you had a trip well worth the trouble. It was simply unbelievable. I stayed for about 4 hours and still couldn't believe what I was seeing.

In 1628, King Gustavus Adolphus commissioned the maiden voyage of the Vasa Warship. It was a newly designed warship with two rows of gun decks, the most heavily armed warship of its time. Unfortunately for Sweden at the time but extremely fortunate for Sweden today, the ship sank 30 minutes into the very first voyage. There was not enough ballast and the ship was a mere one meter too thin making it very top heavy with a second row of cannons. The ship sat only 30 meters below the surface of the Stockholm harbor, but recovering it in 1628 was technologically impossible. The Stockholm waters are not salty enough to support wood eating sea worms but salty enough to preserve wood. Therefore, 333 years later, it was recovered in 95% original condition. The ship was sprayed with a compound found in skin lotion for 17 years to replace the water in the wood. Today, it sits in the museum in unbelievable detail.

I don't think any pictures I put up will come close to capturing the ship, but let's see if something is visible.





This last one is the amazingly intricate stern.



They had 10 bodies that were somewhat preserved (there was still the brain of one man!) and they were able to generate super life like recreations of their faces. Very interesting to see these people from so many years ago.

I spent so long there that most of the other tourist attractions were closed. I don't think I've had kebab in Stockholm yet, and I'm shocked! I can't remember what I had for dinner. It might have been this indoor food stall place I found. It has about 15 order at the counter places in one spot. Free wifi and free bathrooms, it's a great place off of the Hotorget T stop. Whenever I walk by there, I spot in for a free pee. It's nice.

And then I started watching Dexter because it's available in Sweden on Netflix. It's funny because you can't turn the subtitles off, only change them to Swedish, Norwegian, or Finnish. A highlight from this: I learned that in Swedish, "mig" means me. Hey mig!