stockholm: viking land!

we landed in sweden on tuesday night and HOLY SNOW, batman. V was afraid that we were landing on a snow-covered runway and i'm not entirely convinced that we didn't.  despite the numerous announcements of -6 degree (celcius) temperatures in stockholm during the flight, i was surprised to see all of the snow.  it was quite a transition from mild and rainy dublin. 

after a bus ride to the city center, we walked to our hostel in the snow and settled in.  wednesday was our only day in the city and none of us had done much research on what we should do while we were there. 

when we got up the next morning we set out with no real destination in mind.  knowing that we didn't want to spend much money while we were in stockholm (the city is notoriously very expensive), we just planned to wander around. 

they have 7-11! they were EVERYWHERE actually. and, of course, very very pricey.

lots of cute book shops

and lions like sae! oh frat parties, so much nostalgia.

again, we were lucky with beautiful weather. 

we walked to the old city, on the island of galma stan (did you know that stockholm is made up of a ton of tiny islands?!), to watch the changing of the guard.

this girl was a little scary.  apparently swedish law requires everyone, male and female, to serve in the army for 2 years. who knew?

this guy was tall.

the streets through galma stan were charming and full of cozy cafes and restaurants.  i relinquished leadership control and we wandered without direction and without consulting our maps.  it was so relaxing, i never knew the true joys of not having a destination or timeframe when exploring! 

we stopped at an adorable cafe/restaurant for a fika after we grew cold from our wandering.  a fika is a tranditionally swedish thing and it doesn't have a direct translation, it essentially means to get together with friends and have a coffee and a pastry.  we devoured the most incredible carrot cake i have ever tasted. my mouth is watering right now just thinking about it. we also had some asparagus soup and while that was delicious, it's not even worth mentioning compared to the carrot cake. 

we wandered some more and made it down to the water where the snow was particulary icy and K's and my footwear was exceptionally ill-suited

did you know that pippi longstocking was from sweden?! because i didn't and this made me very happy. 

after buying the obligatory postcards and stamps for mailing, we stopped in a pub that served swedish microbrews! the light was fading away and we were getting cold, see our stack of hats gloves piled on the table above.  we wrote postcards, discussed new fantasy business ventures and sipped on deliciously hoppy beers. it was heavenly. 

and then we had maybe the most amazing meal ever. swedish meatballs at what was possibly the most expensive restaurant in town.  because we are poor, we ordered one entree of the meatballs and split it in 3 - ha. they portioned it out for us so that our plates looked as such (see above).   the meatballs were served with mashed potatoes, cucumbers, and small red berries that are possibly in the blueberry family? they were maybe lingon berries? are those a thing? but omg a bite with a little bit of all 4 components was INCREDIBLE. yes i know, it was meat. it was delicious. the combo of flavors was incredible, each bite was sweet, tangy, creamy, and richly seasoned all at once. i mean it was amazing.

*swedish meatballs have been added to the "must learn how to cook" list*

after our incredible meal, we breifly stopped at the absolut ice bar - stockholm for a quick bev in a room that was the same temperature as outside (maybe warmer, actually) and then headed back to the hostel. we had only a few hours to sleep before leaving at 3am to travel to berlin! 

OMG i forgot to mention that all the men in stockholm literally look like vikings. i just finished studying the vikings with my 5th graders in trieste so, naturally, i found this hilarious. [note: upon returning to school, i told them all about this discovery and they did not find it quite as amusing as i had.]

x!