Birthday in Sweden
I had so much fun in Sweden that blogging was the last thing on my mind! Sorry guys but here’s a recap :)
Day 11 - Its my birthday 🎉
Im not going to lie I had 0 expectations for today considering I am in a foreign country solo traveling. Ive really never really been someone that enjoys celebrating their birthday either so I always try to ignore it. Im just becoming a year older and really dont enjoy being the center of attention. I am also saying that as I created a website for myself and my travels sooo
But today was a busy jam packed rainy day. I adventured to:
City Hall
Norumalhöjdpunkten
Riddarholmen Church
Riddarhuset - House of Nobility
Kungliga Slottet -The Royal Palace
Storkyrkan - Cathedral
Riksdagshuset - Parliament
Nobel Peace Museet
After that, I came back to the hostel and relaxed for a little before Sanne said she made birthday dinner plans for me with another girl that she met today named Dayna. Dayne is around my age and from Australia but is currently living and working in London. We ended up going to this cute Italian restaurant called Kundens Kopia and all split mushroom risotto, calamari, carbonara and bread & olive oil. It was a tiny little place with one server who LOVED pairing wines with the restaurants food so of course we made it difficult and order Rose, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay. Everything was delicious and I had so much fun with them.
Next, we headed back to the hostel for a few drinks because they had a live band playing. It was packed and ends up I sat down at the table filled with the bands members friends. They were all Swedish and super cool. They ended up singing happy birthday to me in Swedish lol There we met another friend, Gavin from Illinois. He just quit his job and is solo traveling so we roped him into our little crew for the night. With a little more liquid courage in us we decided to head out to Club Spy! We got there at 12.30 and it was completely empty and the music was so bad we all put one airpod in and played our own music until the DJ stepped it up. Within an hour the place was JAM packed. Some of the Australians we met the night before were at a bar across the street called Bar East so we headed over there for a little while before heading back to the hostel. Of course I cant forget about the Mcdonald’s stop on the way :)
Day 12 - Hangover has Arrived
Im not even going to lie i was soooo lazy today. After getting in from the club/bar at 3:30ish I decided it was acceptable for me to sleep until 10ish. After that, I forced myself to get up to do some laundry, when i ran into Dayna. We both desperately needed coffee so off we went while my stuff ran its course in the washer. After that I headed back to the hostel to switch that stuff over to the dryer and snag it before someone possibly stole my favorite Levi’s.
Later is the afternoon I walked and met up with Dayna at the Moderna Museet. We were planning to go through all the exhibits but somehow ended up instead in the Family Section painting our own art. Now I can say a piece of my artwork is hanging in a Museum in Stockholm ;)
We wrapped that up and then spent the evening in the hostel cafe with free popcorn, hot chocolate and new friends (Dayna and Gavin).
Day 13 - Last Full Day in Stockholm
Since today was my last day I got myself up and out of the hostel early around 9am. I headed out to the Vasa Museet. . The Vasa Museet is located on the island of Djurgården, and displays the only almost fully intact 17th-century ship that has ever been salvaged, the 64-gun warship Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. It sank only 1km off shore within 30mins of the first sign of taking on water. Since the Baltic sea has such a lower salt level and sea floor is made of clay and lime it pretty much created a bubble around the ship persevering it to the point that it is still 98% of the original material used.
Next up, was the Vrak Museet - Museum of Wrecks. Honestly was not really worth it but it was a combo deal with the Vasa Museet. You just went in watched this 15min movie as if the sea was a person talking about how its “seen” and “heard” everything that humans have done to it and then you went into one room with a few shelves :/ So i quickly left there and headed over the ABBA The Museum and Avicii Experience which was SO COOL. It was super interactive and ABBA and Avicii are icons in my mind so I loveddddd it.
Not sure what to next and still being a little in touch with my inner child from yesterdays painting session I headed over to Gröna Lund, a small amusement park a few kms away. Sadly, since it was a beautiful Sunday all tickets were sold out and it was packed.
As a solution, I decided it was time for mw to try to the famous Swedish Meatballs. No, not ikea meatballs. REAL Swedish meatballs. If youre ever in Stockholm you HAVE to go to Meatballs for the People. If you don’t, you’re a fraud. Its a little pricey but completely worth it. I ended up getting the chefs choice - 8 meatballs of whatever the chef chose, mashed potatos, cream & veal gravy, preserved lingon and pickled cucumber. I ended up getting reindeer, moose, beef, chicken, and pork. I wont even deny that the Reindeer was the best, and the moose was a little dry. (Sorry Santa, I heard you were going with the eco friendly electric sleigh this year).
After that, I walked the LONG 4 miles back to the hostel with a quick pit stop at Stockholm Central Station first to check it out. I don’t want a repeat of Oslo to happen again. Once I determined I knew where I would be tomorrow morning I went back for a quick 15 min power nap before meeting up with Dayna and Sanne. There we picked a restaurant for our last dinner together - De Peppe. While sitting there we met another Aussie, Dylan from Melbourne, so we invited him to dinner with us. We all had an amazing meal then went back to the cafe to just hangout in the cafe, have some more wine Hung out in cafe with some wine for a while and met yet again, another Aussie also from Melbourne, Chelsea. I swear the Australians are everywhere!!
We then said our sad goodbyes and made sure we were all connected on social media and headed to bed. But not before Dayna and Sanne said its REQUIRED that I come visit them both or get a working visa and come live in London with them. Sounds like an offer I cant refuse to me :)
