Here is a google maps view of my Stockholm trip, December 2009.
Wednesday morning I got up early expecting to have to check out by 10am, appears no one really checks and I could have easily stayed in bed for an extra hour or so. I found out Jamie had actually managed to make it back to the hostel tonight and had actually had quite a fun night! Anyway by the time we were all sorted and we’d grabbed some food it was time for me to head on home. Jamie had to catch a later flight which involved an overnight wait in Düsseldorf airport. My flight was going back to Amsterdam before catching another flight on to Manchester. However before I went back to the airport I gave one final check to our snow/rock man in the nearby park. Someone had cruelly decapitated it! Read the rest of this entry »
So before we had even left Manchester I had got us booked onto this Viking Sauna Tour. The basic premise is the hostel runs a tour which takes a bunch of us out to this private sauna out in the countryside. Here we get into a 80c+ Sauna and then when it gets too hot run outside and get into a freezing cold lake, then out again and back into the Sauna…. Crazy eh?
The day started early and despite a relatively early night – 2am, I felt rather rough. We met up at 10am in the reception and headed out. We were greeted by a quite beautiful dawn in Stockholm with the lighting quite stunning. However it was really rather cold – and I was shivering already! It was the standing around waiting for buses that was killing me, if we had been moving all the time I think I’d have been okay. We eventually get to where we were going, and were greeted by a 15 to 20 minute walk through the countryside. It was amazingly beautiful here. The way the snow glistened in the low sunlight, it was almost worth the trip for that alone in truth. Read the rest of this entry »
The next two days were spent partying in the hostel for the most part rather than going out after spending a small fortune on alcohol in bars. Sunday I went and did some grocery shopping with the intention of making Curry in the hostel that evening, but that didn’t materialise. After I got back I met an Aussie girl called Angela, a Mexican chap called Pablo and the Brazilian guys who I’d only met drunk before! We headed on down towards Djurgarden with the intention of seeing some Winter Solstice festival thing that was on that weekend. Jamie came along too despite feeling rather rough after last nights antics! Read the rest of this entry »
Day two was rather fun. It started feeling rather rough and getting up for a breakfast which wasn’t too bad, but not really worth the cost we felt. Then we went for a walk. First of we headed down towards Old Town, which was full of souvenir shops and restaurant/bars. The weather was quite chilly, and there was times when the snow was coming down quite hard. However there was no real problem getting about.
Old Town was pretty cool and the streets were really rather narrow. Then we took the ferry over to Djurgarden which was a bit wierd. There was a Theme Park there which was closed during the winter, and at times the place was pretty much silent. Next we hit the VasaMuset. This is a Museum which contains an old wartime ship which sank in the waterway around Stockholm in the 1600s and was raised in the 1960s. It was pretty impressive really, helped by the fact we managed to get in for under £5 thanks to Student Discount! Read the rest of this entry »
Friday 18th December was quite a long day. First I had my final lecture for the year at University in the morning, and then I headed over to Manchester Airport to head off to Stockholm once that was done. Manchester had got me into the mood for Stockholm by greeting me with some snow that morning!
The flight managed to take off fine, and a short flight later I was in Amsterdam. I had to get a connecting flight from here to Stockholm, however the flight was running a little late, and in the end it was a good half hour late before we took off. In the end this flight went off with out any real trouble, other than for some reason making me feel really tired! Read the rest of this entry »
Cities I’ve Visited