Saturday, May 18, 2013

Stockholm!

Tuesday we were able to go visit Stockholm because we got the day off of practice for a swedish holiday called Walpurgis night.

From what people told me, it’s basically an all day drinking type of deal put on by the students at the university in Uppsala. Sounded right up my alley. The students build their own boats and float them down the river in the middle of town and everyone is out drinking and celebrating at the bars there. They all wear sailor hats and have a good time. We planned on going with a friend from the team, but she heard it was going to rain there all day, so we changed plans and went to Stockholm instead. Normally I’d be sad to miss out on an occasion like that, but I fell in love with Stockholm right off the bat, so that made up for it!

By train, it takes about an hour and a half to get down to Stockholm, with one train change in Uppsala. Not bad at all. It’s so helpful having swedish friends come with us when we travel so they can fill us in on all the ins and outs.. And not get us lost. We left Tierp at 9:15am and headed down to Uppsala to catch the connecting train. We were literally walking up as it was pulling away! But the next one came 30 minutes later, so it wasn’t a big deal. We walked around Uppsala and looked at some of their shopping. They have some good stores that I will definitely be back to during my time here. We also found a really good Mexican restaurant to celebrate cinco de drinko on Sunday. Can’t believe it’s on Sunday. And that I’m not home with my friends for this lovely holiday. But excited to celebrate it in another country.

We made it to Stockholm at around 11:15 am and met up with a fellow American who I met after my first game here. She played on the team we were playing against and I asked her if she was American after the game and long story short, turns out she coaches in Stockholm some days and offered to show us around whenever we visit there. So nice of her.
Stockholm is gorgeous! It has something like 14 different islands, so there are a lot of pretty views and definitely so much to do and see.

We barely got a taste of everything there is to do there! Just what we saw the first day was awesome. After the long train ride we had to use the bathroom, which costs 10 kronor (still find this odd) and this experience was an interesting one. Both men and women use the same bathroom. Haven’t come across that before, so it was funny to see.

After we met up with Jackie, we all decided the first thing we wanted to see was the massive castle. Just walking to the castle was beautiful. All the streets and alleyways were exactly like I pictured them. So cute and European looking. Couldn’t get enough of them. Probly stopped every 5ft to take a picture.

We just so happened to be in the city the day of the Kings birthday! He was outside of the castle and a lot of people were gathered outside singing him happy birthday and cheering for him. Definitely cool to stumble upon that. His family’s castle is massive. So beautiful and just huge! There has to be like 200 rooms in there. And funny fact, his son and his fiancĂ© and their daughter don’t even live there. They have their own castle. Living the dream. His son happens to be very good looking, by the way. So is his daughters fiancĂ©.

After that we walked around some more and took more pictures, walked in some shops, did a little souvenir shopping and then decided where to eat lunch. We left that up to Jackie to tell us what was good. She recommended either a good Italian or Thai place and we decided on the Italian. Soo good. We all got huge pizzas for ourselves. It was thin crust pizza, so easier to eat by yourself, thankfully. I got a pizza called calzone- ham and spicy pepperoni.. hit the spot. Pizza is always good. So excited also because there are a ton of sushi places there! Not having it for 3 weeks is taking its toll on me haha.

Then Jackie recommended we go try the best ice cream in Stockholm. Wasn’t positive I could get anymore in after all that pizza, but of course I made room. The ice cream was amazing. So rich and so good. That place also made their own cones and if you go at the right time, you get to watch them do it. It’s a small little shop and during the summer, it’s completely packed full.
After that we walked around more towards the water.. Unbelievable! There are buildings and houses right along the shore, it was so pretty. So glad to do all of that walking after we ate pizza and ice cream. Such a fat, American meal haha. Then Jackie took us towards all the shopping places. Their malls are a bit different from ours. We window shopped at all the designer places.. Crazy expensive stuff there. The more affordable (but still pricey bc of being in Europe) was next. Stockholm has amazing shopping!! Top Shop, Urban Outfitters, American Apparrell, Adidas to name a few.. Heaven. Along with a lot of Swedish stores that had really cute stuff as well. Didn’t have access to my Paypal card while I was there because it wasn’t properly set up yet, so I had to resist all urges to buy everything and spend all my money. Probly a good thing I couldn’t use my card. Seriously can’t wait to go back.
It ended up being a full day there and Anna, Carson and I started the trek home around 4:45 and got home at 6:15 ish. Long day and lots of walking. Definitely wears on you after a while. On the train home, people were still celebrating for the party in Uppsala. They were playing music and drinking and having a good time.

By the time we got home, I was exhausted and pretty much made dinner, showered and got in bed. It was a really good day and I’m so excited to go back and explore more. Especially during the summer, soo much goes on then. And it will be hotter by then!
We heard last night that we get to move into our apartment either Friday or Saturday!!! Good way to end a great day.

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