Stockholm Sweden An Understated Travel Destination

I was in Stockholm, Sweden, for two days and didn’t expect to like it as much as I did, but I did.

The stopover city seeped into my heart from the time I reached Stockholm airport. It was pretty, efficient and celebrated the locals by featuring some of them on the walls.

The first day we were there, we went straight to Wan Than, a Thai restaurant in the neighbourhood. My friend was craving Asian food and apparently, Thai food is big in Stockholm. The restaurant was pretty unassuming with only 6 menu choices, but everything we ordered was above Europe-average good.

After lunch, my friends roamed the city while I crashed at the hotel until late afternoon. I woke up, took a lazy shower and headed down to town to meet my friend, Jena. Since she was running late, I spent some time roaming around Sodermalm and stumbled upon a small bookstore called The English Bookstore. Despite my planned itinerary, it was the only book store I stumbled upon while in Scandinavia excluding the ones I frequented at the airport.

Meeting The “Local”

Meeting Jena was a delight! I immediately remember why we were office besties. she has a strong personality which I already love and the past 5 years definitely added some wisdom to it. she told me interests from Greta and feminism to her life in Stockholm with her fiance and dog Rolo. In exchange, I told her about my parents, Fafa and my life back in Melbourne.

She took me to a restaurant that used to be run by the local mafias and introduced me to moose brisket. I enjoyed it but didn’t manage to finish it.

A Day in Stockholm

The next day we went around the Gamla Stan, Stockholm city’s old town.

Gamla Stan

Dubbed as Europe’s biggest medieval town centre, Gamla Stan has many colourful buildings with cobblestone streets. Gamla Stan’s narrowest street is called Marten Trotzigs Grand and it’s only 90cm wide. It was by far my favourite part of my Scandinavia trip followed by cruising through Norway Fjord. We took plenty of pictures, had lunch and bought some souvenirs.

Fika

In the late afternoon, we went on the Fika tour. Fika is a social activity in Sweden where you take a break during the day for some quality time with your friends or family, usually, over a cup of coffee and cake. During the tour, we tried so many local foods, from fish soup to super sour licorice.

And at night we went back to Sodermalm. We drank our night away in a small neighbourhood bar and ate at a Kebab place before heading back to the hotel.

Sweden Souvenirs

I bought most of my souvenirs on this trip to Stockholm. Firstly, I got myself a black Dala Horse from the Dala Museum in Gamla Stan. Dala Horse, the Swedish symbol of good luck, is the most recognized Swedish folk art internationally. I also got my Appa a wooden butter knife, a symbol of the Swedish household. Even though I am not sure how useful it will be for him, I know he will be delighted to learn about the cultural aspect behind it.

I was genuinely sad when we were leaving Stockholm for Denmark. I have grown into loving this small archipelago called Sweden in the two short days.

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