A Sweet Swing to Stockholm, Sweden

The street in Gamla Stan where our hostel was located. That is Storkyrkan Cathedral, a church whose bells rang two, three times an hour...
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Okay. Brief update on Stockholm because I am being smothered in the week before backpacking.  Various loose ends must meet before Friday, starting with finishing classes, then to scheduling Kent classes, then to packing my entire room into one suitcase, and then my life into one backpack and maybe overflow (shoes+nice clothing+my buck knife--strange combo, right? Nah.) into a small duffel. Not to mention housing for next year and I could go blathering on.  But I won't because this is about Stockholm. Ahem.

On a bridge between one of the many islands (Kastelholmsbron) of Stockholm...
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Stockholm was probably one of the cleanest, prettiest big cities I have ever been to.  It really reminded me of a European Chicago-style of cleanliness, but it really can't compare, because all cities in Europe have been cleaner than most American places I've been. Now excuse me, but McDonald's are goddamn clean, chic palaces compared to the trash bin leftovers at home.  Many Brits are shocked when they see a real Mickey D's like we know 'em. But anyway... What I saw from the plane and the 40min bus ride from the airport to central Stockholm was gorgeous.  Dark  evergreens, bits of leftover snow, great granite rock outcrops, terrific blue skies...It was amazing.  Like a mixture of Minnesota and rolling Ohio hills at times--large expanses that had been glaciated. The sun only reached to maybe 1/3 of the way the entire time, giving you a sense that it was constantly sunset despite the bright sun.  One regret is that I never got out into the country...I mean, to see the aurora borealis would have been, well, amazing again.

On the largest boardwalk by the Hamngatan road.
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Now Stockholm.  We stayed at at a wonderful hostel I booked last minute in the center of Old Town, or Gamla Stan.  The operator Lars was a cheery man who must have had the strangest biological clock because there was 24hr reception he ran with one other guy.  The first night he took us down the street to one of his favorite restaurants, dropped a word that we were staying at his place, and they gave us 20% off our food bill, automatically.  Our rooms were immaculate, the beds deliciously cushy--I got a better nights rest at the hostel than I did at my poor excuse of a mattress at UL-- and everyone was so nice.  We made friends with some hilarious Italian guys in the room next to us, Roberto and Mario, who loved to just sit, talk & play cards with us, even though Mario didn't know a lick of English.  So many different but crazily nice people from everywhere.

The Parliament Building and some of the Norrstrom channel.
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Stockholm was fun to just wander.  The newer part had chic shopping and cute cafes, the older part had some cute shops placed between copycat tourist traps.  It was all charming.  Breakfast was kaffe and kaffebröd, lunch something we packed, and something curious for dinner. One night had fresh swordfish soup and by Allah's third toe it was delicious!  We visited the Wasamuseet, or Vasa Museum, a place devoted to a recovered 1660s Swedish warship.  Very cool.  They had taken the skeletal remains of the crew members who had been trapped when it sank, and reconstructed what they looked like based on chemical tracings within the bone and etc... Very cool.

Me in front of the Strommen channel where most of the tourist cruise ships dock.
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All in all, Stockholm was a beautiful city where everyone speaks Swedish and English fluently and can interchange within a moment's notice. Everyone is insanely nice and interested in your story.  I could go on but it would be better if you just experienced it yourself.