Stockholm - Log Islet

My next stop after Copenhagen was Stockholm, where I'd spend 4 nights. Follow along on with pictures in the Flickr album.

To get to Stockholm, I took a high-speed train from Copenhagen. It's a reservation-required train, but reservations are relatively cheap, and I booked a meal for the ride (which went through lunch) to get a discount. I was supposed to print the ticket but I hadn't gotten around to it in Berlin, and I didn't have access to a printer in Copenhagen. Luckily they accepted the PDF of it on my phone.

Copenhagen station

They have screens to check if doors are clear

More of the station

Those trains look so silly

The ads have a very bearded guy

Hey, it's my train!

It slowly filled up, but it was quite nice

The trip was quite nice. We very quickly reached the Øresund Bridge, an 8 km bridge which connects Denmark to Sweden, and it was quite an impressive sight. Along the way we passed a lot of countryside and it was beautiful as well. I even saw some rail work going on. The train itself had free WiFi, limited to 200 MB. I like the idea that they limit with data instead of time, and I was able to enjoy data throughout the trip.

Rail work going on

A smaller bridge, with a beautiful view

I got to Stockholm Central Station and proceeded to quickly find an ATM and then bought my ticket. I opted for the SL Access Card, which is a re-usable and re-loadable transit card that's valid for like 6 years. I loaded a 72 hour pass on there that would cover most of my stay there. My hotel, Elite Hotel Stockholm Plaza, was one stop from the station. It's a very nice hotel, with a modern room, but unfortunately no A/C for the heat wave (30C weather when I arrived!).

Bathroom shower and toilet

Sink

Entryway

Room from the entryway

At the foot of the bed looking back towards the door

Desk

What is this, a vault door? Seriously, this was a heavy door

Behind the elevators there's this beautiful staircase

Door (with keycard lock) to get into the hallway from the stairs

The hotel was in a great location, and I was really happy because it was a high-quality hotel (4 star) with breakfast included in the center of town and cost me under $100/night. For an expensive city like Stockholm, that's a great deal.

My first afternoon in Stockholm was mainly spent getting prepared, doing some light grocery shopping. I had already hopped on the metro a few times to go back to the station, since they have things open on Sundays and open late.

Central Metro Station

Station closest to my hotel. Each station in Stockholm has different artwork on the walls from different artists

The second day I went and took pictures in the area of my hotel before doing a free walking tour in the afternoon. The tour I did that day was of the "Old Town", and I took many pictures. I highly recommend those tours, and they have them in a lot of major cities. You learn a lot (such as Stockholm literally meaning "Log Islet") and it's a lot of fun.

The next morning I did another free walking tour, this time the "City Tour". It was also very informative, though the weather was not as great and it rained a few times during the 90 minute tour. Surprisingly, the tour brought us through right near my hotel, so I learned a lot about the area I was staying it (turns out it's a very good area!). After the tour I went for lunch at a place not far from my hotel called "Saluhall", which is an old indoor marketplace.

Had a sandwich and soda from Robert's Coffee

Place is apparently 125 years old

Quite active, great atmosphere

Streets nearby

That afternoon I went to the highly-recommended Vasa Museum, which is about the 17th century ship that sank right as it was leaving Stockholm and salvaged starting in the 1960s. I think the museum may have been a bit overhyped, but it was really neat nonetheless, and I'd still recommend it.

Me with the actual ship in the back, and part of the small replica in front

I had dinner that night in the old town at a vegetarian buffet restaurant. It was great and walking around the old town really pulls you back in time. To contrast, I really enjoyed Stockholm's transit system. It was very clean and looked pretty neat. Also, I'd like to point out that 7-Elevens are everywhere in Scandinavia, and in Stockholm they're a huge sponsor of the Stockholm Pride week (which was ending when I arrived in Stockholm).

Metro train arriving

One of many 7-Elevens

For my last full day in Stockholm, I went to pretty much the only self-service laundromat in town to do some laundry. While waiting on that I walked around and snapped a couple of buildings in the area. Apparently the library there was noted for its architecture.

Church near the laundromat

Library near the laundromat

I then went to Södermalm for lunch. Söder, as it's known, is a more "hipster" part of town on a different island and is on quite rocky terrain, giving it some beautiful views of the city.

Just part of the view from my table at lunch

I didn't explore much of Söder. I was quite tired from all the walking the previous days, and wanted to get back before my transit pass expired.

The next day was my last day in Stockholm, so I had to check out of my hotel. Since my train to Oslo wasn't until around 3:30pm, I left my bags with the hotel and took more pictures of the area. It was interesting that at the "King's Garden", which I had seen on the tour just 2 days before, had been all set up for what they were calling "Olympic Day", a day for kids to do all different sports. I also went into an "H&M Men" store, which was absolutely huge considering it was only men's clothes. That men's store was larger than many other "combined" H&M stores I've been to.

Eventually it was time to go to the station. I had noticed that my hotel wasn't too far from the station, and it really wasn't worth spending $5 for the metro when I could easily walk it. The walk wasn't too bad, and made it to the station early enough to print my reservation (wasn't required, but I didn't want to risk spending a whole trip without a seat) and grab a bite to eat.

Stockholm Central Station, picture doesn't capture it, but it's very beautiful and clean

My seat was on the very last car of the train. The train wasn't completely full, and unfortunately I was seated next to a lot of families with loud, annoying, messy kids. However, it was cool to go to the back and see the tracks and land go by from the rear window.

View from the back of the train!

I hadn't taken pictures of the train arriving in Stockholm because they switched to the adjacent track (same physical platform) due to another train taking too long to leave. However, when we did arrive in Oslo I snapped some pictures of the train cars. The train was an "InterCity" train, and was older than the express trains I was used to.

My train when we arrived in Oslo

My train car

My next blog post will be about my 3-night stay in Oslo that I'm wrapping up as I write this post. Look forward to that update soon!