By Gia Pham
Our Oslo trip ended early, but it was okay because we were headed to another Scandinavian country!
We headed for the airport early August 31st. The nice thing about Europe is that most transportations operate 24 hours. We checked our hostel around 5:00 AM to catch our flight at 8:30 AM.
It wasn’t a surprise that Stockholm is as expensive as Oslo. A roundtrip train ticket from the airport to town is 300 SEK, which is around $38. We arrived a little earlier than our hostel’s check-in was, so we left our luggage in their storage to head out and explore town.
We were pretty famished from traveling, so we stopped by the Hötorgshallen. This food market is in central Stockholm with food from every where around the world. Inside, I saw a long line at Kajsas Fisk and knew I had to eat whatever everyone was having. I ended up with the soup that everyone else seems to be getting as well. The flavorful soup with mussels, shrimps, and fish was amazing!! I highly recommend this if you ever stop by Stockholm. The price is reasonable for its portion; it was 110 SEK which is about $12.
After a delicious meal, we stopped by the Kungsträdgården (The King's Garden). It didn’t feel special or anything because it was raining super hard outside. We didn’t stay long before heading to the Vasa Museum. The ticket museum is only 110 SEK for students with IDs. The museum displays most of the intact 17th century ship that sank during their maiden voyage in 1628. What was recovered from the ship was undeniably fascinating. The exhibit even included how the ship was recovered.
Our next stop was Gamla Stan. This part of the city is one of the largest and best preserved medieval city centers in Europe. The cobbled streets really brings out the medieval feeling.
Within Gamla Stan is Prästgatan, also known as The Priest’s Street. The street is covered with picturesque, beautiful homes. It’s usually one of those spots where you’ll find istagrammers.
Stockholm was also where I got my tattoo! It was a nice experience where I could talk to locals and get to know the area a little better. It was also where I learned that tipping in Europe is a rude thing to do. That was something I thought but wasn’t sure and a local confirmed it for me. It’s the little things that you learn about a new culture that makes the traveling experience a lot better.
After an hour of sitting in pain, we headed to Fjällgatan to watch sunset. Being naive as we were, we should have known that it would have been cloudy since it has been raining all day. We decided to head back to our hostel to rest, because it was already night time.
The next morning, we headed to The City Hall Tower. It was slightly sunny but we didn’t think it was worth it to climb up only to see clouds. From what we heard, you can see all of Stockholm at the top of the tower. It was also really crowded so we would have had to wait for another hour for the guide.
We walked around the Monteliusvagen neighborhood. It’s a charming place with cute houses and a beautiful view of the lake on the other side. With our flight creeping up on us, we stopped for ice cream at 18 Smakerbefore heading back tot he hostel to grab our luggages.
Although we didn’t get to explore much, it was also a rest stop for us. Traveling can be really exhausting and physically draining. We took the time to rest well because we had more destinations to explore.
This article originally from: https://kygia.space/europe/stockholm-sweden
