Four Day Frenzy

I had my first visitors in Sweden last week, and it was pretty spectacular. Albeit they were only here for some 100 hours or so, we had a hell of a time! Looking back on it, the trip seemed to revolve around three things:  eating & drinking, sight seeing, and shopping.  In that order.

The Highlight Reel:

Day 1
After dropping off the bags, we headed directly to EspressoSostaBar.  The place is straight from Italy, and serves amazing drinks.

With enough caffeine to momentarily overload the jet lag, we jumped on over to Östermalms Saluhall via Humlegården (park behind the Royal Library in central Stockholm).

Östermalms Saluhall is a swanky food hall, and the "...haven for lovers of good food." After oohing and awing for a bit, we picked up three open-face sandwiches (smoked salmon, fried herring, and roast beef) and a Västerbottensost pie (Swedish cheese pie). Everything was delicious, but we weren't completely sold once we did the currency conversion... 

The first day finished with some power naps and mediocre tapas at Mamas and Tapas.  Those two were champs!

Day 2
It may seem a bit tacky, but we thought it would be fun to see the world's largest IKEA...and it was!

Just inside the entrance we had our first fika of the trip. With a coffee and kannelbulle for something ridiculous like 5 Kr. each, things were looking good...

The store, however, is a complete mind f**ck once you are inside.  It is a circular building with ramps and escalators everywhere.  We obediently followed the arrows guiding us throughout the store, and had a chance to awe at the piles of cheap housewares.

Upon reaching the checkouts, we were severely disappointed to find out that the main cafeteria was back in the middle of the store. Entering for the second time, we disregarded the arrows and went straight for the food. On the menu, Köttbullar (Swedish meatballs)!

We made a pit stop at a grocery store on the way back to laugh at all of the strange products

Determined to see more, after returning to Stockholm City we wandered around Riddarholmen and took in the beautiful views of City Hall and Riddarfjärden (the bay of Lake Mälaren).

No trip of Stockholm is complete without visiting nearby Gamla Stan (Old Town).  While there, we made sure to see the guards at Stockholm Palace,

check out all of the fancy shops,

and hang around the narrowest street in Stockholm.

We then made our way over to the northern shore of Södermalm to enjoy the beautiful Scandanavian weather at Hermans vegetarian buffet.  The restaurant has loads of outdoor seating with fantastic views of the city; a perfect place to enjoy the 9:20pm sunset!  The food was super tasty, but we did see quite a bit of questionable buffet etiquette (caught a girl sniffing the serving spoon...TWICE)!

The walk back to the tunnelbana was a tad chilly, but those views can make anyone smile

Day 3

After a quick pit stop at System Bolaget for some essential Swedish picnic supplies (boxed wine), we headed off to Drottningholms Slott.  It stands for Queen's Palace, and is the current residence of the Swedish royal family.  To get there, we simply hopped on a steamboat that left from City Hall.

It was pretty overcast and cold when we first arrived, but it clouds began to open up as we sat down for our picnic.  One of us (I won't name names) made the mistake of feeding the ducks during lunch...

After touring the grounds the lighting was just right for a mid-afternoon photoshoot

and a little bit of fooling around before the palace closed for the day.

It was a perfect day trip...nice boat ride with great scenery, beautiful weather to enjoy the grounds, and of course a mid-day fika!

Following a small walking tour of hipster central (SoFo in Södermalm), we set out to find a nice place to have some dinner and drinks.  Our first choice was Urban Deli, but the combination of hunger, crankiness, and poor service caused us to leave after our first brewski.  We moved on to something a little more familiar, and went to an "American restaurant" in Sweden. The waitress tried wayyy to hard to sell the food (would make a fantastic car saleswoman), the burgers were decent, and the size of the mussels gave us all nightmares.  I would say that America's American food is much, much better!

Day 4

Just another Saturday in Stockholm with perfect weather.  After enjoying a leisurely breakfast, we headed over to Djurgården to visit the Vasa Musuem.  The Swedish warship Vasa sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 before it had even left the the harbors of Stockholm.  In 1961 (333 years after it sank), 90% of the ship was recovered and is now on display.  The lighting was very dark so we were unable to get many good pictures, but it is a pretty awesome museum; really one of a kind.

After enjoying some traditional Swedish street food (Tunnsbrödrulle) outside the museum, we took a breather and enjoyed the weather in a park along the water.

Since Sweden is apparently famous for their design, and this was their last day, we made sure to visit a few design stores too.  Not all of us were too interested in perusing their fine selection of fabrics and furniture, but we easily managed to enjoy our time together.

What a great trip.  So many memories and so many laughs.  You guys are the best!  Thank you so much for making the trip over.