Gusties venture to the Big City!

So the Big City is Stockholm. And in all honesty, it's not the big. But we've been so busy living sheltered lives in our little Uppsala that we thought it was time to head south and hit the tough city streets of Stockholm. Signe, Darailia, Annalise, and I headed to Stockholm from May 2nd through May 4th.

Thursday, May 2nd

Caught the bus down to Stockholm! Fairly unexciting. I did some crocheting. Darailia's dad had hotel points at Scandic (a Swedish hotel chain) that expire at the end of the year so we had a hotel for free! And the hotel has free breakfast buffets everyday! So we had breakfast and secretly packed a lunch both mornings fo' free! We walked to our hotel and met up with a friend Annalise met when she took her gap year and studied in Gothenburg, Sweden. Her friend brought us to Vapiano for dinner. Holy guacamole, it was delicious. It's an Italian restaurant with pizzas bigger than twice the size of your face. I had the most amazing pizza with roasted tomato, garlic, basil, and mozzarella. I just looked it up and apparently, they exist in the US. I think I'll take a trip to Chicago this summer. That night we took advantage of the sauna in the hotel and watched some Disney Channel in Swedish. Here are some pics of the Royal Palace that day:

Swedish guard change

The Royal Palace

Tiny picture, don't know what happened. But it's a knight fighting a sea serpent.

Friday, May 3rd

Darailia, Annalise, and me

Darailia was headed to an open air museum just outside the city and Annalise met up with another person she knows in Stockholm. She has so many contacts in Sweden, it's absurd. So that left Signe and me to go shopping. Signe and I had some big goals such as finding a specific Orrefors votive, a denim jacket, and souvenirs up the wazoo. It was a great success. I think both of us found nearly everything we were looking for. But we did so much walking. By now, I'm used to walking because I'm too cheap to pay for the bus and don't really like riding my bike but holy cow, did we walk a lot that day. In the afternoon we met up with Signe's parents who had just returned from visiting friends south of Stockholm. We had some lovely fancy cheese and crackers with wine before heading off to our dinner at a restaurant my mom suggested. We ate at Magnus Ladulås in Gamla Stan, which if you remember from a previous post, means "old town" in Swedish and dates back to the 13th century. Here are some food pictures to make your mouth water and other dinner pictures!

Beef sirloin with garlic potatoes, seasoned butter, and salad

Cremé Brulée for dessert!

Here's the whole group! Suzette (Signe's mom), Darailia, Annalise, me, Signe, and Jon (Signe's dad)

It was a delicious dinner so thank you again to the Thorpes! After dinner on our way back to the hotel we decided to walk to the top of a tower and see the view of the city at night. I have no idea what the tower was but it had a phenomenal view of the city that my camera could not do justice so here's a picture of three of us. 

Annalise, me, and Signe

And then there's this. We're a strictly Coke family. 

Saturday, May 4th

Saturday morning I joined Signe and her parents for a Millennium tour of Stockholm. The Millennium trilogy is better known in the US as the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books written by Stieg Larsson. Fun fact: His name was not originally spelled with and e. His name was Stig Larsson. In his 20's there was another upcoming author with the same name so they flipped a coin to see who would add the e and the author of the Millennium series lost so he added an e to his name. 

Back to the books. If you haven't read them, I don't blame you. The books took a good two weeks of my life last summer and the subject matter can get really heavy but they're good books. Now that I've been to Sweden, I might reread them because I won't just skim over the locations. Anyway, the tour we went on highlighted different spots mentioned and or used in the books and movies on Södermalm, one of the islands in Stockholm. So here's a quick little bit about the tour! If you haven't read the books or seen the movies, this part won't make sense to you.

Mikael Blomkvist's apartment

The cafe used in the American movie at the beginning right after the trial and was a favorite of Stieg Larsson. He enjoyed the grilled cheese. 

Above the store is where Larsson wrote the office of Millennium is located

The building where Lisbeth bought her absurdly large apartment

The building used in the American film as the Milton Security Office

The building used in the Swedish film as Milton Security and the one described by Stieg in the books.

From the set of the Swedish movie!

So that concludes a few things from the Millennium tour.

Signe and I went off and did more shopping; I found my raspberry Orrefors votive so it was a good day! And then I caught a train back to Uppsala back just before dinner and with time to Skype back to Burnsville for prom!

Such a good trip to the capital with good shopping, good food, and good Gusties!