travels.of.tara

July 20, 2016 – Train from Stockholm to Copenhagen.

This part of my trip is a tour of the 3 major Scandinavian capital cities, starting with Stockholm. Activities and transportation are somewhat less tourist-driven, and my schedules are less jam-packed. I’m finally starting to ease into the flow of traveling now, with more time for my mind to wander. My jetlag isn’t totally gone yet, but I’m mostly starting to sleep through the night and not conk out whenever given the chance.

The 3-hour flight from Iceland was fine. I watched Frozen on the plane because it is based on Norway and that seemed appropriate. (It’s possible this movie and the documentary about the filmmakers traveling to Norway to play with snow also contributed to my wanting to see this region. It’s possible.) I saw a snow-covered mountaintop (or possibly a volcano) peaking through the clouds from the plane!

I took a pre-booked bus from the airport to a bus stop about a 10-minute walk from my hostel, which took about 45 minutes. My first impression of Sweden was a fairy tale forest, as the trees around the highway were like evergreens that were sparse at the bottom and had a bold and dark feeling. It got fully dark out around 10pm, a little before I arrived at the hostel, which was in a quiet and beautiful residential area called Zinkensdamm. The apartments were set into a cliff so you had to walk down stairs to access them, and it was all surrounded by lots of trees and gardens. There was another 2 hour time difference, meaning a total of 6 hours later than home.

I started the next day with a Stockholm Free Tour (the guides work off tips), which I navigated myself to via public transit very easily (except for some problems with my credit card at the station; fortunately I had changed a little bit of cash, which was a good decision). The tour started in Gamla Stan, the Old Town, which is a cobblestone island with very old buildings that is also somewhat touristy. There were a few cars that would stop in alleys to make deliveries or for other reasons, allowing no access for other cars and forcing people to squeeze by. But somehow this worked since mostly people walked in the streets. I came back to Gamla Stan later and really enjoyed walking around and seeing the tourist shops. I saw the Royal Palace and a touristy changing of the guards ceremony. I stopped in a cute coffee shop and had a cinnamon bun, a local specialty that tastes like what it sounds like. I was also reminded that Pippi Longstocking was from Sweden!

The tour weaved through some of Stockholm’s 14 other islands. One of those islands was a small island made up entirely of government buildings. I was weirdly excited by that. There was a statue in front of the crime minister’s home of a homeless fox, put there to remind him that not everyone is so fortunate to have a home. The homeless in the city were similar to those in New York. They sat on sidewalks with signs and approached people in the subway (though without the loud speeches). I learned that the Swedes do not typically use curtains in their windows, because they feel they do not have anything to hide. Some put a candle in their window that blocks the views inside from the street, though. We also walked by City Hall, some pretty gardens, and gorgeous architecture. We saw the most expensive hotel in Stockholm, where Barack Obama stayed when he was in town and rented out the entire hotel. Our tax dollars at work!

Later I went to the City Hall building and took a tour. The building has about 200 employees of the Stockholm City Council, which meets every third Monday and has elections every 4 years with no term limits and a 4-party governing system. Mostly the building hosts events and corporate functions, the most famous being the Nobel Prize banquet. Only the Peace Prize is given elsewhere (in Norway), but the others in Economics, Physics, Literature, etc. are given in Stockholm. The building had some gorgeous rooms including a hall with walls covered in real gold mosaic.

Following this, I took my tour guide’s advice and took a public transit ferry to an area called Sodermalm, the young and trendy area. This is where Stieg Larson’s Millennium book series takes place (I assume that is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series?). It was fun wandering around here, first on some quiet streets and then on a busy, hip shopping street, again with cobblestones and again with people walking in the streets. Later the streets got wider with more cars. I went into a little mall called Ringen with a food court inside by all of Sweden’s famous chefs, but everything was in Swedish and I got overwhelmed and just walked through. I found some cheap Greek food (falafel and kebabs were very popular, as was sushi and burgers) and ate outside, then navigated myself back to the hostel via the T-Bana (subway) for a quiet evening.

It was a beautiful day in the low 70s. I put on sunscreen in the morning but still managed to get a sunburn. Whoops. It rained for a bit in the afternoon but I had an umbrella and it passed. That night I realized my jetlag and sore throat were both pretty bad, so I napped and took it easy.

The next morning my sore throat was worse, but I decided to go about my day. I took a ferry to Djurgården, another island with nice gardens and some museums. I went to Skansen there, an outdoor museum/zoo that is sort of like Sweden’s colonial Williamsburg, with traditionally-dressed people and opportunities to walk into their shops and see them at work, like glass blowing and furniture making. I saw some reindeer in the zoo section and walked some trails. I didn’t stay too long. Next I tried to take a tram further into the island to see the garden part more, but I accidentally went the wrong way and left the island. I took advantage of my transit pass and rode the tram back to the island, walked around a pretty garden for a short time, and took the tram back. I walked back to Gamla Stan and bought some souvenirs, then headed back to the hostel around 3:30pm.

The next part of my trip was probably the most adventurous so far. I hesitate to write about it because it’s kind of personal, but this blog is all about sharing my experience, right? Anyway, I’ve had a cold virus for nearly 2 months. It has been very slowly on the mend and hasn’t affected my life since the beginning, so I haven’t been too concerned. But when my throat got so scratchy after Iceland (the wind and the cold and the jetlag!), I kind of panicked that something else was going on and decided to try to see a doctor. I had no idea how things worked. I asked the hostel reception what to do and they directed me to a hospital about a 15 minute walk away, so I followed their instructions and asked people to translate some signs into English to find the entrance (thank heavens everyone pretty much speaks English here). I talked to a nurse or doctor named Sebastian, who was so nice and gorgeous and I promptly started crying in front of him. He explained to me that this was an ER, and the best one in Northern Europe, and it would be a very long wait so I should probably find a doctor’s office. He called someone for me and directed me to an office another 15 minute walk away – he gave me bus directions and printed a map and gave me tissues. It was so comforting. So I took a nice walk through a residential neighborhood to the doctor’s office, which I think was something like a walk-in clinic. They were also extremely nice there, and appeared to be all women in a pretty large operation which was cool. The doctor saw me right away and tested for strep, and a nurse did a finger blood test. Turns out it is just a small virus! I was so incredibly relieved. I had to pay about $200 for the visit, but they gave me some paperwork (in Swedish) to show my insurance company to try to get reimbursed. Even if it doesn’t work out, it was $200 well spent on some major peace of mind. So I’ll have to keep in mind to try to take it easy; a tall order for me on this trip but I’ll try.

After a few hours break and making some soup in the hostel, I decided I was well enough to go back out. I walked around an area called Normmalm, again some streets without cars and lots of shopping but fancier than Soldermalm. There were many H&Ms. I had made a reservation for the ICE BAR nearby – yes, a bar made out of ice. It was fun and kitchy, and also small and you couldn’t really spend more than 20-30 minutes there. You are given a parka with gloves, and you get to drink out of an ice glass. The walls, benches, and bar are all made of ice, and the walls were sculpted beautifully with a theme of wild Swedish animals. There were colorful club lights and dance music. It was 23 degrees but felt warmer because there was no wind. Mostly people just go in and take pictures and dance a little. This was one of the harder activities to do alone, but I still had fun! I felt like I had earned some fun after my afternoon.

Wifi has been pretty reliable so far. I took my work emails off my phone (hi anyone from work reading this! I was serious about not checking work emails!), but am checking social media a bit. I have some mixed feelings about missing the RNC and the Trump hysteria. I heard it on someone’s car radio this morning. I’m mostly ok that I’m missing it.

My final morning I got myself to the Central Station and pretty easily got on the train to Copenhagen, a 6 hour journey including one transfer in Malmo. You have to reserve seats, and I got a great window seat in a compartment. It feels like the Harry Potter train; I’ve never seen compartments like this before. I have 5 neighbors. It’s not air conditioned and the sun has been beaming on me all morning, and the altitudes are also changing which is hard on my ears. But otherwise lots of beautiful trees and water. I finished a book called The Time Keeper and am grateful to have a travel day where I can mostly just rest in one place.

Onward!