Stockholm Day 1 - We aren't in Kansas anymore, Toto
Most of today was a transit day as we flew to Stockholm with Sara. After getting onto the metro it was clear that Sweden has a very different immigration policy compared to Denmark (i.e. Stockholm looked like a multicultural city while Copenhagen was quite a "white" city). It was also quickly evident that tattoo trends across the two cities was very different. Copenhagen residents favoured seemingly random, prison style tattoos on their arms compared to the full arm sleeves of Stockholm.
After checking into (what we thought) was the world's smallest hotel room, we explored the streets of Södermalm, the southern district of the city, before catching up with Sara for an authentic Sweedish dinner at The Pelikan. The hotel room was so small that the doubled bed was wedged into the corner of the room next to the console, with only one access point being Damo's side. We luckily had two chairs and a small bit of floor space that allowed us to open one suitcase at a time. Although we went for a traditional Swedish meal, Damo had the duck (non-Swedish) and Mick had steak and potatoes (only Swedish part was the raw egg yolk to drizzle into the steak, which he obviously didn't do!).
Oh, and it wouldn't be a Mick and Damo holiday if there wasn't an emergency pharmacy visit.... All the walking in Copenhagen resulted in Mick having a bung knee and injured feet (not just sore, muscle injuries). A knee brace was bought to fix one problem and our amateur medical diagnosis of the injured feet was that Mick's running shoes didn't provide sufficient support for 20km+ days. To rectify this, Mick was to wear his hiking boots. Subsequently, Mick was rocking the European tourist look with his beige shorts, knee brace and hiking boots.
Stockholm Day 2 - Long days, late nights
In the morning Damo woke not feeling the best, possibly claustrophobia from the miniscule room. In any case we decided to get some fresh air by taking a walk down by the waterside behind the hotel. We found that along the waters edge there was a municipal swimming pool, and a whole cluster of tiny houses with cottage gardens. We found out later that these were part of a gardening 'colony' where city slickers go to garden and get back in touch with nature. The whole area was charming and reminded us a little bit of Freetown Christiania in Copenhagen with the overgrown plots. We enjoyed walking along the river in the sunshine for about an hour before heading back to our shoebox hotel room.
When we got back we packed and got ready to go and explore the old town of Stockholm. This island wedged between the northern CBD and Södermalm holds the medieval town known as 'Gamla Stan', and is full of crooked streets, little cobbled squares, and plenty of over priced tourist traps. We wondered around and decided we need to eat - so we sat at a cafe and had a small paninni roll each, and one small soft drink, the grand total of which was... $40! We quickly moved on in case we decided to have a coffee or Nutella bomb which would require the sale of an internal organ on the black market. Later that day, we took respite in a pub and paid close to $20 per pint of beer (obviously Mick did not leave a tip on that bill).
We found ourselves on a very busy tourist thoroughfare where hundreds of people were milling in either direction or looking in shop windows. To get out of the throng we walked up a small steep street and came out at a charming square, famous on postcards with three or four colourful multi storey buildings of Dutch architecture facing a fountain and the Nobel academy. Many, many photos were then taken.
After about an hour of wandering the streets we chanced upon the King's Palace, which we decided was worth a look, however much of the building inside and out was covered in scaffolding so we decided to not pay the whopping entry fee, and just viewed the free inner courtyard and chapel.
For dinner Sara took us to a place that she went to on a date a few months back; Skinnavariksberget (a massive rock that overlooks the city). We had a Lebanese picnic, from Stockholm's most prized falafel restaurant, Falafel Barren. Although the rock was crowded with young Swedes, it was a memorable (although not romantic on this occasion) moment and gave a new outlook on this great city.
Stockholm Day 3 - These boots were made for walking
Walking in hiking boots did provide Mick with the foot support needed, however he was getting tired of the German tourist look. So a trip into the city was made, and Mick had his Bette Midler / Big Business moment changing out of his boots in the street for his new addidas sport shoes. Damian also didn't want to miss out and bought a new pair of shoes as well. With his new shoes (and knee brace firmly in place) Mick was willing to entertain Damian's and Sara's idea of doing a further walk along the River bank. After strolling along the river we came across a floating barge bar and decided a rest and rehydration was needed before we walked to dinner in Södermalm. We decided to risk an Asian restaurant, for some reason European cities struggle with Asian cuisine - unfortunately this restaurant (Magnolia) helped re-enforce that opinion, as it was not to the standard we'd hoped for.
Stockholm Day 4 - Beaches in mind
Mick was in charge of the itinerary today and decided that we'd seen enough of the city and needed to go to a beach - after reading up on Stockholm swimming spots, we decided to go visit a beach on Lidingö island which was technically only 45 minutes away if you timed the metro and buses properly - which we didn't. Lidingö is such a popular place that it only gets one bus an hour, and we just missed the bus. Sara was stressing as she didn't have any breakfast, so we walked for 10 minutes to find the local cafe - which we couldn't find. We did find a grocery store and bought some store baked pastries and coke (we needed caffeine and didn't want to pay $5 for a machine based cappuccino). With our groceries in hand we walked back to the bus stop to see that there was a cafe at the bus stop that made proper coffees! Oh well, we did have time to kill.
To get to the beach we had to walk 15 minutes along a road through woodland. It was a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of the city. The beach was nothing like an Australian beach, but it did have water from the ocean and small rocks trying to pass themselves off as sand. As expected, the water was freezing. Damo didn't go in at all, Sara lasted 30 seconds, and Mick spent 45 seconds (over three entries into the water). Although swimming was next to non-existent, it was a great day by the water.
Our final dinner with Sara was at Nytorget6 - a European inspired restaurant. This restaurant had great reviews on yelp, and for a good reason. The atmosphere was great, we were seated downstairs in what looked like an old cabaret theatre, and the food was great. Mick finally had a local dish - meatballs! They were delicious and expensive, and probably the last time Mick ever orders meatballs from a restaurant (it's not a proper meal that you order from a restaurant!). After one final drink we said our farewells to Sara, and headed back to our tiny shoe box hotel to pacK for Iceland.
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