Stockholm, Sweden

Hey all! We're here in Stockholm safely. I'd like to stay and tell you about everything but we're on our way out to go get some reindeer for dinner (not kidding) and then go to the Nordic Ice Bar for a drink...yeah...made entirely of Ice...in the Ice Hotel....also made entirely of ice...ok I have to go, this is too exciting...I'll update tomorrow or in copenhagen...Happy New Year if I don't get to you guys before then!

~Mike

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So we began the day by waking up in Norway at 6:15 am, a time entirely too early for our liking.  We walked down to the train station and took the 7:35 train to Stockholm after grabbing some breakfast to go.  At 9:15 the conductor made an announcement that we were crossing the border into Sweeden, and at 9:30, the sun finally came up.  We didn't realize how far north we really were until that happened.  We all read and watched movies on the train ride, trying to keep ourselves occupied.

At 2:15, our train arrived in Stockholm, about 45 minutes late.  We went to buy tickets for the next day, but found out quickly that not everything would go according to plan.  The train we were going to take left on December 30, but arrived on the 31st, a holiday, so it wasn't running.  We went grabbed some subway tickets and decided to go to our hostel since there was nothing we could do about it right now.  Our hostel was small but nice, run by some very nice people.  They helped us figure out what to do for the day, and after we settled in we went out for some dinner.  On our way out we made some reservations to stop by the Absolut Ice Bar.  We went to the old city which is the middle island of the 3 islands of Stockholm, and ate dinner at a place called CC Restaurant.  We all decided to try something new and ate Reindeer with some Swedish Meatballs.  Both were delicious.  I have never had such amazing meatballs, and reindeer is actually very good.

From dinner we walked back up towards the train station to go to the Absolut Ice Bar.  The Ice Bar is a place made entirely of ice - the glasses, chairs, tables, and the bar itself are all made of ice.  We donned our parkas and gloves, and headed inside.  The bar was pretty awesome, as well it should be.  The drinks were good, but the coolest part was feeling as if you were inside a giant slab of ice.  After about a half hour we were freezing and decided to leave.  We got back to the hostel and chilled with some girls we met from Austria. We ended up getting pretty tired and crashed soon after.

The next morning we over-slept by 2 hours, but it was ok because we clearly all needed it.  We ate breakfast, checked out of our hostel, and began exploring the city.  The first place we went was the Vasa Musset.  The Vasa is an old Swedish war ship that sank in 1928, but was salvaged and preserved.  The ship was amazing, but unfortunately built poorly.  We enjoyed learning about Swedish history for a while, and then left to walk across town.  We ended up passing by Sergel's Torg, a 37-meter tall glass obelisk.  From there, we walked to Stadshaset, which is city hall.  The city hall was beautiful, as well it should be, as it is where the Nobel Prizes are given out each year.  While we were there we watched the sun set...at 2:15 pm.  We walked back through the old city again, and back towards our hostel to pick up our backpacks.  Since the train was cancelled, we had the brilliant idea to sleep in the train station all night.  Unfortunately, the train station closes at midnight, so we were forced to get a hotel across the street instead.  Alex and I were unable to sleep, so at about 2:00 am we went on a walk to entertain ourselves.  We ended up coming across a Kebab place, so we stopped in for something to eat.  While we were there, a fight began outside, and we ended up having to stay for over an hour as they searched for the person who started it.  Neither of us ended up sleeping at all that night.

See more of my photos from Stockholm here.