Stockholm: City of Islands
2 months ago, I found 22 euro round trip plane ticket to Stockholm, and then with a click of a button (and some money transfer payment, and other online stuff you need to do when buying a plane ticket), here I was... in Sweden! That's another country to check in my list!
What I know about Stockholm was that it's crazy expensive, but I guess having been living in Europe for 2.5 years, I have my tricks in my sleeve. :P So I found accommodation for 50 euro per night thanks to Airbnb! While definitely not located in city center, but good public transport system makes it okay to travel from the suburbs-city center. I stayed there for 4 days 3 nights, shared with 2 other friends (whom upon hearing my 'sudden' purchase of cheap plane tickets, then instantly wanting to join in), the cost of staying there is 50 euro for the whole trip per person. :P (I always love finding good deals).
At the day of traveling, we flew from Weeze to Skavsta - the budget airports of Düsseldorf, Stockholm. The two of us (one friend got sick and end up had to cancel the trip :(..) took the train from Düsseldorf to Weeze, flew for two hours, arrived at the small Skavsta airport, took the flygbusarsana bus (the rainbow bus) to the city center, changed into subway, then got our keys to the apt, take another subway, then bus, then walking and try to figure out where our accommodation was. The bus drive from the airport to the city center is the only way to commute from and to the airport. I bought the ticket online and it cost me around 27 euro for round trip. So, after 1.5 hours of bus ride, changing into public transport here and there, let say we were eager to find our 'home' to rest.... It was quite a long day already!
But, the universe decided otherwise... hahha, since our host was on holiday, we needed to take the keys to the place at designated place (hence the subway changes). Then, upon arriving on the area after a rude bus driver, searching for the place, we found that the address given was leading us to a parking lot! (oh dear...).. I tried contacting the host, but got no response. . . As our mind starting to think that probably we have been cheated, we tried to find other possible scenarios such as perhaps the number was a typo.. LOL, it then later was a wrong number (suppose to be 84, rather than 89), and yess we found the place! That evening, we bought food from grocery shop for dinner and breakfast. It costed 12 euro for two people! Stockholm start to look like it's not as expensive as it is rumored! Hahha.. The whole experience of the day felt like a scene from The Amazing Race reality show - ends with rest at the pitstop! :P
The next 2 days was spent with walking through the city. I think every city is unique, and Stockholm in particular is unique because the city is consists of islands! It's like archipelago but still in a city... I can walk around, cross some bridges and apparently I'm already on a different island, with a different architecture, feeling, vibe, etc. The old town, Gamla Stan, is located in the middle of the city, and it is beautiful! I feel like I can get lost a little in it, and in the evening, (depending on your taste), there's a certain mystery feeling to it - some will say creepy, but I kinda like it hehhee.
One of the highlight of the trip was the city public library! The architecture is amazing! and all those bookssssss, it just awaken the bookworm soul of mine. We explore the Norrmalm (kind of the north part of the city) which I think is the hipster young part of the city. I found that many cute cafes and restos are here, including an Indians street food resto with divine curry - on reasonable price. We ate lunch at Flippin Burger, one of the recommended place to eat in Stockholm. An Indian resto and American diner in Stockholm, way to have a Swedish experience eh? hahaha, but I guess that's just Stockholm :). From the north part we walk down to Ostermalm (the north east part of the city) which I think is the fancy part of the city (think of all those expensive brands on one street). We walked there until seeing the port where all those expensive yacht are parking side by sides, then continued the coastline until crossing the bridge to the island where the ship museum is located. The weather was perfect, not too cold and warm simultaneously, tried taking a boat from one island to another.
Commuting in Stockholm for the 4 days was easy! We bought the 72 hours public transport ticket for 25 euro. It pretty much covered buses (even to the suburb we stayed), trams, metro (or subway/underground/MRT/u-bahn/tunnel - whatever you want to call it), and BOAT (or Ferry)! Knowing that, I just had to take the water transportation to commute. Once, we took a boat ride, not really knowing where it might leads us to, and I as checked the google map, the route overlap with route to St. Petersburg - That's Russia just in case you don't know. As my friend was kind of confused (so was I), she asked "so... where are we going to?", it was rather funny to answer it with: "I don't really know, but there's a slight possibility we might go to Russia..." LOL
The southern part of Stockholm is beautiful when you see it from another island across. Though almost every google search we found says that it is the place where all the cute hipster coffee places are... we found nothing there.. sadly! I'm starting to think that my first instinct to loving the north part of it is more correct than what google says.
The city is quiet cashless, we use cards all the time there. The only time I went to exchange currency was on the last day... at the airport... for souvenirs!!! hahahha, I love the lady from the exchange, she actually explain to us what are on the Swedish paper money such as the famous singer, children book writer (Pippi longstockings!), and as for the coins, it represents the Swedish love of nature: sun, wind, water. I love that these interesting trivias actually mark the end of our Stockholm trip! :P
