Trip Beginning
We left our apartment in Bergen for our two week trip to Stockholm and Finland in the evening taking side streets as we hauled our luggage to the Bergen bus station under a clear cold sky. Bergen seemed especially pretty as we left it. The snow that had recently fallen had melted off the downtown streets but still stayed on the mountains that enclose the city making their peaks glow white under the last light of sunset. There was little traffic and the main noise was the rattle of the wheels on the new rolling suitcase we had bought for this trip. We got to the station, got on the bus to the airport, waited until our flight made its way through the queue to the top of the list of departures and finally boarded at 10:30 to catch the dirt cheap red eye to Stockholm.
The plane was taking us to Arlanda airport which is sort of near Stockholm. Like Norway with Oslo Sweden chose to put its Stockholm airports wildly far from the city. After our arrival at Arlanda we took a 45 minute bus ride to Stockholm’s central bus terminal. On the plane we had been debating if we should take a taxi to our youth hostel or walk. These deliberations were beside the point however since as soon as we stepped to the curb and the bus pulled away a taxi driver grabbed the bags from our hands and began stuffing them into the trunk of his taxi. I just had time to say, “How much to Af Chapman?” before we found ourselves sitting in the back of the cab with the driver speeding off.
Af Chapman is the name of Stockholm’s favorite youth hostel. I know I haven’t been the biggest fan of youth hostels in this blog but this one was supposed to be *the place* to go so we took the chance and made reservations for a total of three nights. Af Chapman is the name of a tall mast sailing ship that has been turned into a youth hostel. The ship is pulled permanently against the side of Skeppsholmen Island being attached to land by a gangplank. Across the road from the Af Chapman is a solid 3 story building that used to be the storage shed for the Royal Palace’s firewood. Although many people choose to stay in the ship the Royal Palace firewood storage building was where we had booked our stay so that we could have a private room and it was by far the nicest woodshed I have ever seen. I absolutely loved our room. It was spare but private with a very high ceiling and windowsills that were deep enough to easily sit in. The view was of the a small harbor that reflected the lights of the islands of Gamla Stan and Södermalm. It was such a wonderful view that we could only laugh at it as we climbed onto the windowsills to sit and stare out at the golden city.
The Af Chapman youth hostel.
Morning view from the window of our room in the youth hostel.
Early evening view from the window of our room in the youth hostel.
In the morning we packed up a day pack and headed off to explore Stockholm – the day was bright and sunny and there was a slight frost on the cobblestone walkway by the harbor. This was trip day one, when the frosty sharpness of the air seemed to be telling us: you are on a big adventure and it was easy to get swept up in a feeling of adventure as we walked through Stockholm. The city is compact and so vibrantly alive it practically struts. Elements of good design are so ever-present, from drinking glasses, to crossing-signs, that they became commonplace. One can palpably feel that this was once a great power center of Europe but the wide streets, low horizon lines and many bridges joining the city’s islands, soften any potential for pomposity like the laughter of children interrupting a great uncle’s grandiose toast at a wedding. We would have 3 days here, two at the trip’s start and one at the end. We decided to start with Gamla Stan.
Gamla Stan is the oldest part of the city. The shops and cafes of this small inner city island know that Gamla Stan is tourist spectacular and one can find postcards, cheap tee-shirts, and key-chains at every other establishment. We were there in off season though so the foot traffic was light. The morning was spent walking around taking pictures of the narrow streets and ancient rows of buildings all painted in warm shades of gold and orange, dividing breakfast between two cafes, and buying the occasional souvenir.
Shop window in Gamla Stan.
Typical street in Gamla Stan.
Kaitlin in our favorite vest-pocket park in Gamla Stan.
For lunch we crossed a bridge to the island of Södermalm as Paul had read that that was where one could get good cheap food. Södermalm is a much larger island than Gamla Stan and we couldn’t comfortably see it all on foot although I would have liked to. Södermalm is made up of neighborhoods of average Stockhomers just going about their days which I found fascinating. Our first attempt at getting a good deal on lunch was aborted when the man we were ordering a family-sized pizza from made it clear that we would have to order 3 pizzas if we wanted to sit down to eat. We had more luck at the next place, a low-key family style restaurant filled with workmen eating the daily specials. We ordered 3 daily specials, Swedish meatballs noticeably similar to what Ikea serves, and salmon for Paul, and ate so much that we just skipped dinner.
The rest of the day was spent at the National Museum of Fine Arts. It was a really fine museum but it did hold the trip’s biggest disappoint. Ever since I was a little girl I have loved Carl Larson’s paintings. When it looked like a visit to Sweden might be justified for Paul’s work I was very excited to be able to see the large Carl Larson collection held by the National Museum of Fine Arts in Stockholm. As it turned out however they had either put away or put on tour ALL of his most famous paintings but one to make room for an exhibit about Napoleon and I ended up seeing my Carl Larsons as replicas on calendars and coffee mugs in the museum gift shop.
It had been a long day and we slept soundly.
The next day was a delicious repeat of the day before with minor variations. Breakfast was again divided between two cafes on Gamla Stan, tourist traps were again visited and lunch was in Södermalm. This time we ate at a kebab stand, a nice one that would let us only order one large pizza if that was all we thought we could eat. Actually it ended up being more than we could eat and we again skipped dinner. This day’s museum was the Museum of Modern Art which was very good. After the museum we went back to the youth hostel where we were treated to a gang of very noisy Swedish youth who couldn’t seem to grasp the concept of holding the door open for each other. One person would open the door to their room and slam! it would shut behind them. Then the next person – slam! Then the next until all 6 were out the door. Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam! Soon after we would hear the Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam! of their return from their excursion down the hall. Then Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam! they would go out again. This ended around 2:00 AM. We were all a bit weary when the alarm went off at 5 the next morning.
