Level 3-3: City With A Syndrome

...Which sounds like a good name for a band, but unfortunately the only music you'll be hearing is me playing my own trumpet. Here we go: Stockholm!

And when you work out exactly what it is you're seeing here, you'll be as amazed as I was about Stockholm.

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Day 5 - Thursday 14th July

Copenhagen, Denmark > Stockholm, Sweden

A ferry from Denmark to Sweden (on which you could see our destination before we even left) would be our chance to exchange Danish Krone for Swedish... Krona. (Later we would find that Norway uses Krone, too. Seriously, guys?) Failing that, we could exchange all the Danish currency we had for chocolate, which is what I did. Sensible move.

The ferry-over-the-swimmable-distance finished, it was time to sit on a bus all day to reach Stockholm - not that that meant any of us had any idea where it was. I guess it was lucky we all trusted our driver, Zoli, as he could've been taking us anywhere. Goodness what we would've done if anything'd happened to him, because the rest of us didn't have a clue (tour leader Jamie included).

This wasn't all we knew about Sweden. It was just 98% of what we knew about Sweden.

Most definitely not to be confused with an outfart.

Reaching the campsite at about 7pm there wasn't a lot to do, except watch everyone else with their wifi-capable electronic devices freak out because the wireless was down. Adam, one of the guys on tour, also celebrated his birthday that evening, mainly because it was his birthday. He was given a Celebrations chocolate box with a lit sparkler stuck to it.

"I'd like to thank my parents for being here... oh, wait."

Day 6 - Friday 15th July
Stockholm, Sweden

Grateful for our bus drop-off in the city due to the light rain, the first place to explore was the Stockholm Town Hall.

This is The Blue Room - it was originally meant to be rendered and painted blue, but the architect changed his mind and left it as brick. This would turn out to be the least interesting thing about the Town Hall.

The steps in the Blue Room were designed to be "low and wide so that women would glide elegantly when they walked", so for the remainder of my time in Sweden all flights of stairs were judged by this measure.

And the only trade-off for having this room as your workspace is being a politician. And being a politician in a country which has complete darkness during wintertime.

Finally, we visited the controversial Gold Room:

Imagine having your school concert night in here.

Erm, yep.

Our rush 'round the Town Hall over, we met up with the less architecturally inclined members of the tour at the Vasa Museum, your one-stop-shop for all your enormous 17th Century warship needs.

None of my pictures could capture its scale, on account of its scale. Hint: the person in red at the bottom right is not standing at the bottom next to it, but about ten feet higher.

Spending an hour with the really (really really) old boat, we decided that the best place to spend our afternoon would be Gamla Stan, Stockholm's old city area. With lots of designer stores (such as H&M, which I didn't know was Swedish - until I asked why all the other tourists were shopping there, when they could be shopping somewhere Swedish while in Sweden), it was good to get a break from all the culture we'd been absorbing.

I was looking for a slogan shirt in Swedish - because let's face it, how often do you have the opportunity to buy one? - to be more accurate, a "Stjärnornas Krig" (Star Wars) shirt, after I spotted a five-year-old wearing one. I would not stand for a kindergartener to be cooler than me.

I didn't find one.

Ironically, I couldn't even find an appropriate Star Wars animation to make this joke with.

At 4pm two of us ditched the larger group to head off to our visit to the original Ice Bar.

What we expected...

...and what we got.

Mind you, I didn't get a drink, because I am stingy and didn't want to pay for one, and I gave my free drink card to someone who dropped theirs. So, if anyone ever wants to buy me a drink to make up for it, be my guest.

Our fifteen minute freeze in the ice bar wrapping up our first full day in Stockholm, it was back to the campsite for us. This time it was Naomi's birthday.

"Thank you all for coming to my party!"

That night was also the final one on tour with us for a few people, whose tour took them on an overnight ferry the next day to Talinn, Estonia. Everyone had a good time, lifting their spirits with their spirits, and Mark (our on-tour chef) was helped to his cabin by driver Zoli. Happy he was, but capable of walking he wasn't.

Day 7 - Saturday 16th July
Stockholm, Sweden

With people taking their time to recover from the night before, it was our first sleep-in for a while; for a holiday, there had sure been a few early mornings. Eventually everyone was conscious enough to trudge to the nearby train station and begin exploring Stockholm again.

Actually, maybe I was still dreaming while I was awake. ...And my dreams were captured by my camera.

Our main plan to replace the alcohol which had mysteriously gone missing the night before, we began by having a look around the Royal Palace.

I don't know about you, but I ran out of jokes about expensively decorated rooms ages ago.

And to think I used to freak out about chandeliers potentially falling on me before seeing this one.

Walking on the wooden floor? Absolutely not. Walking as far away from the wooden floor as possible and wrecking the gold and marble walls? No problem.

By the time we left the palace it had passed 4 o'clock. While trying to find somewhere to have dinner later, we managed to find a liquor store - closed. In Sweden, alcohol is sold by the Government and is very expensive. The stores aren't open on Sundays, and on Saturdays they close at 3pm. (Thus the riddle as to why Swedish people are all ridiculously attractive is solved: no-one can afford to get drunk enough to go home with someone unattractive, so over time the ugly genes have simply disappeared.)

After a recommendation from a Swedish man (who would've been an eight, which is a Swedish five) we eventually found somewhere to have dinner, then took the train back to camp. We passed a 7-11, so we stopped to buy chocolate, ice-cream and... music CDs.

This is what I bought.

How can anyone not like this?

 

 Not on the album I bought, but this post would feel incomplete without it.

He may in fact be a Time Lord. Note the song is called "Hearts in the Air".

After buying Saade Vol. 1 for myself and being really grumpy about having to carry it around for five weeks without listening to it, I realised I could just put the music on my computer and then give the CD to someone else as a present. Happy Birthday, Rose!

Next time: Taking Norway completely seriously and not making fun of it at all!