Sweden

My last trip to Sweden was 18 years ago and it has been 28 years since I was an exchange student there. Almost 30 years-unbelievable. We left Firenze at around 4 pm to catch our Ryanair flight from the Pisa airport. Ryanair is amazingly cheap. Our round trip ticket to Sweden from Italy was about $150 a person. We ended up staying longer so we paid more than this but it was still very cheap. The flight is very basic. If you want food, you pay for it. If you want priority seating, you pay extra. There are no assigned seats so it's first come first serve. We lucked out because Jonathan was on crutches so they blocked two seats for us so we didn't have to wait in the line. Well, we did in Italy but not in Sweden or course. Our flight left at 8:30 and we arrived at an airport I had never heard of 80 minutes from Stockholm. We didn't get to our hotel until well after one. You get what you pay for!

We had to take a taxi to our hotel as it was too late for the tunnelbana (subway). Our hotel was perfectly located taking just minutes to get downtown. The rooms were very simple and small and we shared a shower with the entire floor which didn't mean much because I hardly saw anyone take a shower. Swedes don't shower much as I remember. We had a very decent breakfast. The people running the hotel were all very sweet and I miss them all already.

On the way to the tunnelbana station from our hotel we always passed this wonderful candy shop. I had never seen so many sweets in one place before. Jonathan has a major muscle strain so we bought stampella (crutches) to see if that would help. He is slowly getting better.

Our first stop was gamla stan (the old town). This is one of my favorite parts of town. Full of shops and restaurants. We woke up to a beautiful blue sky the first day in Sweden and that never changed for an entire week. This is very unusal for Sweden. It had been raining a lot all summer and the day we left we had a downpour. We really lucked out.
Splashing water at Jonathan.

It was Europride and Stockholm pride the entire week we were there so there were rainbow flags EVERYWHERE. Even on the buses. One city in Europe hosts Europride every year.

I always loved the color of this church in the King's garden.

Having a salmon open faced sandwich in the King's park. It was so good!!

After I finished my meal a leaf landed right on my plate so I took a picture.

Only in Sweden do you see half naked men walking the streets of the capital city. When it's sunny and warm, Swedes take advantage of it.

...and Jonathan did too!!

...as did lots of people.

Ok, I take strange pictures!

Taking a little break at the Grand Hotel. Writing a post card home.

Beautiful Stockholm!!

Now you see it...

...now you don't. It's the same picture. (the magic of photoshop!)

Stranvagen. A street which was copied after the streets of Paris.




Me on Djurgarden. We are about to visit the Wasa Musuem.




The Wasa ship that sailed a total of 20 minutes before it sank in the Stockholm harbor. They found the ship about 50 years ago in excellent condition as it was buried in mud.

There were people there in period costumes!



A wonderful ad on the platform of the subway station. It says
"Stockholm celebrates the use of condoms"


A restuarant in gamla stan. It was just getting dark and it was 10:15.

A bee in Djurgarden

Some of my favorite paintings that I remember from 28 years ago at the National Museum.

Dad, I lit a candle for you at the Cathedral in Uppsala.

Jonathan got to experience the real Sweden. Skinny dipping in Stockholm! Yes, it really is in the city but it's a very secluded place surrounded by rocks and trees.

On the train to Uppsala. It's a university city about and hour north of Stockholm.

My friend Olof Eden who was in my high school class 28 years ago! He said I hadn't changed at all. Yea, right!

We caught up over wine at his apartment in St. Eriksplan. It was great seeing him and hearing all the news.