Stockholm, Sweden

Day 1
So we arrived at like 6:10 in the morning after a horrible night on the stupid night bus. Never again will we do that. The bus was just a charter bus and was packed full, and to our horror we had to put our bags under the bus (even our backpacks). All we could think about was that they were gonna get stolen just like our friends had. We left Oslo at 11 and we seriously stopped at least one time every hour until we arrived in Stockholm. All our necks had cricks in them, our backs hurt, and we were tired beyond belief. Basically it just sucked big time. But we were at our destination with all our stuff safe and sound. We got metro passes and headed straight to our hostel with the knowledge that they weren’t gonna let us into our room until 3 that afternoon. When we got there a little before 7 we found that it didn’t even open until 8 so we were stranded for an hour. Luckily there was a McDonald’s only a block away so we ended up eating breakfast and chilling there until we were allowed to check our luggage at the hostel. Our first thing to do in Stockholm was surprisingly going to IKEA.

If you don’t know, Rachel is extremely obsessed with IKEA and Kyle isn’t too far off but that is only part of the reason we went there. IKEA was actually started in Sweden in one of the smallest towns in the country. We got to go to like the biggest one here. It was a huge five story building and had a lot more stuff then what our have in America.

After spending a while there we got hungry and went to eat. We went to a Mexican food buffet for lunch. It was cheap and tasted ok, nothing as good as ours though. After lunch we went to the old town to do some sightseeing. Old town was neat but not very pretty. Even the royal palace wasn’t very cool looking but the guards were cool. We liked their uniforms which were blue and white and their guns with bayonets.

Rachel’s bag has been slowly, well, falling apart on her and we found a really cheap yet good bag to replace it. She decided to look around the town some more before getting it though, just to make sure it was the best deal. Kyle also found something he liked at a souvenir store but we hadn’t got any cash out yet and it didnt cost enought to use his credit card so he decided to wait too. We had decided to make dinner since our hostel had a nice kitchen. After we were finished looking around in old town we went to a grocery store and got some stuff for dinner. Completely exhausted by this point we were pretty much bums for the rest of the night. We all spent time checking our email and such since we had been deprived of it for so long. Once we were hungry we started cooking but Kyle ended up doing it as Rachel and I were sent out to get something to drink with it, something we had totally forgot about while at the store. We had some pasta with stuff kinda like Ragu (but not really) with some chicken and some bread. Oh yeah, we had to get a 4 person room and the fourth person showed up. He was an older dude, like in his forties, but he was nice. Finally we all passed out after a long, long day.

Day 2
Today we had one of the most fun days so far. We slept in just a little bit and then went to the Skansen for like 5 hours or more. The Skansen is an open air museum where historical buildings dating from the 18th and 19th centuries have been relocated from around the country. They made it into a replica of how the towns would be and even had craftsmen in the classic dress that would demonstrate how they would tan hides, make shoes, glow glass, as well as how the general stores were run, how they made furniture, and industrial machines among other things. We didn’t get to see everything because some things were done only at certain times but we did get to see how the general stores were run and how they had to buy things, the glass blowing, and the industrial machines.

We also went into a tobacco museum there and learned about the Swedish history of it and how they had to cut in and roll it. After all this we were still only halfway done so we had some lunch at a little restaurant inside the park. Afterwards we saw some of the old farm houses and then got to see the Scandinavian animals. That’s right; there was also a zoo inside. So we got to see all sorts of animals like peacocks, wolverines, bears, lynxes, seals, many kinds of owls, elk, caribou (reindeer), other exotic animals, and some domestic ones.

It was a lot of fun but by the end of it we were all tired and our feet were starting to hurt. Nevertheless, we walked back to the metro and went back to old town to get Rachel’s bag and Kyle’s souvenir and then dropped them off at the hotel before going to Hard Rock to get me my souvenir. Starving by this point, we went to Tennstopet, a classic Swedish restaurant, to eat dinner. The food was amazing. We all licked our plates clean. Stuffed, we came back to our hostel and talked to our families and started to write blog posts so that all of ya’ll could know how we were doing and what we are up to.