Stockholm

BY ONEIKA RAYMOND


Two weekends ago we had the pleasure of discovering another new city: Stockholm. We had no particular reason to visit, other than the love of travel, and wanting to travel to a place that neither Liebling nor I have been to before (pretty difficult since between the two of us, we have travelled to most places in Europe). When we started booking our tickets in March for our upcoming summer travels, I randomly did a search for Stockholm and found that tickets were relatively inexpensive on low-cost carrier Ryanair (about 80 quid per person for a round trip ticket). We didn’t hesitate.


We spent the weekend in Stockholm, landing late on a Friday night in Skavsta airport. Skavsta is one of three airports in Stockholm (Arlanda and Vasteras being the other two) and has the disadvantage of being located a whopping hour and twenty minutes drive outside of the city centre. However, our cheap plane tickets couldn’t be beat, and the efficient coach that transported us from the airport to the city was a bargain at only 10 euros a ticket.

But what of Stockholm? Stockholm is clean, beautiful, and a lot more diverse than I ever could have imagined. After being dropped off in the city centre at the main train and bus terminal (aptly named the City Terminal), we took a taxi to our home for the weekend, the Best Western Time Hotel. Though a bit of a walk from the city centre, this 4-star hotel was a steal at 97 Euros a night. Other hotels we saw online were up to 200 Euros per night! The Best Western was a great option: the hotel was super clean, nearly brand new as it was built three years ago, with a good breakfast buffet included in the price (where I ate a Swedish meatball!) and decent sized guest-rooms. No complaints there.

On Saturday, after a hearty breakfast we started walking toward the city center. The sky was overcast, but the air was warm. I took in the wide avenues and the very clean streets. The buildings were very pristine. We set out to walk to the Gamla Stan, which is the old town of Stockholm. On our way we perused the offerings of the shops on the numerous pedestrian streets. The sidewalks were thick with tourists speaking a large number of different languages and snapping pictures of the ornate architecture. Liebling noticed the disproportionate number of blondes, and commented that he thought that overall, Swedes are very attractive people. I agree! Must be something in the water!


I made sure to take a picture in front of H&M (my favourite store in the world) as Sweden is where the brand was created! They were EVERYWHERE. Unfortunately, I didn’t see an IKEA (also Swedish) though Liebling tells me he saw one out the window of the bus when we were on our way to the airport.

On our walk through the pedestrian zone, we encountered a strangely dressed about-to-get-married man in the throes of having a stag party and (I imagine at the behest of his friends) soliciting people to give him a kiss and pinch his chest with the clothespins attached to his t-shirt. Poor guy!


Our walk continued on to the old town and we also checked out the Swedish Royal Palace which was also in the area. The old town in Stockholm reminded me a lot of the one in Nice, France, with all its bright oranges and yellows. The palace and surrounding grounds were very clean and well-kempt. We did have the luck to see part of the changing of the guard ceremony, which was cool.






We also went on a boat tour, which explained the history of the city and the country, and carted us around to most of Stockholm’s 14 islands. The person who sold us the tickets was a Black lady from Cuba so we chatted away in Spanish. It was great! Stockholm is very racially diverse, which for some reason came as a surprise to me. I guess I always figured that Sweden, being so far north, would be a very racially homogenous place.







In one of the main squares we also hang out at a festival being sponsored by the Salvation Army. It was an international event for youth and I got to talk to youth from Barbados and the Congo who were taking part in it.

We continued our exploration of Stockholm into the evening, where we checked out Sodermalm, a grittier, funkier, more eclectic part of town that had a number of bars and places to go out.

On the gloriously sunny Sunday, after having seen mostly everything there was to see in the center, we once again toured Gamla Stan and did some window shopping before checking out Djurgarden, another island of Stockholm. We thought about visiting the Vasa Museum located on the island, but did a double take when we saw that the entrance fee was 11 Euros. The museum houses the Vasa, which is the famous Swedish warship that sunk less than a mile away from Stockholm’s harbour on its maiden voyage. Instead, we took the money that we saved on not going to the museum and spent the afternoon at Grona Lund, Stockholm’s amusement park. Grona Lund is also found on the island of Djurgarden. At 9 Euros for admission into the park, with fares for rides ranging between 2 and 6 Euros per ride, it wasn’t exactly cheap, but Liebling and I had tons of fun, and I didn’t throw up nor wet myself on any of the roller coasters so I have to say that our experience there was extremely positive!








We walked around some more to settle our stomachs, ate, and then started the long pilgrimage back to Skavsta where we boarded our plane and returned to London.




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