Julestemning in Stockholm

Happy Monday everyone! This week's post is a day delayed but for the best reason! I spent this weekend in Stockholm, Sweden, and got back too late yesterday to write a post. I thought it would be best to send this out a little late rather than just wait until next week since these next few weeks are busy enough with all the Christmas activities! This past week was also tentamen week, which meant I had midterms in math, English, and Norwegian (yes, again. They also take an exam in what they call "sidemål", which for them is nynorsk but I got permission to write in bokmål. If none of that made any sense and you're curious, you can learn some more about Norway's languages here.). Needless to say, it was nice to get away a little after a stressful week, although I was also pretty exhausted from the break-less tests.

But a bunch of tests is probably not what you wanted to hear about when you clicked on the link, so I'll move on to the more interesting stuff:) Friday was the English exam but also the day I took the train to Stockholm. I was a little stressed that I wouldn't be able to make the train but I ended up finishing pretty early and had some time to do a little Christmas shopping before heading to the train station. I was expecting a 5-hour train ride to be pretty boring and was prepared with some downloaded Netflix, podcasts, and books but I ended up staring out the window for a lot of the trip. The scenery was some of the prettiest I've seen with tons of rivers and little lakes surrounded by pine trees covered in snow. The winter sky gave everything a blue color but the setting sun turned the snow and water to a beautiful purple. To top it all off, the moon rose over the little hills and was the biggest I have ever seen it. I was convinced that this train ride would be the prettiest part of the trip, but I was very, very wrong.

When I got into the city, I went back to the apartment my host family and I were staying it. It was right in the center of the city and had beautiful high ceilings with old, detailed molding. It was about 7:30 at that point but I only the kids had eaten dinner so after they went to bed we ordered some Indian food and hung out for the evening. The next morning I woke up and we ate breakfast before heading into the city to explore a little. The night before, it was already dark when I got into the city, but now there was sunlight and I was able to see the city for all its glory. I'm a sucker for architecture and Stockholm definitely has some of that. Or a lot of that. The city was by far one of, if not the most, beautiful cities I've visited. The buildings have a gothic feel to them but are in no way dark, which creates the most magical vibe. The city itself is situated over a bunch of islets (holm means islet in Swedish), but never feels discontinuous, which seems to be another of its magic powers. Not being constrained to one little island also means that the city has grown quite a bit over the years and is quite a bit larger than Oslo. I was very skeptical when I heard that the city markets itself as "The Capital of Scandinavia" and I might be considered a traitor for saying this, but I totally understand that now.

Anyways, we started off Saturday by going to the original Stockholm, Gamla Stan. This part of the city has the palace as well as a bunch of adorable little alleys and cobblestone streets and was so incredibly koselig. We stopped at a cafe and I tried my first glass of (non-alcoholic) gløgg, which is kind of like Scandinavian mulled wine. It was the most christmasy thing I've ever tasted and now I just have to see if the Norwegian version is as good. After exploring the old city, we made our way to lunch, and then the Vasa museum. The museum is all about a ship that they built in Stockholm that sank to the bottom of the ocean shortly after it began its journey. It sat there for 333 years before it was pulled up and rebuilt and now stands in the museum. Very cool for anyone interested in maritime history! Afterwards, the kids and Espen went back to the apartment while Anne and I went out and did a little shopping. The Christmas decorations that span the whole city were magical at night but it was freezing cold and we didn't find anything mind-blowing to buy so we too went back and ate dinner before watching a documentary about Cuba. Seems a little random, I know, but it was actually really good!

Sunday was a bit of a slower morning which was fine by me considering it was raining out. Once the rain slowed, we walked over to Skansen, an outdoor museum that shows what the area looked like centuries ago. Since it's beginning to be Christmas time, there was a Christmas market with lots of food and handmade goods where I was able to find a few more presents. The kids went on pony rides and we walked around some more before going back to finish packing before catching the train back to Oslo. Unfortunately, it was already dark when we got on the train, so I didn't get to see any pretty scenery on the trip back but I was exhausted so it was probably better that I wasn't keeping myself from resting by staring out the window the whole time... All in all, a very successful weekend in Stockholm; I definitely would recommend the city to anyone. I myself hope to go back some day because one weekend was only enough to see maybe ten percent of the city!

Word of the Post:
julestemning = Christmas spirit/cheer/atmosphere/environment

Pictures!

SO PRETTY

Gamla Stan buildings

Stockholm has a cool canal system which are gorgeous at night with all the lights!

And at day...

More Gamla Stan

There were a bunch of peacocks at Skansen... I usually don't consider them to be Scandinavian animals but I guess I was wrong...?!

Bjørn's pony ride

And Elin's!

Same place as an earlier picture but during the day

Kind of hard to see it but across the water is a huge Christmas tree

Pretty roads:)

The lighting was really cool at Oslo S while I was waiting for the train