Supercallifragilisticexpialidocious! Mary Poppins was right, it’s extraordinary! (Stockholm)
I arrived into Stockholm a little disheveled and disoriented. I even managed to confuse the lady behind the subway ticket desk as to where it was that I wanted go. Finally I sorted myself out and made it to Lisen’s place. I met Lisen through couchsurfing.com (a network for travelers that helps them connect with each other and local communities- I love it!) and she welcomed me into her cute little flat to stay for a couple nights. We enjoyed good conversation over morning tea, and I met back up with her and some friends later that night for drinks on a terrace overlooking the city.
Stockholm has got to be the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen in my life. It felt like a place directly out of Mary Poppins. The old beautiful buildings aren’t just contained in the old town area like many other European cities, but stretch outward to fill the 14 islands the city is built upon. With the city sprawling out before me and as I walked on into the narrow cobblestoned streets of Gamla Stan (Old Town), peering into quaint shop windows and galleries, I felt like a kid again, filled with wonder and awe at discovering the world anew and giddy with anticipation of what I might find around the next corner.
I nearly had to pinch myself- I was in Europe! After months of sweating in the heat in crowded Asia, I meandered the pleasantly quiet streets with other Europeans on holiday, just enjoying the cool, sunny weather and being in a place where it was easy to wander for hours on end.
I drifted through a few museums and took a couple canal boat tours around a couple of the islands that make up Stockholm. I went to City Hall and walked through the grand hall where they hold the Nobel Prize banquet, and then climbed up the tower. As I went higher and higher, the steps turned into a sloping passageway that became narrower and narrower as it wound upwards. I peered out the windows for glimpes of the city as I went, until I finally stepped out onto the top level for a breathtaking view of the panorama below.
On the island of Djurgården, a royal park near the center of Stockholm, is Skansen, the world’s largest open air museum. Actual buildings from all over the country were brought there and workers dressed in costume bring the old ways of Sweden back to life. It was really fascinating to step into old houses and see the tiny beds they used to sleep in sitting up, and imagine what it would be like to cook meals for my family in a kitchen with a simple brick oven. Europe is so old. My ancestors came from here and actually lived like that. Incredible.
It was nearing the end of my last night in Stockholm, and I was going to do one last thing before heading back to Lisen’s. I wanted to go up this little lift that takes you to a nice view of the city. As I waited with a couple other guys for it to come down, we joked about the sign that advertised season tickets to go up the lift, as if anyone would actually want to go up it more than the 60 times per year it would take to make it worth it. They invited me to join them for dinner at the restaurant on top, and we shared travel stories for hours in the endless summer twilight. I’m continually amazed by the people from all over the world that I meet as I travel, and it’s made traveling on my own so much fun. You never know who you’re going to meet!