Adventures in Scandinavia: Round 2

- Before I begin this post I would just like to make a statement: Back in May I went on an 8 day kayaking trip through the fjords in Norway. It was the most amazing trip I've ever been on. I wanted to make sure I did it justice and didn't skimp on the blog posting of the trip, so I was supposed to do it over the summer. Well, I didn't. And now I am in Sweden and don't want to let my blog get behind, so I'm going to just skip the Norway stuff for now, do Sweden in "real time," and come back to the Norway post when I have time. I also went to Lake Superior this summer, which was amazing as well. So that will pop up at some point too. Now that that's been said - 

I'm in Sweden! The place I've dreamed of living as long as I can remember. I'm here for the second half of the study abroad component of my Master's program: a semester in the Euroforester's program at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. My school is in Alnarp in southern Sweden:

Visa större karta

But I can't go down there until the 25th of August, so right now I'm in Stockholm!

If I had to list (from my 1.5 days of experience) the things I think Stockholm should be considered the World Capital of, they would be:

1. People wearing horizontally striped clothing
2. Clean streets
3. Adorable children in adorable outfits 
4. Gays 
5. Fluent English speakers in a non English speaking country
6. 7-Elevens 
7. Fathers taking care of children 
8. Beautiful, healthy looking people 
9. Hot dog stands
10. Flowers 

It was raining when I arrived in Stockholm.

(view from the airplane window)

Stockholm:

Bakery where I had breakfast:

Obviously, a "bike friendly city" 

Ambulance/historical building of some sort (am I becoming Euro-jaded?):

A harvest facade! 

Unique use of boxwood. P. Allen Smith could learn a thing or two from Stockholm: 

I love the flowers! (there's your alliums, Mom) 

Swedish Virginia Creeper: 

You can go see the Changing of the Guard at the Royal Palace every day at 12:15. It was quite the event. I got there a half hour early and still could hardly find a spot where I could see. That being say, I thought it was a little on the sloppy side. I just kept wondering "where do they get these people? Is it like working for Epcot for the summer?"

And here's a video for the full experience:

Next, to a super crowded cafe in Old Town for lunch. 

The inside was decorated with photos of gay Leggo men.

Blue cheese and broccoli pie with a micro-greens salad. Yum!

There aren't too many capitals where you can fish in the middle of the city:

One of the many 7-Elevens:

Massive window boxes:

One of the MANY street hot dog stands. Kind of looks like an Ikea catalog, doesn't it? I'm not sure what the "special" is. Mashed potatoes? Vanilla ice cream?

A very tasty street veggie burger for less than 6 bucks. Not too bad for a super expensive country. Not to mention you can get a veggie burger on the street! (note that I'm wearing a jacket. In August! It's cold here!)

Literally miles of sailboats in the city.

How cozy is that boat?

Or this one with all the hammocks?

Flowers:

There's this giant open-air museum (the first one in the world) in the middle of Stockholm. It shows Swedish civilization throughout the ages. It was pretty nifty. Here is a Sami (the indigenous people of Lapland) dwelling. It's up off the ground so the bears can't get them:

Moving up through the ages. The roof is made out of birch bark!

The only reason I took this picture was because of the super cute little girl picking flowers in the lower right corner.

Fencing:

Why do people think it's creepy if they see you taking pictures of their cute kids? I had to pretend like I was taking a picture of the reindeer this time:

Sod roof:

Ahhh! Chickens running loose!

A traditional Swedish family coming out of a traditional Swedish house:

Like any good educational/tourist attraction, the Skansen Museum ended the day with one of it's summer music concert series. Here is some boy band playing Katy Perry's "Hot n cold." (I like the guy in the end with the BabyBjörns covering his kid's ears).


Fun times.

So, I feel like it's rather unfair for me to compare Sweden to Finland considering:

1. I've spent nearly 2 days in Sweden and nearly 5 months in Finland
2. It was winter when I was in Finland and it's summer here in Sweden (a BIG difference I imagine)
3. I have a slight predigest towards Sweden considering I've been obsessed with it since I was little. 

But keeping that in mind I have noticed that: The Swedes are much friendlier than the Finn's, they wear brighter colors, and seem much happier. Stockholm is WAY more diverse (people wise) than Helsinki. Swedish kids seem to be more interactive and a central part of the family (Stockholm is a very "kid friendly" place, and no one frowns on kids running around and touching things).

And those are my first 48 hour impressions of Sweden. Overall, varsågod!