3 Days in Stockholm, Sweden

So having always wanted to visit Scandinavia I decided to spend 3 days in Stockholm however I had put off going there on this trip because I knew how expensive it is to travel in these countries. That was of course until I realized how cheap I could fly there from Berlin with RyanAir. A mere $24 Euro which equates to around $45-50 USD after you factor in taxes and fees. With this in mind, it was a much easier decision… I would just go for the weekend to see what it was all about and live off Swedish meatballs from IKEA. I mean, how expensive could 3 days in Stockholm be?

So after flying back to Berlin from Iceland, I hopped the plane for a quick stopover in Stockholm. Of course, its hard to see an entire city in just 3 days but I did my best to at least see the Gamla Stan which is the ‘Old Town’ of Stockholm which is also where I found accommodation as well. Stockholm is made up of many islands and the Old Town sits on an island as well which originated in the 1300s.  And in the Old Town you’ll find cobble stone streets, the royal palace and some amazing architecture.

Since it is so expensive here (even $10 for a beer), I decided to just walk around the city and see what I could see for free. The only major museum I went to was the Vasa Museum. It was long walk to get there across the water from the Old Town so you have to either hop a boat to get to that island or just cross a few bridges on foot which is what I opted for. The hour plus walk was worth it though. This museum houses the oldest fully recovered war ship from the 1600’s.

The small scale model that was made to exactly how the ship would have looked back in 1628

It sank right in the Stockholm harbor as it was leaving on it maiden voyage back in 1628. The ship stands at over 52 meters tall with a total length of 69 meters. The ship was built to hold 300 soldiers and 145 mariners along with 64 bronze cannons of which most were recovered. Although it sank in 1628, it wasn’t found until 1956 and was finally brought to the surface in 1961 and restored, 333 years after it had originally sank. The main reason it went under was due to the underwater part of the hull being too small and the shipped being incorrectly proportioned. As a result, it went under after sailing only about a mile.

From the rear of the ship...

I ended up spending a couple hours here which is not hard to do. The ship is so tall that you can view it from 6 different floors to get a different angle and perspective of the ship at each level. The most interesting was the basement floor though as it contained many of the items that were recovered from the sunken ship along with the bones of many of those who perished.

Each set of bones was put together and put on display where they were given a name and a description of what role they played on the ship, their age when they died as well as a lot of other information that told their story.
Another site I visited that weekend was the Stockholm City Hall where the banquet takes place for all the Nobel prizes are given out every year except the Nobel Peace Prize which is given in Oslo. I was only allowed into the interior courtyard and rear of the building that day but it was still worth visiting.

Much of the rest of my time spent in Stockholm was simply walking the streets and bridges around town. I did get a chance to go out with some locals one of the nights but one was enough because just one beer will cost you at least $10 in almost any bar or restaurant you go to.

Walking island to island

The only thing I really missed out in these 3 days in Stockholm was finding an IKEA and some Swedish meatballs….