Stockholm

STOCKHOLM- VENICE OF THE NORTH

Stockholm- unexpectedly interesting destination despite my prejudice for being cold, boring and not an appealing place to live. It turned out to be the opposite-  not surprisingly they call it the “Venice of the North”.

We went to Stockholm as Dimo had subscribed to run a marathon there. I would not agree to go there if it wasn’t for him offering to “take some nice photos of him while running the marathon”. This is how we ended there for a long weekend in the beginning of June. In the end due to an injury, Dimo could not participate in the marathon, but as we had booked everything, we decided to go for the trip.

Lili’s 5 good-to-know tips when travelling to Stockholm

• Depending on the time of the year when you visit the country, you can either enjoy endless days or endless nights.
• The prices in Stockholm are quite high, it is not a surprise paying 8 Eur for a beer. It can be a good advice to buy some alcohol from the airport (preferably from the departing airport).
• The legendary ABBA come from Sweden and you can visit their museum.
• Get ready with comfortable shoes as even the city center is quite big and you need to walk a lot. As an alternative you can hire bicycles (15 Eur/ day) which are a good alternative for exploring the city.
• People call Stockholm “Venice of the North” because it consist of 14 islands and 42 bridges.

Accommodation

Due to the marathon, most of the hotels were fully booked. No need to say that those that were available were crazy expensive (900 EUR for 3 nights). Luckily Airbnb is also present in this country and we could find an amazing small one-bedroom apartment in a quiet living area not very far from the city center (the best thing was that it costed 1/3rd of the hotel rates).

What to do in Stockholm when visiting it for a weekend:

• The Old Town or Gamla Stan.

  Located amongst the canals (which unlike Venice are quite big), it is a cute area with a lot of shops and small restaurants. Usually it is very crowded (at least the main streets), but you can still find places where you can be on your own.

  

  

  An important sightseeing place is Stortorget– a small square with old Swedish buildings (this is a very famous place which you will see on most postcards from Stockholm).

  

  Although there are a lot of bars and restaurants there, I would recommend you to avoid sitting there as the place is quite touristic). I can also recommend to find the smallest street in the Old Town- Mårten Trotzigs. It is literary as small as one person can pass by (if you are overweight, it might be difficult to pass through).

  

• ABBA Museum

  The museum itself is very small- it is basically one house turned into a museum. You can buy tickets online (there are specific hours for which you can book your tour- because of the limited space, not many people can enter at once). I can recommend you to buy the tickets online as thus you skip the queue (even if you are there, you can still buy them online).

  

  If you are an ABBA fan (like I am), this will be an amazing experience. From the cafe to the last room you visit, you can feel the spirit of this remarkable success these 4 people made- remarkable not only for their times, but in general.

  

  Coming from the tiny Sweden and becoming famous back then, was not something many people did. They totally turned the whole music industry- and left huge trace in the history.

  

  Rich costumes, interesting stories and ABBA music is what you experience during the whole tour. One very interesting fact for me was that two of them were actually a couple in life as well.

• Vasa Museum

  Located on the same peninsula as Nordisk Museum, the Vasa museum holds the Vasa ship which sank in the beginning of the 17th century. After 333 years on the sea bed the mighty warship was salvaged. Nowadays it is the world’s only preserved 17th century ship.

• Nordiska Museet

  As the website of this Museum says ” is Sweden’s largest museum of cultural history. An everyday palace, and a place of stories about the life and people of the Nordic region – yesterday, today and tomorrow. Discover clothes and fashion, textiles and jewelry, homes and furniture, photography, toys, folk art, glass and porcelain. There is also an exhibition about the only indigenous people in Sweden, the Sami.” When visiting a town for just a weekend of course you have to sacrifice some things and visiting museums is what we chose to skip.

  

  

• Fotografiska Museum

  The museum is located close to the stops for big cruising ships (although it is written that it is in the city center, I would say it is a bit aside and not in a very nice area to walk- at least when we visited it there was a huge construction site of the new harbour).

  

  

  The museum is a main meeting point for contemporary photography, hosting different exhibitions every week. We did not enter, but we went to the area and had a walk around. I can highly recommend a place above the museum from where there is an amazing view to Fotografiska and to the amuzement park on the opposite island.

  

• The Royal Swedish Opera House

  We did not enter, but the architecture and the size of the building are impressive. Laying on a tiny island next to the Old Town, you can easily just pass by and enjoy its majesty.

  

• Have a drink/ a walk in Strandvagen

  We enjoyed very nice weather and having a walk in this area by the water or enjoying a drink was a must-do in between the long walks. You will see beautifully maintained buildings and nice architecture, perfect for taking lovely photos.

  

  

• Shopping

  The main shopping street in Stockholm is called Drottninggatan. As you might assume Stockholm is not cheap (compared to rest of Europe), but if you are an H&M fan, you will find a lot of things which you cannot find in your country (H&M is a Swedish brand and you will have the feeling that there are shops every few steps).

• Södra Teatern

  As lovers of the views from above, we were looking for spots located high on the surrounding hills. This is how we came to Södra Teatern– “Sweden’s foremost international venue for music, theatre & debate. Since 1997, international performances were their main focus. We house diverse events, spanning from club-scene entertainment, concerts, theatre, bars and restaurants and readings to children’s philosophy”. Besides the cultural part, they have a lovely bar which also offers amazing view to Gamla Stan and Fotografiska Museum.

• Visit some of the local parks. Hagaparken

  “Haga Park” or simply Haga in Solna Municipality just north of Stockholm (very close to the city center). Our Apartment was close to it, so while walking around we passed through it. Beside the various sports activities, it is a vast and popular nature area, with large parks, lakes, woods and gardens.

• Stockholm Metro

  It is a piece of art. In the stations you will find cave drawings, different statues and exhibitions. I find this blog quite useful if you wan to organize a tour yourself and find the spots with the nicest subway locations. There is also a free tour offered which takes 1.5 hours and you are visiting around 5-7 stations.

I found also very good explanation where all these pieces of art are located in the following blog (also a lot of pictures present).

As we had some more free time, we decided to visit two other “attractions” – Ostermalm and the Globen. The first one is a fashionable residential neighborhood, but honestly it did not impress me. It had nothing special also in terms of architecture, but maybe I’m not aware of the architecture styles.

• Erickson Globe.

The other attraction – the Erickson Globe is the largest hemispherical building on Earth and took two and a half years to be build. It resembles a large white ball, it has a diameter of 110 meters. We just saw it from the outside, but I guess it is more remarkable on the inside.

This time I will not mention any eating spots as anyway Stockholm is a very expensive place- sometimes the place where you eat does not depend on preference, but on budget. There are many areas where you will find cute restaurants, also hipster places, as well as there are open air food festivals where you can try different meals.

Stockholm really surprises- despite being in the North, it is a cool city with its own vibe. Yes, it is expensive, but you can also visit it on a budget- do not ignore the charming ‘Venice of the North”. More inspirations for weekend escapes you can find here.