So when I left off we were catching the overnight train to Stockholm. This was the journey we'd tried to change a few times and eventually had managed to do so at the Ice Hotel, courtesy of the lovely Johanna on reception. The only problem was that by the time we managed to change our tickets, the compartments were filling up pretty quick and we couldn't get one together, but just next door to each other. That was ok, the conductor told us when the other people in the compartments would be arriving so we knew we could hang out in the same compartment til at least midnight.
So we settled in for the journey. But to be honest, there isn't a real lot to do on the train, once you've read your one book that you brought. We watched a bit of South Park on Jun's ipod, ate some food, and then the boredom set in - which was when Jun had a brainwave... cue the Mission Impossible music... to commandeer the train destination signs of his favourite places in Sweden... so we spent some time dodging the train conductor and 'borrowing' the signs from the ends of the carriages where they were kept. It was really funny, because at one point we got back to our compartment, and Jun opened the door - only to find it wasn't our compartment! There were people inside watching a DVD! Hahaha...
Anyway, eventually we settled in for the night - well, I tried to, but I kept being woken up by phone calls from home on account of even though it was the 22nd in Sweden, it was now the 23rd in Australia, and thus my birthday. Tried to sleep after this, but the train was noisy and I really didn't get much sleep at all. All too soon the train was pulling into Stockholm and it was time for Mission: Impossible II - breakfast.
Do you think we could find a nice little cafe for a nice breakfast? Do you think anything was open? No, it's a Saturday, why would anything be open in the capital at 7 in the morning? We eventually found a small cafe that did sandwiches, which is what we ended up with for breakfast, then we made our way into the centre of town for Mission: Impossible III: to find the Design Torget store so Jun could get his bag. We eventually found it - but it didn't open til 10! This was a bit of a problem as Jun needed to be on the bus to the airport at 11ish latest... and we had to find a photo store to copy his photos for me...would we have enough time?

Eventually the store opened, Jun got his bag, and I got a set of very funky mugs, and then we sprinted off in search of a photo store - not as easy as we had hoped, but after asking around we eventually found it. Got the photos burned to CD, raced back to the bus stop - and Jun made his bus. Phew! Time for a quick goodbye, and he was off.
After that, I made my way into Gamla Stan, which is one of my favourite parts of Stockholm, and treated myself to a nice lunch in one of the pubs there, 


before heading off to see the Vasa Museum. I thought I'd been there last time I was in Stockholm, but I hadn't, and as it's one of the most important museums to see there, I thought it best to go have a look. The Vasa was a Medieval ship that sunk, like the Mary Rose, on its maiden voyage in 1628, because it was top heavy and had insufficient ballast. It remained hidden for centuries until it was found in the late 1950s, in extremely good condition, and was raised in 1961. The wood was specially treated and so on, like they're doing to the Mary Rose today, and eventually it went on display in the museum. It was really quite spectacular to see - Dad, you would really love this.




By this time it was now late afternoon, so I did a bit of shopping, went to the train station and used the internet for a bit, killing time, until about 8.30pm when a bunch of drunk hooligans came over and started hassling me a bit. So I left and got the earlier bus out to the airport.
It took about an hour to get there and basically I killed time until the restaurant where Jun and I had slept on the first night closed, and then I made my way up there and settled in for the night.
Next morning was an early start - had to be in the queue at 6am, went through security and onto the flight back to London.
It had been an absolutely amazing trip, one that I enjoyed immensely and certainly will not forget for some time...
No comments:
Post a Comment