To Stockholm and Back

Finally, I went on vacation! And about time too, I was beginning to feel demotivated so this trip away from Finland did me good. This vacation, however, wasn't very relaxing. First of all, I had never been to Stockholm so my time was spent exploring the city. I walked so much, I can feel the newly formed callouses under the ball of my feet... (probably too much information there). Secondly, I lived in a hostel so I didn't have the chance to sleep too well.

Anyway, the stay in Stockholm lasted for six days. Since we stayed for so long, there was no rush. We spent most of our time browsing through the different areas of Stockholm and eventually went on a guided tour to give us some more background knowledge of this city.

As mentioned earlier, we stayed in a hostel called Old Town Lodge which is situated in, surprise surprise, Old Town (Swedish: Gamla Stan). It's a quaint and well maintained hostel. The building is about 600 years old. You can find a part of what was once the city's fortified walls. I had mistook the holes in the wall for seats for people queuing for the toilet... but they're actually openings in the walls for cannons. So this hostel definitely wins in the culture and atmosphere categories. However, a hostel is still a hostel so it only provides what is necessary: Wi-fi, a small breakfast, several small washrooms and bathrooms, and ear plugs (just in case someone snores like a freight train...).

So one of my favourite features of Stockholm is the degree into which the city has been preserved. Sweden hadn't been at war since the early 1900s (where they lost Finland to Russia) and had remained neutral during the First and Second World Wars so most of the city's cultural landmarks still stand to this day. So there is nice integration of modern themes into the traditional infrastructure. Haha, I probably don't actually know what I'm talking about. I think it just looks nice to be able to see old and new juxtaposed together. So there.

I didn't interact much with the locals and sometimes I couldn't tell tourists from natives. But people in Stockholm really don't pay much attention to traffic lights. Actually, the same observation could be made in Finland where about 50% of the pedestrians actually follow the lights. On the other hand, it feels like only 10% of the people follow any signals and the other 90% just read the traffic and cross whenever. So waiting for the green light to walk can actually feel quite futile and stupid. Soon enough, I started crossing intersections whenever there was a gap in traffic too.

(again, 4 years ago!)