Winter Travel - Part One
Europe Travel in Winter...
....is really as cold as you would expect.
PART ONE
Winter travel is beautiful and magical, and way different than what I'm used to (total opposite of living by the beach in Central CA). While it was fun and lovely, I do prefer summer/spring travel.
Let's start at the beginning...
Once upon a time... Jokes, not for real
My best friend was doing a semester abroad in Sweden, and her finals weren't going to be until early January, which meant she was going to have nearly 2 months off from school and nothing to do. So I thought why not visit and travel a bit!
So I headed over during winter break, left I believe December 19th? And I returned January 5th.
Not long I know, I do prefer prolonged more leisurely travel, but I had a serious itch for traveling and needed to go somewhere.
Flying
Flying
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Lund, Sweden
one night
getting off the train in the town (Lund) where my friend was studying on the night I first arrived, it was pouring rain when I got there and it was 9pm and 30 degree F...
On the plus side I made a Swedish friend on the train named Frieda who was returning home for her sisters friend after living in Atlanta, Georgia :) she was super nice and helpful
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Copenhagen, Denmark
10 hours...
this was one little christmas tree that they had set up in the entry area into the Palace for the public to view and for decoration, to the right (it isn't in the picture) was a dining table that was beautifully stages for a christmas supper
one of the Royal horses, she was super sweet and came right up to the fence to greet us :)
she let us pet her for awhile, she was super soft, and all the horses (12 I think) were extremely well kept
the carriage house in the Christiansborg Palace, the royal family resides in this Palace and they regularly will take the horses and carriages out and take rides through the city, mostly in warmer weather but occasionally in winter
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Stockholm, Sweden
2+ days
we arrived in Stockholm at 1am and were staying at the cutest hostel ever!! I believe it was called Castanea, check it out online if you are traveling to Stockholm, it as located in the heart of Gamla Stan (old town) which was a little island in the middle of Stockholm that connects to the other part of the cities by bridges (crossing those bridges in the middle of the night with bitterly cold wind, was not something I'd want to do again, it was really beautiful)
our first day in Stockholm, we went to the water where we ate a snack and took some photos...
so in case you don't know Stockholm is surrounded by water, the whole city is pretty much intermixed with rivers and water and connected by bridges everywhere, the city is actually a bunch of connected islands
this was a gingerbread recreation of the palace we went in, which was converted into a museum about Swedish culture and history, it was really interesting to learn about the country and people
this was part of the folk art installation they had temporarily in the museum which was so cool! I love embroidery and cloth which was everywhere, and also intermixed were some traditional hats and clothing of the people and people from the northern part of Sweden as well
this was just such a cool mirror, and the way the light reflected was perfect...
this was our second day, we went to a museum called Vasamuseet, which was all about this 16th century boat that sunk in one of Stockholms bays and was perfectly preserved and pulled out of the water in the 1900's
the dark boat in the background is the real boat itself, and the brown and red one is an exact replica. the boat sunk because the King at the time made changes to the boat, adding too much weight to it, so when the wind blew the sails and the boat began to tip the extra weight made the boat sway and then the cannon holes began to fill with water, it actually sank right after leaving port, which I find hilarious
we flew back to Copenhagen at 5 am, and so we had to leave the hostel at 2 am and head to the bus station which was taking us to the airport, once again it was bitterly cold... so many layers were worn
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Malmo, Sweden
5 hours
rather then taking the train straight back to Lund form Copenhagen, we stopped in Malmo to walk around and grab some food, but it was super cold and ridiculously windy so we didn't end up staying too long, we did get to walk through a beautiful park/cemetery and we took some pictures, we also stopped in the cutest cafe ever!
a little art gallery and some classic wooden Swedish children's toys displayed for sale in their shop
this is what traveling in winter looks like with a backpack...
also that scarf was definitely necessary to combat the cold, but everyday it turned my hair into a giant rats nest which took forever to undo and nothing could prevent it, braids, ponytail, nothing stopped it
we found a church to hide from the cold in, I think it was St. Kristopher or something...
the organ was playing :)
they also had free coffee which I grabbed to warm my hands...
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Now for some storytelling...
This is more going to be just bullet points to keep things brief, feel free to laugh at my misfortune btw...
- also I want to note this was my first time traveling solo ever.... so I had a few stressful moments, and an anxiety attack, but I made it to my destination!
- on the train from the airport I made a Swedish friend named Frieda who looked just a freaked as me, because her flight from Atlanta, Georgia was delayed so she was late for her sisters wedding, we sat together on the train and chatted, she lived in Lund so we were going to the same location, she ended up missing her sisters wedding but she made it to the family dinner after
- I arrived in Lund at 9, couldn't find my friend for an hour, so I spent an hour walking around in the rain, fun
- we left the next morning to catch the train to the airport to head to Stockholm at 8 am, I wore new leather boots which gave me a nasty blister that covered the whole back of my heel
- we got to the airport with time left over only to realize that my friend hadn't checked in to our flight, and because we used Ryanair you had to check in 24 hours in advance, so we missed our flight, and had to schedule a new flight and pay for it as well :( it also wasn't until 8pm
- so we improvised and spent the day in Copenhagen, I was pretty much in a delirium for most of this, I danced my way through the Christiansborg castle, and did the whip nae nae in a ball room, cuz I'm classy like that
- we returned to the airport and frantically called the hostel to let them know we'd be late so they gave us a key code to get in, which it took us forever to find the ONE pay phone available and then we had to find out how it worked...
- we finally got there and slept wonderfully
- we made some friends at our hostel which was lovely, Ky (from Australia), Sarai (exchange student in Manchester from Asia), and two girls from Germany that I cannot remember their names, but one of them was making a hat for her mom and tried it on my head because the hat was kinda a wonky shape, she was so nice and sweet and it was actually her birthday!
- the first day we went to a museum and walked around the city and ate at a delicious cafe called Chocolate or something and the food was AMAZING, it was a tiny place but so tasty, I also had a traditional drink called Glogg, like mulled wine
- the second day Ky, an Australian teacher adventured with us, we went to an outdoors childrens park that has a christmas mart and traditionally dressed performers, only they are only there on the weekend so we missed them, but we ate lunch and I had delicious swedish meat balls, and lingonberry sauce, with potatoes and gravy, it was a traditional Swedish meal
- that night my friend went to a local pub with a group of people from the hostel while I stayed, because I was tired and I chatted with the two german girls, they were so nice and it was a really nice relaxing break to just get to chill
- when they returned from the pub they opened this can of fermented fish that is a popular thing in Sweden but only amongst old men who eat it with Schnapps, its called Surstromming and you should look up videos of people eating it, it's hilarious, it stunk up the whole hostel so they opened all the windows to get rid of the stink and had to throw it away in a trash can outside, one of the guys got it on his arm and it made it stink no matter how much he washed it
- we returned and went to Malmo for the day which was a nice trip, it was cute town, very quiet
- then we went to Lund and went to bed
End of Part 1! Part 2 coming soon!! (Part 2 will include some funny anecdotes and London)
also this is hilarious: for any americans out there, 7-Elevens are HUGE in Sweden and they are super fancy, they have fresh fruit and veg and all sorts of other things, totally different from the trashy gas stations with homeless people that I'm used to
this one below was in Stockholm and had a red carpet!
So long, farewell!
xo RC
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