Swedish delights

Today, I departed Nice and started my solo trip to Scandinavia with no concrete plan and a hungry stomach.

My first stop was Stockholm, Sweden.

As soon as I landed, I realized they don’t use the Euro (it’s okay, I have my credit card), and I couldn’t understand a single thing in Swedish. Thanks to the amazing Swedish education system, though, everyone could understand everything that I was saying. Some people even had better English than me.

I boarded the Arlanda Express, which takes you from the airport to downtown in around twenty minutes — incredibly cheap and efficient. I fell in love immediately with high taxes and amazing public transport. Throughout the entire duration of the train ride, I read The Secret History by Donna Tart (which I later found out was based on a member of my friend’s family). It was very good: her descriptive writing pulls you into the semi-fictional dark academia world.

Anyway, the train stopped in Stockholm, and I citywalked to my hotel. It was a twenty-minute stroll, and once I left the immediate proximity of the station, I probably seemed a little eccentric to the Stockholm-ers as I was pulling my little suitcase and carrying my heavy bag over the gentle hills of metropolitan Sweden — but I did not care.

I arrived at my hotel and checked in with relative ease. The design was incredibly Scandinavian, and I had a very good time. Around this time, I realized I should probably go out and enjoy Stockholm, so I went on a walk.

The walk commenced at this famous garden thing near my hotel, called the Kungstradgarden. While I was going through the garden, some random guy approached me and said something in Swedish or some other language, but I couldn’t understand him, so I said “Huh” in a rather loud and belligerent way. I walked away confused.

As I was strolling by the ocean, feeling the summer breeze, I see the famous Gamla Stan (Old Town), with the palace and many Korean tourist aunties (love them). The palace looked grandiose. I walked in and saw a ticket booth. This shy Swedish guy was sitting there. Some other people asked if they required tickets, the guy said yes, but the others just walked in. I asked if they required tickets, and the guy said yes, and I didn’t want to walk in so I said, “Oh! Okay,” and left. We were very confused. I walked around the cute buildings in Gamla Stan and bought some postcards.

IKEA. I suddenly wanted to go to Ikea (similar to a when in Rome moment). I immediately Googled the closest Ikea. Seeing it was a five-minute walk from my hotel, I immediately started my journey there. On the walk, a Swedish couple was making Biden and Trump jokes, which kind of put a smile on my face. Anyway, I got to Ikea and was a bit lost. It was big, and there were a lot of people. I was rather intimidated, but I survived.

After Ikea, I did the stupid thing of deciding that I wanted to sit in Starbucks for a little bit. I didn’t want a big drink though, so I decided, why not ask for milk? Unfortunately, Swedish people don’t order steamed milk at Starbucks, so the barista had a rather confused look on her face. However, with my “charm,” I got milk. It tasted regular, but I got to sit and respond to some emails without declaring bankruptcy via frappuccino. After I exited Starbucks, I saw a giant American flag. It was a Brandy Melville. I soon discovered through a friend that Brandy Melville was Italian, which put some more confusion on my face.

It was around 5:30 or 6 pm, so I decided to slowly stroll back to my hotel and get ready for my dinner reservation at 7.

This is the first part of my travel journal, more coming soon!