Stockholm

[July 9 - 13]

To maintain a prententious image as a young, cool traveler, there are a few things to do and not to do. I'd say that riding on a sightseeing tour bus full of camera-toting middle age people is number one on the things not to do, but we did just that in Stockholm.



Our reasons for the bus were quite valid. Dean's parents only had one full day with us before they headed home, so we decided to take the plunge and do the ultimate touristy thing.

Initially, I was not into the idea of getting shuttled around on a bus to see the area crammed into a span of two hours. However, we found a nice bus/boat combination package and actually can admit I enjoyed it. Of course, we looked the part by taking pictures from the bus windows and pointing at passerbys.

The weather was lovely and the Sunday morning scene was very peaceful and relaxed. Next time I'd like to take a bike ride around the city. But in the midday sun it was just a bit too hot for that.

With Dean's parents around, we enjoyed a great dinner at a famous fish restaurant and had sushi the next night. After they left, we went back to our miserly ways and tried to scavenge around for free apples in the hotel lobby. We would have stayed in a hostel, but the hotel was paid for by our kind parental sponsors. Thanks guys!

On our last full day, we met up with Viesturs, a Latvian friend who once lived in Seattle. He is starting a graduate program in Uppsala and living in Stockholm. We were all fairly new to the city so we just walked around and checked out the modern art museum. It was really a good collection but the air conditioning was very chilly and forced you to keep moving along for warmth.



And because we've been to so many modern art museums this year, I've started to recognize artists' work that I've seen before in other countries. Not that I'm an expert on any of them, but it is nice to spot the same styles.

Before we took the airport bus to move along to London, we did some last minute shopping for gifts. Now that it was near the end of the trip we had started a bit of a buying spree. Luckily, or unluckily, Sweden is expensive and has a high value added tax so we couldn't go to crazy with the spending.

Off to London!