“Hej” from Sweden

Boat and Stockholm skyline
Originally uploaded by rtw2007.

Having had gorgeous weather for a whole week in Norway (which was lucky given the time of year), Sweden brought us back to earth weather-wise, with rain on the first night and a full on storm (rain, sleet, hail, snow, thunder and lightening all within the space of a few hours) on our second night. At least we have now well and truly tested the waterproofing on the van of dreams, though, and it passed with flying colours.

We spent just a morning in Uppsala, the weather being just too miserable to make us want to wander for long (and prompting yet another wienerpølser – though they are varm korv in Sweden – to warm us up). We headed into Stockholm via Sigtuna, a tiny town which is reputedly the oldest Sweden. Once in Stockholm, we met up with Jon and went out for a few drinks with his friends (and seemingly the whole of the rest of Stockholm’s post-work-on- Friday-night crowd) at the incredibly crowded Scandic bar, followed by sushi and some more drinks at Stureplan.

That all lead to a very late start on Saturday morning. After breakfast we headed out into the now beautiful sunshine and still rather bracing wind to go for a long walk around Kungsholmen and Södermalm and a spot of lunch at one of Stockholm’s many lovely cafes. After lunch we headed off to Östermalm to have coffee with Darragh and Lotten; play a few games of apartment football with Leo; and say hello to their tiny but very sweet new arrival, Oliver, on the day before his one week birthday. We left there mid-afternoon and headed into Gamla Stan to sit in the sunshine with Jon drinking beer, before heading off for meze and more drinks with newly engaged Andreas and Hannah. Exhausted by all the fresh air (and beer drinking), we headed back to Jon’s for bizarre political discussion over a bottle of red wine - another late night.

Sunday brought yet another late start (which is becoming a habit); a leisurely trip out to Vaxholmen; some Swedish meatballs courtesy of Chez Jon; and then off to the ferry to Finland (which we eventually found having thought that we were leaving from a completely different port to the one we actually needed, thus prompting a quick and unexpected navigation across the city).

Jon – thank you very, very much indeed for all your hospitality whilst we were in Stockholm. It was great to stay at your place, giving us a break from the van, and we really appreciated you organising drinks / dinner / trips out of the city etc etc. Tack så mycket!