Bob's World: Facing the winter in Stockholm

At times, people would do crazy things all for no apparent reason. Kay decides that we should try white Christmas and booked a flight to Stockholm.

A matter of fact:

London average temperature at the time of travel: 2ºc to 6ºc

Stockholm average temperature at the time of travel: -3ºc to -6ºc

Forget the tour agencies. Just get yourselves a copy of Lonely Planet as a guide instead.

Unfortunately, Kay’s hope was as if flushed down the toilet bowl when we realized there was no snow when we arrive in Stockholm. To make matter worse, we have to embrace a bitter cold below 0ºc without the delightful snow that Kay hoped so much for.

As for me, the truth is, despite the crazy things that Kay does, I actually enjoyed the trip very much.

The capital of Sweden, Stockholm has a host of friendly people. You see people, they smile at you. You are lost in the middle of Stockholm? Don’t worry, A friendly bloke will help you find your way. Almost everyone speaks English so, language is not a problem.

The good thing about traveling with Kay is that she arranged and plan everything. My role? I just look at the ‘key performance index’ (the cost ££!) before agreeing to go on with the plan. Kay managed to pick up a good deal on the internet for our accommodation, despite it’s a under high-end category. We stayed at Clarion Hotel, which the room is fairly small, nevertheless, comfortable.

Comfy, comfy bed

But what we really love about this hotel is the breakfast served. It has a fine range of buffet selection.

Range of pickled herring

One of the main highlight when one is visiting Stockholm is to hop on a boat sight-seeing trip. Stockholm is made-up of approximately 24,000 small islands (also known as archipelago). So, for those who is interested in photography, it has one of the few scenic view you might want to consider capturing and bring it home. However, you are going to need to brave the cold because it is freezing out there. During summer people will go out for a swim and relax amongst the islands.

Unfortunately, traveling to Stockholm in December only offer 6 hours of sunlight as the sun sets at 3 pm.

I had once traveled to Frankfurt and some of the smaller towns in Germany during my student days and enjoyed Christmas Market celebration. Kay told me Skansen in Stockholm has the biggest Christmas Market in Sweden which build-up my expectation. Christmas market is a set-up of little stalls within a square and offer range of Christmas goodies from decorations to Swedish staples (cheese, smoked meat etc) and hot food.

Get yourselves into the crowd

People preparing food at Christmas Market

My half-bitten Hot Dog.

Sadly, it was not as colorful or as lively as what I would have expected. Maybe it was the expectations built up from my previous experience in Germany. Because it gets dark early in Stockholm, the Christmas market activities slowed down by 5 pm and by 6 pm most of the stalls would have been closed. In my previous experience in Germany, Christmas market was much livelier and activities went on beyond 6 pm. I guess its different culture.

If you want to experience the life of a sailor in the 17th century, you can visit the Vasamuseet. It depicts the voyage of Vasa (a large war ship) which was overturned and sunk within minutes after being launch.

The model of Vasa at the entrance

A replica of life on board of Vasa

Welcome to Skansen. The best way to understand the life of a Swedish in their early days is to visit Skansen, the open-air museum. It has around 150 traditional houses making it a miniature Sweden.

You can visit some of these houses which are occupied by staffs dressed in their traditional costumes, recreating the lives of early days in Sweden. There is even a Nordic Zoo which house moose, brown bear, elk, lynx and reindeer. However, it got dark early and we didn’t see anything save for an elk with the help of our camera flash light.

We stopped by at a bakery shop to indulge in some of the local pastries. The one on the right is a custard pastry. Don’t know what’s the one on the left called but it's 'hard' and taste funny. Not my kind of pastry.

SO... it's pastry!

If you want to enjoy yourselves in some shopping, just head to Gamla Stan, the old town of Stockholm. Filled with historic buildings which host lots of shops for the tourists. Like a maze, the key word is for you to enjoy yourself in Gamla Stan is to ‘get lost’.