Hello all.
I hope you're all doing well. I am happy to announce that I have safely made it to Sweden! After a very long stay in Toronto, complete with an expected Air Canada delay, I have managed to get to Stockholm.
I actually got here on Tuesday afternoon; by the time you read this, it will be Thursday morning. The funny thing is I struggled more in Toronto than I have in Sweden, both in getting around and the amount of little annoyances. I don't like Pearson, not at all.
I spent most of Tuesday after arriving getting settled in, getting something to eat, etc. I did manage to get a fair bit of walking around at the least. I was very lucky to be in a central spot of the city to enjoy some of the classical architecture.
I didn't have a real plan, admittedly, but I did get a chance to cross around the zigzag of walkable paths dotted around the place. Stockholm itself is a lovely city. Absolutely one of the most beautiful I have been to. It's a beautiful mix of modern and classical architecture, and so I did take a while to walk the streets.
I love little side streets with shops. I am infatuated with them. It is a bit weird to have mixed people and vehicle traffic. I'm still not used to it myself, and so I kept finding myself getting surprised by vehicles in tight corridors.
One thing I did do on Saturday is find my way to The Royal Palace of Stockholm, completely unintentionally mind you. I didn't intend to go, but I found myself following a crowd through a little park, and somehow ended up popping up there. With nothing better to do, I decided to jump into the tour and buy a ticket.
Such a wonderful experience for under 30 dollars. Beautiful place, wonderful display of collectibles and historical artifacts, and a great history lesson being given in the silver throne room. Well worth the money if you get to it. It takes about an hour or two to go through, depending on how much you stop to see. It feels almost endless how many rooms there are, and each one has vast collections to look over and read about, as well as some of the most beautiful ceiling art I have ever seen.
Sadly, it started raining pretty hard once I left the palace. As such, I returned to my hotel to relax a bit and rest up. My day 2 was mostly travel; I went out for more walks in the morning, got around a few stores (including a cute candy store), and then was on a train to Linköping.
Here, I didn't do much; the train ride was very nice. The ride through the Swedish countryside reminds me a lot of home, lots of trees and lakes. Once I got in, I got to the hotel, had dinner, and then crashed.
So my first two days were fairly quiet, which, considering we are on day 4 and I feel drained, might be a tease for how busy day 3 and 4 were! Thank you to all of you who were curious and messaged about how I was doing. I can confirm I am alive! And doing well, even if tired and a bit sore.
Sweden is a lovely place, and it's been a very different experience being here. Swedes are very nice, very talkative, though they refuse to let me practice my Swedish! Every time I try, they switch to English. Swedes, I know, speak English very well, but sadly they do not want to talk Swedish to me, I find. Except for one very nice lady at the Palace who not only took the time to work me through some phrases, but also gave me some new phrases to use. I appreciate that.
Our day 3 and 4 posts will be far more juicy, but I did want people to have some update to know I'm doing alright. Sadly, it's been so busy I have barely had time to write! As a bit of an apology, here are some teasers for what's to come!
