STOCKHOLM (SWEDEN)

Escaping the heat of Madrid and a quick stop in London, I continued accross the globe to Stockholm in Sweden, where I spent two fun filled weeks hanging out with my sister and catching up with friends of ours. Throughout the entirety of my visit to Stockholm the weather was absolutely amazing with the sun shining all day, every day from almost 3am in the morning until 10:30pm at night. The extremely long days were somewhat of a luxury because it enabled me to achieve a hell of alot in a single day. Furthermore, in addition to the warm weather providing a nice relief from the overcast days I experienced in London, the 25 - 30 degree temperatures made it ideal for enjoying various water activities such as sailing, swimming and of course wakeboarding.

Stockholm as a city is probably one of the most beautiful and interesting locations I have visited in my life. Somewhat like Sydney, the centrepiece of the city is the harbour, however Stockholm has alot more water than anywhere in Australia, an occurrence arising from the fact that the city has been constructed across many islands in the archipeligo just off the Swedish mainland coast.

I found the old city (Gamla Stan) to be particularly beautiful and really enjoyed exploring many of the interesting museums in the area. I particularly liked the Vasa museum, which was dedicated to the 17 th century warship (the largest of its time), which was built and then sunk after travelling only 300m along the harbour because ballast calculations had been stuffed up by the King trying to make the ship bigger, without having the proper engineering knowledge. I also managed to get some good views of the city from Scandanavia's highest building (155m), which gave me a good idea of the city layout amongst the different islands. During my time in Stockholm I also managed a trip to the island of Vaxolm, just north of Stockholm and a trip to see Shakespeare's 12th night (in Swedish - as if it wasn't complicated enough in English !)

Having my sister Hanna with me for my 2 weeks in Stockholm was definately a highlight of my trip not only because I hadn't seen her for almost 6 months, but also because of the great number of local contacts she had developed during her exchange year in Stocholm during 2001. I think being able to interact with a great number of local people and having the chance to 'enter into their lives' has given me a very different view of Stockholm compared with that experienced by the normal backpacker. Probably the best example of this being the case was my opportunity to spend a number of days further out in the archipeligo on the small Högmarsö. As one of only about 100 people staying on the island, this provided a fantastic chance for me to just relax and enjoy the magnificent surrounds. During my stay here the weather was so good and when I wasn't wandering around taking photos I was enjoying swimming, sailing and wakeboarding in the baltic sea, with the low salt content of the seawater being an extra icing on the cake.

Finally, I also managed a number of outings with friends of Hanna and myself to experience the Stockholm nightlife. Despite beers being so damn expensive (~$8AUD), these were also very enjoyable, with a particular favourite ploy of mine being the consumption of beers in combination with 'snussen', a tobacco substance which is placed between the lip and gum, said to provide the same kick as smoking 7 cigarettes at once without the health issues. Needless to say this was a pretty wild experience for a non-smoker like myself.

Photos 1-6: Stockholm harbour - busy with summer activity.
Photo 7: Hanna 'force feeding' me beer, when clearly this was not the best option.
Photo 8: Henrik, Carl, Fredrick and myself.
Photo 9: Hanna's idea - everyone was required to have a potato in the photo. Hanna held hers, Henrik ate his and I decided I would listen to what my potato had to say !
Photo 10: More photos of the group plus a few randoms for good measure.
Photos 11-16: Scenes from the archipeligo. Wakeboarding and numerous boating adventures around Högmarsö plus an amazing sunset photo.
Photos 17-19: Night out with friends in Nortälje.