Day 32 - 34 Stockholm

18 - 20 August 2014

Day 32
On the train
Today I'm catching a train from Bergen to Oslo, then another from Oslo to Stockholm. It'll take about 14 hours. The first train, the Bergen to Oslo one, is meant to be one of the most scenic train rides around. After having done it, I can say that it is pretty good. At the start I saw clouds drifting through the fjords as the train ducked in and out of tunnels and then near the top of the mountains it all changed to patches of snow and rocks with a surprising amount of holiday cabins. Then the trip down the hill is all green, grassy fields. This first train, a Norwegian one, was really nice with WiFi, power points and tables for each chair.

Once in Oslo I had to find the ticket machine to print my next ticket. The station is full of bright red machines for the Norwegian trains but I needed the Swedish machine. I finally found it, all on its own, hidden behind a pole. The machine wasn't on the map and it was the same concrete grey colour as the pole. Someone should pay for this mistake!

After the ticket situation, I grabbed some Asian takeaway. I ordered the hottest one they had, it only had a picture of 2 chillis but the guy warned me that it's really hot. It wasn't. It did have some spice but I expected more from all the hype so I guess Norwegians don't like spice.

Where the Norwegian train was new, had tables, allowed you to reserve a seat for free and had WiFi, the Swedish train was the opposite. It was crappy and old, had no WiFi, had no tables and charged extra to reserve a seat. Norway 1 - Sweden 0. I didn't pay to reserve a seat so it meant I could sit in a free one until someone kicked me out but I found a single seat on its own and nobody asked me to move for the whole trip, yay.

To the hostel
Once in Stockholm, I had to walk about 45 minutes to the hostel where I checked in and pretty much went straight to sleep. Travel days are tiring.

Day 33
Breakfast
The hostel didn't provide breakfast so I walked to the local supermarket to get some milk for the cereal I already had. It turns out there is A LOT of drinking yoghurt in Sweden and it was sort of hard to find the milk. I also spotted what I think is the first time I've ever seen hectograms used.

The kr is short for kroner, the currency, and I think hr is short for hectograms.

Then there was this weird pack of something.

I can tell you it's NOT museli, but I don't know what it actually is ;)

Sightseeing
My first stop was the Nobel Museum. It sounded interesting but I didn't feel like paying the entry price they were asking so the next plan was to join the walking tour. I had an hour to kill before it started but I'd already walked around Gamla Stan (the touristy island) and I was feeling impatient so I headed off to see the TV Tower instead.

Looking over the water from Gamla Stan

On the way I saw these cool looking city health meters.

City heath meters

Which water features are measured

Which air features are measured

The towers have light up strips that show the current levels of certain things in the city like air and water quality.

TV Tower
Once at the TV Tower, I headed up to the observation deck to get a view of Stockholm.

The TV Tower

Sweden is certainly a lot flatter than the parts of Norway I saw so I could see a long way but it wasn't all that spectacular.

Looking east over the archipelago

Looking west over the city

From here I could also see a cool looking rock maze.

Rockin' rock maze

After leaving the TV Tower, I sheltered from a short lived downpour. The cool thing was I got a double rainbow afterwards.

Double rainbow... ALL THE WAY!

I saw this cool sign on the way back to the hostel too.

No penny farthings

The can opener
For dinner I had to open a can of tuna (that didn't have a ring pull). I searched the kitchen for a can opener because it seemed like a common thing to have. I couldn't find anything initially and I was about to take the tin outside and smash it open but then I saw this contraption.

Maybe it's a can opener. Maybe it just a funny shaped piece of metal that's marginally better at opening cans that a brick.

I've never seen a can opener like this and I'm still not sure it was a can opener because it sucked at opening cans. Still, I managed to use it to get the can open and I didn't starve to death.

In the evening I met a Dutch guy in my room who was a bio-engineer and he told me all sorts of things about the profession. It was a really interesting talk.

Day 34
No late checkout
This hostel has a checkout time of midday, which is unusually late, but the crappy thing was I had to leave early for my flight to Belgium so I couldn't even make use of it. I wanted to go through Denmark and Germany on the way to Holland but it proved too hard with hostels being full plus I didn't want to miss Belgium so Brussels it is!

Thoughts on Stockholm

• All Swedish hostels seem to charge extra for linen, I'm not sure why.
• All the taxis are black. Not that interesting I guess but it's different to other cities I've been in.
• Sweden is very flat.
• It rained quite a few times while I was there but it was only very brief and the sun always came out right after.