So I don't know if everyone is familiar with the Muppets -- but every Christmas Eve, I used to watch the A Muppet Family Christmas with our good family friends the Howards. Without a doubt, my favorite parts are any that involve the Swedish chef. To give you a good idea (and it was VERY hard to pick just one video out of his vast repertoire -- just search 'swedish chef muppets' on YouTube and you'll be entertained for hours), this is one of my favorites:
It was only natural that in flying to Sweden today, that's what I had in my head (well, that plus Ikea & Swedish meatballs....). I'll admit that there doesn't really seem to be any correlation whatsoever between what I've seen so far and this video -- but I can't help it.
I got up early and took the metro to Opera and then the bus to the airport -- no hassle at all (except for having to wake up too early). Obviously, I was sad to leave Paris -- but it's not going anywhere. I think the highlight of my flight was definitely the woman sitting in front of me. I honestly have never seen any type of clothing like the top she was wearing -- she looked like Big Bird (we might as well keep with the Muppet theme....). While I desperately wanted to ask her if I could take her picture -- I decided that might have been a bad idea, so I took a creeper shot from behind -- I'll let you use your imagination....
Big Bird's Sleeve.
Upon arrival, I met my parents who were (eagerly) waiting at my gate. We caught the bus to the center of Stockholm and then walked to our hotel -- which is basically right on the water! I can't lie -- travelling with my parents is very different from travelling by myself....for example, I'm in a hotel (and will continue to be) with air conditioning, feather pillows, reliable wifi, and the like....not too shabby.
We spent most of the afternoon finding lunch and wandering around the old town - it's an interesting cross between Germany, Poland, and The Netherlands....or at least that's what it seems like to me. Pretty much everyone speaks English, though beyond the hotel we haven't heard many tourists speaking English which has been nice.
Salmon & Spinach "Pie" Lunch
We walked down by the water after lunch and were surprised to see all sorts of military ships -- including the one below. I just looked it up on Wikipedia (the only reliable source, of course) -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visby_class_corvette -- and it is, as we expected, a stealth ship which was really cool to see.
Visby-Class Corvette K31 docked in Stockholm
From what I can tell, Stockholm seems to be a great city -- clean, interesting, full of history (although we aren't really knowledgeable about that history). My dad made some friends on the street and found out that 1. Tomorrow's a national holiday (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_National_Day) and 2. The Princess is getting married to an American on Saturday (http://royalweddings.hellomagazine.com/madeleine-of-sweden-chris-oneill/201305181357/chris-oneill-to-remain-us-citizen/ -- again, seems like the most reliable source on the subject....or not). If only we had intentionally decided to be here for all of these fun events!
Stockholm Palace
Old City of Stockholm
We opted for a quiet night in tonight -- we had some snacks in the lounge area on our floor at the hotel and sat and chatted. Nice start to a fun couple of weeks! I'm basically writing this in the dark and my parents are asleep so I guess I'll stop there.
A demain!
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