Day 12: Stockholm
5:00am Sharp!
That’s when our alarms went off. We popped out of bed and headed down to the Oslo Central Station. Once on our 6:00am train, Tony and I settled in for a five hour ride to Stockholm. Here’s some photos of the view:
Tony working diligently catching up on emails and what not.
Since we were up so early, no breakfast was had.
There was a pathetic little “kiosk” with nothing (really) worth eating or drinking. So we swayed and we fasted, and as the hours past, we got very tired, and a little nauseous.
Dehydrated, sleepy, and woozy, we slithered off the train in search of caffeine. Tony does not drink coffee, but is a sugar-free energy drink drinker. You may curl your lip, but don’t judge. We all have our vices.
One sparkling water and Sugar-Free Monster later, we made the 10 minute walk to our hotel!
We’re at the HTL Upplandsgatan, a “smart” hotel, which apparently means no drawers – or furniture actually. But we don’t mind – with barely 48 hours to explore, who’s got time to unpack?!
So off we went, in search of lunch. We were directed to the nearby Vete-Katten, where we enjoyed a delicious salad:
Pic of lunch.
We were pleased to see the prices for food and drink return to normal, and actually Vete-Katten also provided water, coffee, bread, butter, and cookies along with all lunch orders:
After some sustenance and more caffeination, we were ready! Map in hand, we made our way down through Norrmalm (the “new city”, where our hotel is),
To Gamla Stan (Old Town)
And then down and over another bridge to Ostermalm (“Hipster” town), where there were amazing views of the rest of the city:
Here you can see most of “Old Town” in the background…a breathtaking view of the city overlooking the harbor.
We meandered through streets and stopped to chill in the small square in Gamla Stan, just outside of the Nobel Prize Museum:
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped for a drink (I stopped for a drink, and Tony joined me) to enjoy the sunshine and watch Swedes leave work and meet up for a Carlstad.
At this point, we started to feel weary! But, a fan of Tony’s recommended a restaurant to us, and made us reservations for 7:30pm. We began to wonder how we’d stay awake…
Luckily, the lady at the front desk of our hotel called and changed our reservation from 7:30pm to 6:00pm (I know! We are early birds!).
The Grill was amazing. A funky place with live jazz and edgy décor:
Tony had the Tenderloin of a Swedish cow, and I had grilled lamb with grilled veggies.
Afterward, we were in search of ice cream for Tony, and came across Organic Gelato. There were even a few Vegan flavors! I had dairy-free peanut butter, which was somehow better than Tony’s creamy cookies and cream:
We were back at the hotel by 8:15pm, and ready for bed just about an hour later! Tomorrow, a FULL day in Stockholm! See you then,
Lisa (and Tony)
