4th
Onward to Stockholm
Yesterday I left Oslo, which was a little sad considering that the city was so wonderful and I have no idea when I’ll be able to see it again. My train wasn’t until 4pm, so I had some time to kill, and kill time I did. Unlike the two days previous, the weather wasn’t cooperating. It was foggy and gray, so my plans to go to a former maritime school with a great view and to ride the ferry down the fjord a short way were useless. I did some window shopping and I read some chapters in the book I carried along, The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Fall of America’s Man-Made Landscape, by James Howard Kunstler.
My train ride to Stockholm was around 6 hours long. The train was probably the worst I’ve taken while in Europe. Still, it wasn’t awful, and it was a lot better than taking an American bus (since trains are hardly available to us, especially affordable ones). I was pretty tired once I arrived, but I managed to find my hostel OK. In one of those strange coincedences, the girl sitting in front of me on the train was also staying in the same hostel as me. Not only that, but I had just met her best friend, who is in my study abroad program, right before leaving Denmark. We ended up spending today together. We went to the Vasa Museum, which features a really big 17th century ship that was salvaged from Stockholm Harbor. It’s almost fully intact, which is pretty amazing. We checked out the city hall and also just walked around for a while.
Stockholm pros: it’s pretty, with a grandness about its architecture; there’s always water nearby because the central city is made up of 14 islands; the people are nice, offering help to tourists without solicitation; I got to sleep on a ship hostel for only around $33 a night.
Stockholm cons: there are too many cars, even with the recently-implemented congestion tax, and the cars are quite large; the trams are not really an integrated part of the public transit system, instead they’re more of a tourist attraction; it’s too big with too many people.
To be fair, I haven’t been to Gamla Stan, the old part of the city, which probably has the most charm. Also, the weather was unusually nice today (I didn’t even need a jacket), so everyone was outside. In addition, Stockholm has been hyped up by my friends back in Denmark.
Tomorrow I’m on my own again. I’ll be visiting the famous Gamla Stan (old town), so Stockholm will have another chance to rise from the bottom spot on my ranking of Scandinavian capitals.
