(A previous name I had for this entry was: the time I was almost in the movie Taken)
SO – if you know me or have spoken to me at all within the last 5 months then you know that I had spent January 2014-June in Europe and that is all I can think/talk/dream about. Well before I left in January my household was not allowed to watch or even speak of Liam Neeson’s film “Taken” even though it is my father’s favorite. (My father also loves being told that he resembles Neeson a bit… coincidence?) This of course was due to the fact that I was leaving for Europe and my entire family thought I was the type to be kidnapped and my dad would have to contact his FBI friends and in typical dad fashion murder everyone involved. I love my dad and yes he can be scary if he wants to, but sorry dad I do not have full confidence that you would be able to pull that one off.
Anyways.. Living in Europe was safe, for the most part. The first few months I was always on guard, I was living in London so I was not too worried. Always watched out for “black cabs”, never hung around sketchy guys we met at random bars – okay, not NEVER… but we were smart about it! For the most part every country I traveled to was safe also: France, Czech Republic, Ireland, Scotland… Oh but then there was Sweden.
Yes, Sweden. Sarah, is stereotypically what I first thought of when I would think of a “Swedish” person. Tall, Blonde, Friendly. Sarah and her brother (who is also all of the previous attributes) and they are both Swedish. Well we decided hey let’s all go to Sweden. Now, it really doesn’t take much to influence me to travel pretty much anywhere (besides Morocco on a camel in the desert. Sorry Sarah couldn’t get myself to do that with you) so yeah, I was really excited to travel to Sweden and try Swedish meatballs and do whatever it is that Swedish people do there.
Too bad I really wasn’t expecting the big, exciting, Swedish welcome I had awaiting me shortly after I exited the plane Friday night towards the end of March 2014. Well part of this may be TMI but my boyfriend and I had gotten into a tiny argument on the airplane and in my normal, dramatic, fashion I was attempting to give him the silent treatment. He went to buy a hot dog in the airport while we waited for Sarah and her brother (they took a later flight). I decided to use the bathroom and then met my boyfriend, Elliot, by this strange little chair area. There were wooden chairs and a little fake fireplace and I think like a fucking wooden sled? Whatever. Okay Elliot and I are sitting and he’s eating his hot dog and I am dressed in this huge green turtleneck and all of a sudden Elliot and I both notice this guy staring at me. Of course we both thought he wanted to jack my cell phone so I put it away and continued to stare at the ground when all of a sudden I felt his shadow over me. ”Where are you from?” This guy is literally standing over me and kept repeating “Where are you from? Where are you from?” Well of course I thought I appeared to look Swedish so I pretended I could not understand English. But this dude kept asking where I was from! Elliot then stood up and bumped him back telling him to leave me the fuck alone. Nice. Well we both walked away to tell security and what do you know Mr. “Good Luck” (If you have not seen the movie Taken, go watch it and you will understand “good luck”) is waiting outside of the women’s bathrooms. Just standing there. EW.
Long story short we eventually found Sarah and her brother and told them what was happening. Elliot, “You tell me to bring her to Sweden, 10 minutes in this is what happens!” Oops. While we are all catching up Mr. “Good Luck” is getting searched and what do you know! He gets arrested! We wave goodbye to him as we are about to get into a taxi and he is loaded into the back of a police car. That is when a female flight attendant gives me the advice that we are better off on a bus than the taxi, aww thanks! Thanks Sweden for making me feel so safe! Hahaha, no but the rest of the trip was absolutely wonderful.
We took a shuttle into Stockholm’s city center where we walked around on foot for a good half hour before finding the two boat hostels we were staying on. If you visit Sweden (Stockholm) I definitely woulds suggest staying on a boat hostel they are so comfy and different! But a bit small. We grabbed McDonald’s and decided we would wake up early to explore.
The next morning we awoke and took the train to pannkakshuset for swedish pancakes – which ended up being crepes. Oh Well. We then walked around the city of Stockholm. We stopped in a candy shop, Galma Stans Polkagriskokeri, and bought hard lollypop type sticks. They even offered classes to learn how to make these candies. Nearby was an old shop which sold everything you could imagine. It had old pins, postcards from the past 100 years+, it even had nazi medals! It was crazy and unfortunately it was being shut down soon. We then walked over to the palace, where we did a tour of the palace and afterwards saw the changing of the guard outside. After this we decided to grab lunch at Kaffekoppen. I had a mocha, and a sandwich which was delicious and Sarah and her brother had a seafood baked potato.
Side note: Alcohol is SOOOO expensive in stockholm, and I did not see ANY blonde people besides Sarah, Matt and Myself
We then took a boat to Skansen and walked around. When you first get off the boat there is an amusement park, however it was closed this time of year. Skansen a very beautiful area, it is like a national park, so many trees, grass and water. Matt left his phone in a theater we had all used the bathroom in so we had to go back and find it. We then took the boat back to Stockholm and had dinner at Pyttirian kok & bar. I had the most amazing salad ever! We all had a few drinks but Sarah had a bit more 😉 haha. We then went back to Elliot’s and my boat and played cards while drinking in the lounge of the boat hostel. Sarah and Matt were leaving for Denmark the following morning and Elliot and I were going to explore more.
There was a bit of snow on the ground which was the first we had seen of snow since we had been in Europe!
The next morning Elliot and I awoke and grabbed coffee and a small sandwich from a small coffee shop. We then shopped for souvenirs and walked over to the boat taxi and took it to Skansen again. On Sunday’s Skansen is like a small swedish village. There is a zoo and sites to see, we even got to try swedish meatballs with cranberries and potatoes. We also got to see a cigarette/cigar/matchbox museum. There were small children and Swedish natives everywhere – Skansen is a great place to check out if you find yourself in Sweden. We then rode the water taxi back and tried to check out some churches but they were closed due to mass. We grabbed some pie and coffee at Chokladkoppen, it is a pie shop that strongly supports the gay community so of course I was excited to try it out! I myself am a big supporter and glad to have found a place so up front about it – I mean in Chicago we have boys town! After we had our pie we headed back to the hostel to get our things and take the airport shuttle to the airport where we caught our flight back to London.
Overall, despite the minor case of hiccups at the very beginning my trip to Sweden turned out to be my favorite trip, and my dad didn’t even have to kill anyone and come save me!
Runaway Blond 