Stockholm, Sweden - By Caitlin
Cobblestones, church spires and cafes galore! We embarked on our newest continent in mid-July: Europe. We were sad to leave Africa, but the familiarity of Stockholm, Sweden was a welcome back to our usual comforts. At first, we were still skeptical of luxuries like tap water and continued to sterilize it, which is laughable considering their tap water is probably cleaner than ours in Chicago. Our bus from the airport had faster wifi than nearly anywhere we had been in Africa. Talk about culture shock.
Stockholm was our first European stop and we included it mainly because a high school friend of mine, Ben, and his fiance Val, have been living there for the last two years. We were fortunate enough to benefit from their Stockholm tips and tricks and we had a blast reminiscing and learning about life in Sweden. Stockholm is a city of islands connected by bridges and scattered with beautiful parks. I started to wonder if “picnic” was a Swedish word because everyone seemed to be enjoying wine and snacks in the parks on blankets. We did our best Swedish impression and had a picnic ourselves (i.e. an American cookout) with Ben and Val and a few others. They introduced us to a Swedish game, Kuub, played on the lawn, and is like bowling or cornhole, but much more complicated (those Swedes are sophisticated right down to their lawn games!).
Stockholm was our first European stop and we included it mainly because a high school friend of mine, Ben, and his fiance Val, have been living there for the last two years. We were fortunate enough to benefit from their Stockholm tips and tricks and we had a blast reminiscing and learning about life in Sweden. Stockholm is a city of islands connected by bridges and scattered with beautiful parks. I started to wonder if “picnic” was a Swedish word because everyone seemed to be enjoying wine and snacks in the parks on blankets. We did our best Swedish impression and had a picnic ourselves (i.e. an American cookout) with Ben and Val and a few others. They introduced us to a Swedish game, Kuub, played on the lawn, and is like bowling or cornhole, but much more complicated (those Swedes are sophisticated right down to their lawn games!).
Pop Shot bball champ with her prize, a Chicago Bulls bear
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By one of the many canals in Stockholm
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With our lovely hosts, Ben and Val
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Between the extensive public transport and renting bikes, we covered a lot of ground in Stockholm, opting for exploring the city on our own instead of doing many touristy things. I missed the famed Vassa musuem, but that only leaves me an excuse to go back. Our favorite spots in Stockholm were the hip Sodermalm neighborhood, Djurgarden, a large park with bike paths and beaches and the quaint Grona Lund amusement park. Stockholm was lovely and while it saw the demise of Jed's attempt at facial hair (RIP JedBeard) it was a great kickoff to our Europe leg. Thanks to Ben and Val, our wonderful hosts, who made us Swedish pancakes with lingonberries for the train ride to Copenhagen. What an amazing treat!
Copenhagen, Denmark - By Jed
Our other scandanavian stop was Copenhagen, which was a bit of a homecoming for me; I spent a semester abroad there in law school. I had come to view Copenhagen as a great place to live, but not necessarily a great place to be a tourist since I did not think there were a ton of touristy things to do. Turns out when you squeeze a bunch of sites and activities into a few days instead of a few months, it definitely feel like there is a lot more to do!
While the “Little Mermaid” statute, one of Copenhagen's most well-known tourist attractions still disappointed 5 years later (it is literally smaller than I am), I really enjoyed the rest Copenhagen had to offer. There were some of the old favorites, including Nyhavn (a picturesque street by the port with multi-colored, historic houses), Stroget (the pedestrian only shopping street) and Christiana (a weird, squatter-run section of town that has declared itself an independent land). There were also some new areas that I had not been to in the past, such as a very cool 17h century church (Church of our Saviour) which has a spiral staircase on the outside of its towering steeple, and the lovely Norreboro neighborhood by the water.
We were also treated to a lovely evening and home-cooked meal from my local Danish friend, Gunilla and her family. It was amazing to get a home-cooked meal, as it had been many months. It's really nice to get a true local taste of a country and have a more authentic local experience. I hope we can get to do more authentic experiences like this on the rest of our travels.
While the “Little Mermaid” statute, one of Copenhagen's most well-known tourist attractions still disappointed 5 years later (it is literally smaller than I am), I really enjoyed the rest Copenhagen had to offer. There were some of the old favorites, including Nyhavn (a picturesque street by the port with multi-colored, historic houses), Stroget (the pedestrian only shopping street) and Christiana (a weird, squatter-run section of town that has declared itself an independent land). There were also some new areas that I had not been to in the past, such as a very cool 17h century church (Church of our Saviour) which has a spiral staircase on the outside of its towering steeple, and the lovely Norreboro neighborhood by the water.
We were also treated to a lovely evening and home-cooked meal from my local Danish friend, Gunilla and her family. It was amazing to get a home-cooked meal, as it had been many months. It's really nice to get a true local taste of a country and have a more authentic local experience. I hope we can get to do more authentic experiences like this on the rest of our travels.
View from top of Church of our Saviour
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Our Danish friends and wonderful hosts
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I don't know anything about this staute, but I like it
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All in all, I was a bit surprised by how much I enjoyed my return. Copenhagen, like Stockholm, is a very modern, quaint, clean and enjoyable Scandanavian city. A number of things had changed, but a lot has also stayed the same, including my favorite cheap meal, 7-11 Chicken sticks (I know it sounds gross, but people actually eat the food at the 7-11s here because they are much nicer...and everything here in Copenhagen is so expensive!). Looking forward to returning again sometime soon...
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