Travel The World / Stockholm

I'm so excited! Coming up Friday we are going to go to Stockholm with our friends. We booked a cruise from Helsinki, Finland to Stockholm, Sweden.

We will leave Friday afternoon and spend the night on the ship. Then Saturday morning we will be in Stockholm and we'll have the whole day there. Then in the evening we will board the ship again to start our travel back to Helsinki. Sounds like a lot of FUN!

Stockholm is the capital of Sweden and its urban area has a population of 1,372,565 (as of 2010). This makes it the largest city of Sweden. Stockholm is located on several islands on the east coast of Sweden, at the mouth of Lake Mälaren.

Scott and I visited Stockholm first time in January 2011. It was a joy to see how Stockholm has kept some of their old buildings along with new modern buildings. The city's oldest section is called "Gamla Stan" (Old Town) and it is located on the original small islands of the city's earliest settlements. The Old town was the first thing I wanted to see when we got to Stockholm last time. It was great to see that the Old Town still has the medieval street layout, yet you were able to get to the Old Town by the very fast and clean metro that they have in Stockholm. I love how the new and old is all mixed up in Stockholm!

The city has a humid continental climate or maritime. The summers are warm and pleasant, while winters are cold and freezing. Last year, it was more freezing than pleasant, so I'm hoping that this time it will be a bit warmer because it is already March when we get there.

Stockholm is the site of the national Swedish government and the official residence of the Swedish monarch as well as the prime minister. The monarch resides at Drottningholm Palace outside of Stockholm and uses the Royal Palace of Stockholm as their workplace and official residence.

Just last week the Swedish crown princess Victoria had a baby girl! So the Swedish monarchy will carry on with a new princess called Estelle Silvia Ewa Mary. Here's a picture of Princess Victoria. Even People magazine did a short article about her and the baby.

I love princesses, princes, kings and queens... Maybe I will catch a glimpse of royalty on my visit to Stockholm. Well, we are not going to Stockholm for the royals, we are going there to have fun, eat good and maybe do some shopping. After all, Sweden has produced many fashion brands like H&M, Odd Molly, Filippa K, Björn Borg, Acne and Cheap Monday. It is also a fact that Swedish people are always very fashion forward. So, take a good look at what people are wearing at the streets of Stockholm because next year people will be wearing the same stuff elsewhere in the world..

In order to shop, we will need cronors because Sweden doesn't use euros even though it is part of EU. You can exchange money at the ship or you can just use your credit/debit card which is much easier. And what comes to the talking, we will be fine with English because most of the people speak it well. The national language in Sweden is of course Swedish, and Finns should know Swedish because it is our second national language as well, but some Finns aren't as good at it as you might think (*wink*). I will stick to English, tack så mycket.

If we had more time in Stocholm, I would love to go see the Stockholm Globe Arena or as it is now called The Ericsson Globe, which is a multi-sport arena and one of the largest spherical buildings in the world. This year's World Champion Ship Hockey games will be partially played there. Sweden is hosting the games along with Finland. So, some games are at the Erickson Globe and other are at the Hartwall Arena in Finland. Two rivals are hosting the games together, how cute is that?

And if we had even more time, there are many museums that we could visit. Stockholm is one of the most crowded museum-cities in the world with around 100 museums. The most renowned national museum is the Nationalmuseum with Sweden's largest collection of art: 16,000 paintings and 30,000 objects of art handicraft. Well, maybe some other time.

When that other time comes, we should stay at the Nordic Sea Hotel in Stockholm because they have an Icebar. A whole bar that is made out of ice and the temperature is always -5C / 23F! Wait a second, never mind, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like it because I hate cold. What was I thinking... Anyway, Stockholm has many cool things to see and do, so it is definitely worth a visit. I will make sure to take pictures and make post about trip once we get back. Hej då!!